AMERICANS love their weapons, and the heavily-armed police force is no exception.
Article by Rohan Smith
Cops in America are armed to the teeth with weapons designed for the War on Terror. Instead, they’re being used for a war on the streets.
The numbers are staggering. Between 2006 and 2014, US police forces received more than 432 mine-resistant, ambush-protected armoured vehicles, trucks ordinarily saved for the harshest, most hostile war zones, places where roadside bombs are an everyday reality.
Across the country, local law enforcement offices received almost 100,000 military machine guns. In Arizona alone, police acquired a cache of military weaponry including 32 bomb suits, 64 armoured trucks, 17 helicopters, 1034 guns and 704 units of night vision goggles.
The use of specialist SWAT teams for raids jumped from 3000 in 2005 to a mind-boggling 45,000 in 2016.
The game has changed in a big way. A new documentary, titled Do Not Resist, aims to show just how much.
