Riot gear. Swat teams. Armored personnel carriers. Snipers. High powered rifles. Tear gas. These are the tools of war. But last night in Ferguson, they were deployed as the tools of crowd control. Instead, sparks were turned to flames and a media firestorm swept from Twitter to the mainstream media and back. From Slate’s Jamelle Bouie: How a demonstration turned into a disaster. At one point during the night, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar explained: “We’ve done everything we can to demonstrate a remarkable amount of restraint.”

+ The New Yorker: “What transpired in the streets appeared to be a kind of municipal version of shock and awe.”

+ Buzzfeed: The latest coverage of the fury in Ferguson.

+ Photos of the protests in Ferguson, and Hands Up, Don’t Shoot: the images that define the protests. And here’s a pretty amazing photo from students at Howard University.