Kristian Williams - Our Enemies in Blue - Police and Power in America

were killed, and ten other people were wounded.181At the time of the attack, the Greensboro Police Department tactical squadwas, literally , outto lunch, and routine patrols were mysteriously absent 182 Afterward,while slow to move against the Nazis, the police were quick to arrest eight anti­Klan demonstrators, charging them with planning a riOt.183One of the Klansmen, Eddie Dawson, was a paid informant for the GreensboroPolice Department (and, previously, for the FBI) .18 4 Dawson later stated that hewas "in charge" of the attack. He recruited the Klansmen and arranged the meetingwith the Nazis.ls> But he had a great deal of assistance in planning the massacre. The police supplied him with a copy of the parade permit, which noted thestarting place and route of the march.18G And a BATF agent, Bernard Butkovich,also infiltrated the United Racist Front and provided them with guns.IS?Let me say that again dearly: an agent of the Greensboro Police Departmentassembled this band of assassins, drew up the plan, and saw the mission throughto completion. Meanwhile, an agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, andFirearms provided them weapons. And both agencies stood aside while a bloodbathensued.lssThe killers were tried twice-first for murder, then for civil rights violations.Both times they were acquitted by all-White juries, despite video evidence providedby local television stations.189 Finally, in 1985, a lawsuit awarded three plaintiffs$390,000. The jury found three Nazis, two Klansmen, a police informant, and twocops liable for the wrongful death of Michael Nathan, but-strangely-insistedthat there had been no conspiracy.190WHITE SHEETS, BLUE UNIFORMSThe police did not create the racism in American society. If anything, it's the otherway around. But the police have, since their inception, enforced and defended theracist status quo-by controlling slaves, maintaining segregation, resisting civilrights efforts, and generally terrorizing the Black community and other peopleof color.This function has remained constant even when the laws have changed. Thatis, even when it has conflicted with their official duties, the police have acted as arepressive force against the interests of people of color.It will surely be objected that I have singled out the police unfairly. It willbe pointed out-by critics at both ends of the political spectrum-that all ofSouthern society (perhaps, all of American society) has been implicated inracist violence. It is hardly surprising that policemen were also involved.Were my point simply that individual police officers were complicit, thiscomplaint would be well grounded. But it overlooks two major features of myargument: first, that the involvement of the police is different than the involvementof, say, dentists or auto mechanics; second, and more importantly, thecop-Klan connection is institutional, not merely individual.The participation of police officers in White supremacist organizations andracist violence is different than the involvement of other people because thepolice are often professionally as well as personally involved. They use theirprofessional position to advance the aims of the group, they use their standingin the community to legitimize vigilante violence, and they are often considered103