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

is an obvious threat to democracy.The police have been transformed from a wholly dependent tool of the politicalmachines to an independent source of power. I noted in an earlier chapter thatthe development of modern police forces marked an unprecedented incursionon the part of the state into the lives of the citizenry, and signified in retrospecta clear step toward totalitarianism.IH.l As the police institution has evolved,it has become a major source of power not only for the state, but within thestate. This achievement represents another step in the same direction: as theinstitutions of violence become more autonomous, they isolate themselvesfrom democratic control. This is bad enough, surely-but as these sameinstitutions gain influence over policy and social priorities, they inhibit therepresentative aspects of other parts of government. Blue Power reduces thepossibility of democracy.While the police were undergoing their metamolJ)hosis-from instrumentof the machines to bureaucratic apparatus of class rule, to independent politicalforce-they were simultaneously challenging democracy in other waysand expanding their social influence in some sUlJ)rising directions. The taskof the police in preserving race and class hierarchies made them experts insuppressing dissent, and police departments quickly developed specializationsin this regard. More recently, as we shall see, tl1ese same designs haveled them to seek ever-more involvement and greater shares of influence inaspects of social life quite removed from law enforcement.148