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

word of a dirty cop and every reason to suspect a foreign student.Despite its happy ending (at least when compared to the alternative: imagineif the pilot had never come back for his radio) , this case remains deeply troublingand does not bode well for the nationwide terrorist dragnet. In the contextof official panic and diminished rights, Higazy was accused by an unreliableinformant, arrested, held in solitary confinement, and repeatedly interrogated;he was ultimately induced to confess to a crime of which he was innocent.That's the danger of witch hunts: an eager inquisitor will always find someoneto burn.RETHIN KING UNRESTWe've come a long way since Haymarket.Originally, police repression focused on the behavior of crowds; surveillanceallowed the cops to respond quickly to any disturbance. But as thepolice began to view their role more in terms of preventing trouble, the useof surveillance increased, and intelligence operations became specialized.1 74Police attention fell, not only on demonstrations and individual leaders, but onmeetings, organizations, and entire movements.By the 1970s it was clear that something was lacking in the theory behinddomestic intelligence work, and that the actual practice had reached far beyondwhatever strategy there may once have been. The cops clung to a conspiracymodel for understanding su bversion, but their targets included individuals quiteremoved from any radical tendency whatever. TIle police became obsessedwith ideology, but continually misread the intentions of peaceful groups andeven pressed them toward violent action. Police aggressively sought to preemptsubversion and prevent unrest, yet remained essentially reactive in theirstance toward existing social movements.When theory advanced to address this confusion, it was the work of neitheran American nor, strictly speaking, a policeman. Instead, the person who realignedthe theory and practice of repression was the aforementioned British military commanderFrank Kitson.Kitson based his doctrine on an analysis of rebellions, outlining three stagesof a subversive campaign: preparation, nonviolence, and insurgency. The securityforces need to be ready at every stage, beginning with the preparatory stage wheneverything seems calm. Despite its aims, the old model remained essentially reactive;it only responded at the second stage, when political activity became visible.Kit