Weapons of war have increasingly found their way in the arsenals of the domestic police forces.
Few people know it better than demonstrators in Bangladesh. During the student uprising in 2024, the UN estimates that up to 1,400 people were killed – the vast majority of them by firearms used by state security forces.
But in recent decades, police forces in the richest regions in the world have also come to resemble and act more like armies. The United States has paved the way, where the military tools and methods developed for distant conflicts have returned to the streets.
Hind Hassan goes to Bangladesh and France to investigate companies providing military quality equipment to police forces and speaking with citizens who were at the reception of excessive police violence.
Posted on August 30, 2025
