Ferguson, MO and Police Militarization: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight2 HN recommenders · 2020–2026
13.2M views · commentary · dated · Uploaded 2014-08-18
A Last Week Tonight segment on the Ferguson shooting, racial inequality in policing, and the militarization of local police forces in the US.
HN cites it as a well-made explainer on police militarization that remains relevant years later.
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4 comments from Hacker News
> But cities don't want to spend that kind of money on these things as they would rather not tax people to pay for it. I'm certainly no expert in police budgeting, but when you see some police forces literally buying tanks, at least in some cases there must be room for money to be better spent. John Oliver did an interesting story on police militarization after the Ferguson riots following the shooting of Michael Brown. [VIDEO]
BTW, 5 years old but more relevant than ever. It also touches on the difference between police and military: [VIDEO] US citizens deserve the same response in daily life from a police under the "serve and protect" banner that an enemy combatant gets from the opposing military during an active conflict? You can't treat every citizen as if they are the worst possible one. If you got this "you could be the worst ever" treatment in any other situation you would certainly not find acceptable to reference the fact that the army also does it while in a war.
John Oliver did a good "writeup" about Ferguson and why it mattered back in 2014. You should watch it, and see if you think it wasn't notable: [VIDEO]
John Oliver did a report on militarization of police 11 years ago . It's only become worse since: [VIDEO]