Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

tudorpsih How can you expect people of color from that area to be kind to you, when you have drones watching over them, raid their homes with the slightest of evidence and have a dozen cops with military arsenal walking around them all the time? You don't see doctors with syringes up in your face, just in case you'll need them or a firefighter with a hose pointed at you, in the eventuality that you'll be set on fire.The government. should calm down from its obsession towards weapons if they want the citizens to give up theirs. I have a feeling that soon we'll watch another documentary from Ferguson called "Winter on Fire part 2".The U.S. forfeited a long time ago from the race of 'the greatest country in the world', but won the 'we have a lot of weapons, though' race and this weird fetish will cost them in the long run.

Domonique Alexander What Atkinson sought out to do, he delivers on. Do Not Resist presents a fantastic look at a world many of us may not know about: the world of police militarization. Undoubtedly a magnet for criticism from those in political opposition, the film features recorded hearings and comments from politicians we know well, and it is impossible to proclaim bias as a simple fact check yields truth. You may gasp, you may cry, you may rise to anger or frustration...and that's the point. To evoke a response and demand attention to a disturbing issue taking place in the U.S. This film is by no means anti-cop. It is anti-militarization, and Atkinson tries to express that through the voices of former police officers who voice their concerns and discomfort with the use of armored vehicles and heavy artillery to address peaceful protests.Some of the shots are pretty impressive and the cinematography is wonderfully inventive for clips taken from the streets and chambers. Check the film out before making any premature assumptions, you just might learn something...I know I did.

runamokprods A documentary with the creepy mood of a horror film, this un-narrated collection of 'on the scene' footage everywhere from the streets of Ferguson during the protests after the police killing of Michael Brown, to US Senate hearings about the selling (or giving) of high end military equipment to the police forces of small cities and even small towns. (One town got 2 armored vehicles from the US Government, even though the whole department is only one cop!). The film looks at how the militarizing of smaller police forces, far from reducing danger, not only wastes tons of taxpayer money, but more importantly helps foster and conform an atmosphere of fear and suspicion between the police and the citizens they serve. The government gives no training in the use of the equipment, and despite the statement that the tanks and high powered automatic rifles aren't supposed to be used for riot control or the suppression of citizens, that seems to be exactly what it does get used for (since terrorism is basically a non reality in these towns, as, mostly, are murders). There's also exploration of ever growing police surveillance of public spaces (facial recognition software meaning you really are never alone), and predictive technology that seems to be heading us right towards the 'pre-crime' dystopia of 'Minority Report' (most chilling line of the film "How do you tell a mother that her unborn child has a 50% chance of committing a murder by age 18? What is she supposed to do with that?' asks a developer of this technology. (Not to mention – what if you're wrong?!?) Generally, the film is low on facts and figures (although there are some real jaw droppers), but that's OK. Other films have focused on the hard details. This film focuses on what having these weapons and abilities as part of day-to-day policing does to us all --not only citizens but even the police themselves. (I appreciated that the film doesn't feel 'anti-cop', and even showed empathy for officers receiving mixed signals from their superiors and the US government as to how they're supposed to do their jobs). I liked that it was clear that these trends trouble people on both the left and the right. Having an over-equipped literal 'army' watching our every move seems to trouble citizens and even politicians of many stripes.A chilling and important film about how law enforcement has been evolving in the US, and where it could easily go in the future if we're not all very careful.

nascent My introduction to this documentary was the trailer "Official trailer 1" on Youtube. Prior to seeing that I had no knowledge of this filmI feel like the pace, and editing of the trailer is far more direct and purposeful than that of the film itself. I found the introduction of this film a very slow start and through the first 15-20 minutes of this I questioned if I wanted to continue watching the movie.I found that lack of any narrative and general laid-back approach to introducing the movie within the first 15-20 minutes off-putting and weak. It isn't until after first 20 minutes that we get to the message of the documentary aside from "riots are bad". I found the lack of any direct interview footage for the first 25 minutes of the film a poor choice, as as the film nears it's end some of the interviews are the strongest asset of the movie.It's clear that there was a intentional and conscious decision to try to balance and intercut all informational footage with action scenes/task force and protest footage, which is fine for keeping things interesting, but it gets repetitive and uninteresting as it loses it's punch of the message. I feel like just a simple re-edit of this movie would really deliver a much stronger punch of "yes the army are actually giving away for free their mostly unused military equipment to the police force without any training" and yes "these novice officers are mostly misusing this military equipment for riots suppression and fear tactics where they are not actually allowed to do so."I found the interviews and court-room footage, far more powerful than the constant need to keep standing around and watching the black lives matters protests. I absolutely understand that the Missouri and Mike Brown riots/protests are a big deal, but really I found most of it lacked any real purpose or direction in terms of storytelling.I do recommend this documentary as it really does have something to say, especially towards the end, and there's lots of factual and informational footage buried in this movie, sadly I feel that it loses it's place as a must see documentary just because of how haphazardly it tries to find it's footing as a documentary with a message, especially for the first half.