There are many, many things wrong with the police response in Ferguson (aggressive racism, local government mismanagement, lack of crowd-control training, general idiocy, etc.) One of the most obvious problems, though, is the fact that the police (like many, many other local police forces) been given military-grade equipment by the Pentagon.
This isn't just a problem in high-profile riots: when SWAT teams roll up in APCs to bust a suspected small-time pot dealer, or find someone who missed a meeting with a parole officer, it sends (usually poor, minority) communities the message that they are the enemies--and encourages the police to think of them that way as well.
According to the Huffingtion Post the program has been suspended in the wake of what's going on in Ferguson (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...), but it needs to be ended permanently, and the weapons sold through it recalled.
Please consider signing this White House petition to end the Pentagon-sponsored militarization of local police forces:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/...