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

by Peter Wagner, August 19, 2014

On Sunday, John Oliver did an amazing piece about Ferguson, Missouri and the effects of the unnecessary militarization of the police. (Warning: NSFW for language.)

See also the ACLU’s report from June of this year: War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing. As we summarized in the Research Clearinghouse:

“Using… federal funds, state and local law enforcement agencies have amassed military arsenals purportedly to wage the failed War on Drugs, the battlegrounds of which have disproportionately been in communities of color.”

Related briefings:

  1. John Oliver attacks harmful mandatory minimum laws +
  2. John Oliver takes on judicial elections +
  3. John Oliver does it again: How municipal violations can ruin lives +

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