From [HERE]  Tactics and ammunition used by area police and Missouri National Guard forces against Ferguson protesters - as well as bystanders and journalists - have come under deep scrutiny, as RT has previously reported. The heavy-handed response to civil unrest highlights the overall trend amid the “wars” on terror and drugs in previous decades to arm local police departments with the fruits of the military-industrial complex.

In Ferguson, those on ground have been subject to the use of tear gas, armored vehicles, rubber bullets packaged in cluster grenades, flash bangs, smoke bombs, sound cannons known as Long Range Acoustic Devices, bean bag guns, pepper spray, wooden batons, the presence of German shepherds, the issuance of a no-fly zone over the area and darkness aided by night vision goggles, not to mention other violent threats made with firearms.

Citizens, activists, and journalists have chronicled much of the weaponry - including Cold War-era riot grenades - used by state forces in Ferguson.

Manufacturers of these munitions have come under fire, as well. Activist Mariam Barghouti pointed out that the same makers of tear gas canisters being fired at Palestinians by Israeli forces have also supplied Missouri authorities.

YES! Magazine reported that the company is Combined Tactical Systems based in Pennsylvania. With American funding, the company has also supplied tear gas canisters to regimes in Bahrain and Egypt for use against protesters, according to Mondoweiss.

The St. Louis County Police Department is using Combined Systems munitions, according to Truthout,while the Ferguson police and Missouri State Highway Patrol have used products made by Defense Technology, a division of The Safariland Group. The two contractors are responsible for the bulk of 'less-than-lethal' ammunition used in Ferguson, according to the report.

As it so happens, Combined Systems, Inc. and the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which is navigating state forces against angry and concerned citizens in Ferguson, are both scheduled to take part in the 73rd annual Military Police Expo to be held next month in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, hosted by the Military Police Regimental Association. Fort Leonard Wood is a major US military base and headquarters for the United States Army Military Police School. [MORE]