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The visible face of police militarisation is the use of militarised equipment and body armour; of sniper rifles and tanks facing down protesters in Ferguson, United States, and of heavily armoured vehicles patrolling the streets of the favelas of Rio de Janiero. But such conspicuous militarisation is merely a symptom – an end-product – of a militarised mindset that sees those being policed not as members of a community in need of protection but as a threat.

In 1967, Los Angeles Police Department Inspector Daryl Gates came up with the concept of SWAT based on his experience policing Black uprisings such as the Watts Riots. The War on Drugs saw higher rates of lethal force as the government transferred military equipment to police departments—a transfer that was motivated out of the government’s fear of Black liberation and antiwar movements.

The Turkish military has been running an operation called 'Olive Branch' in Syria since 20th January 2018. Reports from the region show the human cost of the ongoing operation, including hundreds of dead as well as injured; and show how it has fuelled conflict in the region. War Resisters' International stands in solidarity with activists in Turkey supporting peace and opposing war in Syria, Turkey and elsewhere. Here we share a statement from the Human Rights Association and Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, which WRI's Turkey Working Group endorses, on the ongoing military operation in Northern Syria.

A day in the life of Hakim Najm in Yemen. His blog sheds light on what it's like to live with the regular threat of air strikes and in a city blockaded from the outside world, experiencing shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies, and all the time trying to tell the outside world of the situation. Stronger international solidarity is needed for this country that has now experienced 1000 days of war.

In Canada, eleven indigenous Guatemalan women are in the process of taking a multinational mining company to court. The women allege that in 2007, police officers, soldiers, and private security personnel attacked their village of Lote Ocho, in eastern Guatemala, and burned dozens of homes in a bid to drive the community from their ancestral land.

In advance of International Human Rights Day on 10th December, the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection has published “Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Europe 2017”. “In 2017, efforts to recognize the rights of conscientious objectors to military service have taken once more a negative track in Europe”, EBCO President Friedhelm Schneider said.

We are very sad to share the news that our affiliate the Women Peacemakers Program are shutting down this month. Their closure is a loss to the international peace and women's movements, and to us personally at War Resisters' International. We're republishing their letter giving the causes of this development.

Exciting news! Piecing it Together, the WRI's Feminism and Nonviolence Study group's extraordinary pamphlet of 1983 has just been published in Catalan by the Institut Català Internacional per la Pau.

Ukrainian conscientious objector Ruslan Kotsaba may be subjected to persecution again, after having his 'guilty' verdict quashed in July 2016 after more than 16 months in prison.

In the forthcoming edition of The Broken Rifle, we want to go back to the foundations of why pacifists consider war to be a crime against humanity, and are striving for the transformation of militarised societies. Could you contribute to it?