The Justice Department has determined that police tactics worsened unrest and violence during the Ferguson protests:

Tactics used by police during the days of sometimes-violent street protest last year in Ferguson, Missouri, increased tensions between law enforcement and protesters, according to a report Thursday by the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Service, known as COPS.

The report said the use of dogs, snipers and tactical vehicles designed for the military “inflamed tensions and created fear among demonstrators.”

The COPS office reviewed how police responded in the 17 days after the fatal police shooting Aug. 9, 2014, of an unarmed black man, Michael Brown.

Although it focused on the conduct of four agencies — St. Louis County police, St. Louis Metropolitan police, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Ferguson Police Department — it said more than 50 law enforcement agencies were eventually involved. Their participation suffered from “inconsistency in direction” and a lack of effective communication.

The report said using dog teams for controlling crowds of protesters “invokes powerful emotions in many observing citizens and protesters, particularly where racial tensions exist.” Tear gas was used inappropriately, it says, without considering how protesters could safely move away.

I am a bit more skeptical of what was going on.

I think that the actions of law enforcement in and around Ferguson were calculated to stoke unrest, because they wanted a pretext to respond with violence in order to assert their authority.

Law enforcement wanted to create a violent situation in order to justify their use of violence, and they hoped for, and largely got, a complacent media to buy into their narrative in order to discredit the protesters narrative.