Militarism is the glue that underpins violence being meted out to people around the world at the hands of the police and security forces. It will continue to sustain the violent, abusive, racist, oppressive policing that looks to uphold an oppressive and destructive status quo. It affects every one of us, so it is everyone’s concern.
In 2014, Michael Brown was shot dead by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, sparking mass protests. Although the Ferguson police force numbered just 53, its response was ‘akin to the deployment of an army in a miniature warzone’.1 Stun grenades, tear gas, rubber bullets and baton rounds were fired at predominantly young, African American protesters, by police officers driving armoured vehicles and carrying automatic rifles. Police snipers aimed their weapons at the crowd. Journalists were arrested and ‘treated as enemy combatants’.2
The events in Ferguson show that militarism and war no longer correspond to the image of two opposing armies lined up on a battlefield, charging at one another
— source tni.org | Andrew Metheven | 16 May 2021