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Frame from Ferguson, MO and Police Militarization: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

Ferguson, MO and Police Militarization: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

68 videos recommended on HN
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2 HN users recommended this commentary2 months2020–2026 score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN cites it as a well-made explainer on police militarization that remains relevant years later.

A Last Week Tonight segment on the Ferguson shooting, racial inequality in policing, and the militarization of local police forces in the US.

“5 years old but more relevant than ever.” (HN, 2020)

2 recommendations · 2 citations · Commentary · partly dated

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@close04 Jun 2020 Recommends
on HN thread Microsoft won’t sell police its facial-recognition technology
BTW, 5 years old but more relevant than ever. It also touches on the difference between police and military: [this 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.
Covers police militarization and police versus military.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@michaelmior Jun 2020 Cites it
on HN thread De-Escalation Keeps Protesters and Police Safer
> 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. [this video]
John Oliver segment on police militarization after Ferguson.

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