As tens of thousands of Americans took to U.S. streets over the past two weeks to protest the brutal killing of George Floyd in police custody, one image has become an icon of this cultural moment: a wall of heavily-armed police in riot gear confronting unarmed protesters. These overwhelming shows of force prove what many police reform advocates have long argued: the increasing militarization of the American police.
In fact, scenes like we’ve seen in recent weeks are nothing new. In 2014, after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, police donned camouflage vests, rode armored vehicles, and used pepper spray, rubber bullets, and tear gasto suppress protests. That was the same kind of response that met demonstrators in Baltimore after the 2015 killing of Freddie Gray. Similar episodes have erupted elsewhere throughout the nation.
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