GOP Sen. Rand Paul Thursday lambasted the police response in the wake of a shooting of an unarmed black youth in Ferguson, Mo., saying the scenes in recent days “ resemble war more than traditional police action.”

“There is a legitimate role for the police to keep the peace, but there should be a difference between a police response and a military response,” said Mr. Paul, a likely presidential candidate in 2016, in an op-ed article posted on Time.com in response to aggressive police tactics in handling street demonstrations after the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.