Introduction

Journalist Ali Winston talks about the militarisation of the Oakland police force. He says it began when the Black Panthers in the US started arming themselves to fight back against police violence since then the militarisation has only got bigger and bigger. In many ways Oakland is a bellwether for American law enforcement due to its size as a port city with lots of migrants from all over the world. The department was always used to repress subversive elements like anarchists, communists,. they were rounded up very heavily during the Palmer raids in the 1919, 1920 era. They were also used to basically raid and extort the Chinese population before World War I.