Do Not Resist

The documentary opens on footage shot in the street in Ferguson, then widens to the country as a whole. At a trade fair, heavy weapons and equipment are being sold to police departments. A small town takes delivery of its own armoured vehicle. A SWAT team enters a house to serve a warrant. The camera adds no commentary to any of it; it simply records. Craig Atkinson's documentary was shot over two years in eleven states and was named best documentary at Tribeca in 2016. The film takes the militarisation of American policing as its subject and gives the numbers as well. There is no narrator; police officers appear in their own training sessions, in their own words. Because the film passes no comment, it leaves the conclusion to the viewer, and both sides are heard in their own language.