Police militarisation

ISPRA ltd is an Israeli company founded in 1969, and uses the tag line “smart solutions for riot control”. The company specialises in the production of tear gas and other “non-lethal” or “less than lethal” ammunition.

As thousands of protesters in Hong Kong gather to protest the proposed “Extradition Bill”, police have used “less lethal” weaponry produced by the company American company Amtec Less Lethal Systems.

On 10th April, members of the Amsterdam-based group “Stop the War on Migrants” took action during the annual shareholder meeting of Airbus.

Our War Profiteer of the Month series normally focuses on one company - in this feature, we provide details on a number of separate companies who have all manufactured weapons used against the Gilet Jaunes protest movement in France: Brügger & Thomet, Alsetex and Verney-Carron.

A German court has handed several former and current managers from arms company Sig Sauer suspended prison sentences and heavy fines, following their involvement in illegal shipments of 38,000 pistols to Colombia that broke German export laws.

Arms company Heckler & Koch have been found guilty in a German court of illegally supplying arms to Mexico.

Safariland is an American company, founded in California in 1964, specialising in a wide range of products and services for police and security forces. Safariland is made up of a number of different companies and brands, and has estimated revenues of $500 million.

Rheinmetall is a German defence and automotive company founded in 1889, and is Germany's biggest arms manufacturer. In the 2017 fiscal year, Rheinmetall's defence sales were €3.036 billion (the automotive segment were €2.861 billion), and the company employs a total of 23,726 people.

In the first week of September 2018, the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, spent four days visiting Israel. His trip was an opportunity to meet the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the thousands of Filipinos who live and work in the country… and explore opportunities to buy weapons.

Imperial Armour is a South African company based in Durban, which produces a wide range of clothing, uniforms, boots, bullet proof vests and body armour, helmets, bags, and equipment such as binoculars, belts and holsters for military, police, fire and rescue, and demining groups.

Otokar is the biggest private arms company in Turkey, and specialises in military land vehicles such as tanks, armoured personnel carriers, and turret systems. Formed in 1963, the companies vehicles are now in use in 30 different countries, and the company claims there are now over 30,000 Otokar vehicles in service around the world.

A new report called “A Lab and A Showroom” exposes how the extreme violence used by the Israeli military against Palestinian protesters also supports the development and sale of military equipment by Israeli arms companies.