Recent scenes in Ferguson, Missouri, could have come straight from the streets of Cairo or Bahrain: police carrying shields and in full body armour firing tear gas and pointing their weapons at largely unarmed protesters. The fact that this was the US makes it seem all the more shocking. The St Louis suburb has at times resembled a war zone following the shooting and killing of unarmed 18-year-old resident Michael Brown by a police officer on 9 August (also see interview, opposite). The large protests that followed Brown's death were met with a harsh response from the authorities - a response that has been criticised by US president Barack Obama, among others.
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