During Tuesday evening's edition of The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS, Rachel Maddow -- host of her own eponymous weeknight program on MSNBC – told the retiring host/comedian that the problems in Ferguson, Missouri, are the result of a number of intersecting conflicts.

People in the community feel “very unrepresented” in the government, she stated, which is in part due to the large disparity between the number of black citizens and local officials of the same race. Finally, Maddow claimed that Americans found it “terrifying” to see the type of military-style weaponry the small-town police department used to control demonstrators and protesters when incidents of unrest threatened to become dangerous riots.