An uproarious, moving John Oliver is perfect on Ferguson

John Oliver’s monologue on the protests in Ferguson in the wake of the shooting of Michael Brown is exactly as angry and hilarious as you might want it to be. On last night’s episode of his HBO series, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, he took on everything from the way Ferguson’s police chief and mayor have handled the situation to police militarization to how two teenagers in Saginaw County, Michigan, deal with seeing one of those giant tank-like vehicles on the streets of their town.

Here’s just a taste: “No one should ever be allowed to say there is no history of racial tension here, because that sentence has never been true anywhere on Earth.”

We won’t spoil the best part for you, but Oliver and his team have dug up just what one police department put in the document requesting military-grade equipment. It’s as ridiculous as you might expect.

If you have the time, watch the whole thing. If you only have a couple of minutes, go to 12:40 and watch the last 149 seconds. That’s a great summary of what Oliver is saying, and one of the best summaries of the problems with police militarization yet.

See Vox’s comprehensive roundup of what’s known and what’s not yet known about Michael Brown’s death and subsequent events in Ferguson. Here’s our video explaining Ferguson’s crisis and its roots in two minutes: