Utterly shameful.
To the people flagging this off the front page: if you don't see what the suppression of protest and the arrest of reporters by a militarized police has to do with a site focused on startups and the disruption of existing power structures, you need to think harder.
If I was a business owner over there and my shop was robbed blind... I'm not sure what I would do.
(also, the escalation of the police force is in proportion to how aggressive the people are getting - not excusing the situation -- just point out that people are firing rockets, fireworks and other projectiles at the police, flipping vehicles, looting and plundering...etc... absolute chaos.)
There are ways of controlling looters without using military gear: batons, horses, shields. It doesn't require this sort of military equipment.
Also, I think you should take a look at the various videos, tweets and images coming from the town. The majority of people are assembling peacefully, if angrily in protest.
If one a-hole in a crowd hucks a bottle at you, gassing the whole crowd is not proportional.
As I said, I'm not dismissing the situation -- but if I owned a store over there, I would want the police to protect my storefront from vandals and looters in force.
As for the other things that are going on -- I think it's best to wait for the full report being assuming [the worst] things.
Just remember, 99.9999% of police don't wake up in the morning and say to themselves "how can I screw over citizens today". They are just people like you and me. There are always two sides of any story.
If this is how they power-trip and shove around journalists, how are they treating people who are less of a PR threat?
http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/live-news/2014/8/al...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-ferguson-washingto...
and...
"... I think it's best to wait for the full report being assuming [the worst] things ..."
You're being a little inconsistent right now guy.
The subsequent peaceful but heated protests, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights (and, doubtless to be repeated tonight) involved no reports of looting and burning.