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

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79 This parallel was brought to my attention by the Portland Copwatch Wo men's Caucus at a May17, 2001, training. Unformnately, the analogy between police hrutality and domestic violenceis often entirely literal. In September 1997, Chief Souls by of the DC Metropolitan Police toldHuman Rights Wa tch that "domestic violence is one of [the department's] worst behavior problems."Quoted in Human Rights Watch, Shielded Fom justice: Po/ice Brutality and Accountabilityill the United States (New Yo rk: Human Rights Watch, 1998), 381.DC is not alone. Between 1990 and 1997, the LAPD investigated 227 domestic violencecases involving officers as perpetrators . In Boston, domestic violence is the single most commonreason police are arrested. Human Rights Watch, Shielded fi'om justice, 211 and 149.80 Seattle Police Department, The Seattle Police Department After Action Report: Wo rld Trade OrganizationMinisterial Conftrence; SMttie, WtlShington; November 29-December 3, J 999 (April 4,2000), 2.81 Arch Puddington, "The Extent of Police Brutal ity is Exaggerated," in Police Brutality: OpposingViewpoints, ed. Helen Cothran (San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2001), 29.82 The phrase is from T.APD sergeant Stacey Koon's report of Rodney King's arrest. Koon describesKing's injuries: "Several facial ems due to contact with asphalc. Of a minor nature. A split innerlip. Suspect oblivious to pain." Quoted in Christopher Commission, Report, 9.83 Adams, "Police Use of Force," 3.84 Sgt. Stacey Koon, describing Rodney King. Koon, Presumed Guilty, 18.85 Cincinn" ti Police sergeant Harry Roberts, after the killing ofTimothv Thomas: "We didn't killfifteen black men. We killed fifteen criminals who resisted arrest. They didn't die because theywere black. They died because they were criminals." Quoted in Jennifer Edwards, "Police UnionDefends Deaths," Cincinnati Post, April 14, 2001, http://www.cincypost.comI200 lfaprI 14/union04 1401.html (3ccesscd April 25, 2002).86 San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, describing an incident in which three otf-duty cops attackedtwo men to rob them of a bag of faj itas. Quoted in Lance Williams, "SFPD Indictments; TheMayor's Reaction: He Prorects His friends, Feuds With the D.A.," San Frrmcisco Chronicle,March 3, 2003 [database: NewsBank Full-Text Newspapers, accessed March 4, 2003] .87 "\XTell, there are cases. For example. when you srap a fellow fo r rourine questioning. Say a wiseguy, and he starts talking back to you and telling you you are no good and that sort of thing.Yo u know you can take a man in on a disorderly conduct charge but you can practically nevermake it srick. So what you do in a case like thal is to egg the guy on until he makes a remarkwhere you can justifiably slap him and then if he fights back you can call it resisting arrest."Quoted in William A. Westley, Violence and the Policl': A SOCiological Study of Law, Custom, andMorality (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1970) , 124.88 "The use of fo rce is necessary to protect yourself. Yo u should always show that you are the boss.Make them respect the uniform and not the man. Suppose you are interrogating a guy who saysto go fuck yourself. Yo u arc not supposed to take that." Quoted in Westley, Vio/mce and thePolice, 126.89 Portland Police Association Rap Sheet editor Loren Christensen. Quoted in Dan Handelman,"Police Shootings ... We're Tired of Having To Write About This," [be Peoples Police Report J 3(January 1998), 2.90 Portlam] Police officer Ed Riddell, concerning an incident during which police shot and killedan epileptic Latino man inside a psychiatric hospital. Quoted in Steve Duin, "Silver Medals fo rthe Guvs with the Golden Guns," Oregonian, Novemher 21. 2002.91 LAPD chief Daryl Gates, announcing his Hnding that two cops acted within policy when theyshot and killed a mentally unbalanced African American woman who threw a knife at them.Quoted in Daryl F. Gates with Diane K. Shah, Chief.' Afy Life in the LAPD (New Yo rk: BantamBooks, 1992), 199.92 Adams, "Police Use of Force," 8.93 Daryl Gates, to the media, regarding the Rodney King beating. Quoted in Gates, Chief, 316.94 A Black NYP]) officer told Nicholas Alex: "There arc a lot of Negroes, the only thing theyunderstand is a boot in the right direction. They are not different than a lot of children. Theonly thing they understand is phvsical force and pain." Quoted in Nicholas Alex, Black in Blue:A Study of the Negro Policeman (New Yo rk: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1969), 155.95 Sergeant Dennis Mullen, Atlanta Police Department Office of Professional Standards. Quotedin Human Rights \X'atch, Shielded Fom justice, 41. A similar sentiment was expressed by DetroitPolice Department chief investigator Thomas Elder, who said that people who file complaints"are not part of the community in a positive way." Quoted in Human Rights Watch, ShieldedFom justice, 181.96 Robert Coles, "A Policeman Complains," New York Times Magazine. June 13, 1971 , J 1.97 Seymour Martin Lipset, "Why Cops Hate Liberals-And Vice Vcrsa," in The Police Rebel/ion: AQuest for Blue Power, ed. William J. Bopp (Springfield, IL: Charles T. Thomas, Publisher, 1971), 38.241
98 This grotesque overstatement originated with fo rmer LAPD chief William Parker. Quoted inRobert M. Fogelson, Big-City I'ulice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uniwr;ity Press, 1977), 239.99 Duin, "Silver Medals."100 August Vo llmer. The fllil quotation is: "Whatever else may be said of the American police, thisfact should be more widely known; namely, that without the police and the police organizations,with all their many defects anarchy would be rife in this country, and the civilization now existingon this hemisphere would perish." Quoted in Center fo r Research on Criminal Justice. The IronFist and the Vel1let Clo1le: An Analysis of the us. Police (Berkeley, CA: Center fo r Research onCriminal Justice, 1975), 21.101 "In responding to the mandate f(H order maintenance, the police create a sense of communitythat makes social life possible. Where police are unwilling or unable to play this moral leadershiprole or ddlne the community boundaries of right conduct. the quality of life declines and theexistence of everv other cherished value mav be jeopardized. Where the civil libenarian fearsrepression and the Jenial of due process, others sec the emancipation froln fl'H and the creationof community as the result of police peacekeeping activities." Gary W. Sykes, "Street Justice: AMoral Defense of Order Maintenance Policing," in I'l;e I'lIlicc {{lid Society: 7ilLlchs/otic Readitl,'lJ.ed. Victor E. Kappeler (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. 1999), 142.102 This poetic exaltation fi rst appeared in the FB! r"u' Enj,!YCi!ment Bulletin in 19()7. Quoted inRobert Reiner, The Blue-Coated Wo rker: A Sociologiud Study of I'olice UuionislII (Cambridge:Camhridge University Press, 1 978), .10.1 Konn, Presumed Guilty, 20-2 1. Koon was so proud of the job he had done that when he learnedof the video his first thought was that it should he used fo r training purposes: "This is great!They got it on tape! Now we'll have a live, in the fi eld film to show police recruits. It can hea real life example of how to use escalating f'lrec properly. Watch what the suspect does. If he'moves, control him. Ifhe doesn't, cuf{him. The guys are going to love this one. It's true stLtff."Koon, I'remmed Guilty, 22.104 Koon, /'remmed (uil/y, 19.105 Quoted in "Response of City Officials to the Federal Charges," I'hihddphiil Inquirtr, AuguM 19, 1979.106 Ffll National Press Office. press release (U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Bureau of Investigation,May 15, 2(02).107 FBI (May 15, 2002).108 Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, www.albany.edu/sourcebook/ 1995/pdflt3 164.pdC328. table 3. 164 (viewed May 17, 2003).109 Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Census olFatal Occupational Injuries in 2000 (U.S. Depattmentof Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. August 14, 2001), 1.I 10 Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2000, 3 and 4.III Bureau of Labor Statistic) National Census o(Fflta/ ()r(,1Ihr7t;nn.r/ rn;_I_V;'?:' !."': :l)UC, . ;'!-...: l':"'"01 deaths is a more reliable indicator of danger than the ' rate of wo:k-related injuries: deaths aremore reliably reported. and the severity of injuries varies enormously.112 Bureau of Labor Statistics. National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2000, 3.113 Bureau of l.abor Statistics. National Census of Fatal Occupdtional Injuries in 2000, 4.l11t Stark, Palht" Riots, 135.lIS Stark, Police Riots, 13S.I 16 Stark, Police Riots, 13S.117 Ogletree et al .• Beyond the Rodney King Story. 43.lIS Brown and Langan, Policing and Homicide, iv.119 Brown and Langan. Policing and Homicide, 19.120 Brown and l.angan, Policing and Homicide, 1.121 The police are also injured at a lower rate than those they oppose. IACP data indicates that"Abour 1 0 percenr of 2,479 officers using force susrained injuries. Less than I percenr of theinjuries were major; none tesulted in death. About 38 percent of the subjects were inj ured asthe result of police use of force. including approximately 1.5 percent with major injures. (Dataspanning the 199'5-97 period indicate that of 75.0S2 use-of-force incidents, 3,274. or about 4percenr, resulted in officer injuries, all but 39 minor.)" Henriquez, "IACP National DatabaseProject'" 21.122 Quoted in Goodgame, "World of Hostiliry."123 An anonymous NYPD sergeant told New York Times Magdzine: "Look, in any organization.you'll find no-good people. There arc rotten apples right in my own back yard; our precinct hassome crazy cops who are ready to use machine guns on the 'college kids and niggers: that's howthey are called. But fo r every cop like that J can find you two that you'd just have to admire."Quoted in Coles. "A Policeman Complains." 74.124 "The effect of the totten apple theory is to ofler scapegoats to public indignation and to evade basicquestions about the organization and character of police institutions." Stark, Police Riots. 10.242
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WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY•J O YJ
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(e) 2007 by Kristian WilliamsIntrod
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acknowledgmentsBOOKS DO Nar WRITE T
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ZSugE-
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forewordPOLICE AND POWER IN AMERICA
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1POLICE BRUTALITY IN THEORY AND PRA
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copter. Of these, ten Los Angeles P
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way of understanding the lives led
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vidual officer, perhaps it leads us
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given incident, while excessive use
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The difficulties in measuring exces
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up, a very large number of citizens
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(5) Unintentionality."[0 lffi cers
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Between 1995 and 2000, 360 cops wer
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emember that the available statisti
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even be supported by the lieutenant
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standing of those with power-those
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specialized function, and professio
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TIlere is a further advantage to th
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and frequently drunk.In 1727,Joseph
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the town, preparing elections, impr
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In fact, the first major reform of
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of personal honor. No White man sho
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stopping slaves whenever they were
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Charleston formed a City Guard in 1
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civil rather than military activity
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and Watch. This body was responsibl
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t::Uviolence, the committee argued,
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ity by policemen, dismissing thirte
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Political corruption was not new to
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3THE GENESIS OF A POLICED SOCIETYIN
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first moment, the importance of pol
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deals could be quite profitable for
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suppressing such riots. Not that th
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influence in wards where popular su
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delphia, investigated vegetable mar
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quo (that is, to protect the intere
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To the degree that industrializatio
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This analysis does not solve the pr
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well. 1I3 A more telling difference
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down. TIlls breakdown was in each c
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4COPS AND KLAN, HAND IN HANDAND THE
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tom .... A door opens outward on th
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very much like their previous statu
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tious driving, the model of the car
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statistics tell us that police arre
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fits the unit's established modus o
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Police investigators later document
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And let's not forget the enormous r
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area: they would pull up in a squad
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The Klan would meet the bus at the
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___ stoppedin terms of what the Fre
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SELMA, ALABAMA: BLOODY SUNDAYViolen
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point. The Panthers personified eve
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were killed, and ten other people w
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5THE NATURAL ENEMY OF THE WO RKING
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The practices surrounding the enfor
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lar officer's ties to the local com
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monopoly on it. Despite the continu
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troops, fifty cops from the Metropo
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and filled it with tear gas. As the
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Nine workers were arrested, charged
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the courts, and the police could be
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all health and well-being. The main
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ment retaliation, and a formal grie
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In 1912, Herman Rosenthal, a profes
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leadership. Increasingly, the polic
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struggle for status in urban Americ
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than before. But the main effect of
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The police also returned to open el
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policy. Henry Wise, the lawyer for
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the power and rewards of the upper
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found the FOP was sympathetic enoug
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whereas even the rookie patrolman s
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This process then results in a tran
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class. The police rebellion came wh
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is an obvious threat to democracy.T
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speeches, but as the evening wore o
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The Haymarket tragedy ... marked th
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154The role of the red squads furth
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Democratic Convention, and later go
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tion. Bail would be set at astronom
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tapped, then admitted that it was b
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Department's Inspectional Service D
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dissenting group, representing rela
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instructions on infiltrating and di
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convention," was scheduled to coinc
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170supposed to do that."1Z7 Another
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terrorism that covers virtually all
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In a typical case, Hady Hassan Omar
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a threat had already developed. The
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For most of that day, the police we
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the McCartby reportas a "crude and
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practical consequence of the Show o
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Such force took different forms. So
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at Rockefeller Center. Jeff Jones,
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On the tactical level, Stark notes:
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Page 217 and 218: The nationwide craze for SWAT teams
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Page 229 and 230: one to the other) . lther than inve
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Page 235 and 236: urglaries"; "Biber, tell me about t
Page 237 and 238: Of course, many community policing
Page 239 and 240: in a long series of institutional s
Page 241 and 242: Rodney Stark writes, "It is vulgar
Page 243 and 244: the name of "gang suppression."I.1
Page 245 and 246: 228ed civil rights workers through
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Page 249 and 250: these clumsy efforts. All this occu
Page 251 and 252: It is tempting to try to distinguis
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Page 255 and 256: 0-'Ilr)[/)'"-l()et::01516[/) 17'"-l
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Page 261 and 262: 140 \X'illiam Chambliss explains th
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Page 267 and 268: lI'1I0'"1'rJJCjg;(;:G0r...rJJb0Z18'
Page 269 and 270: 252Chicago offering one of the few
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Page 273 and 274: ..,..00I000
Page 275 and 276: o'"I0000rJlWc..?c.::o'""'rJlWf-;ozG
Page 277 and 278: -.cC1'IO'lC1'rJJ'-'0::0f,.1.,rJJf-
Page 279 and 280: M0,...I00,...rJJC)0rJJ1-
Page 281 and 282: 2D Quoted in DonnC1", I'rotectors o
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Page 285 and 286: lr)N...INN...VJC)g;0VJE-03132333435
Page 287 and 288: 00N'I
Page 289 and 290: U')
Page 291 and 292: 274145 Braverman offers a clear des
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Page 295 and 296: 46 Ford Fessenden and Michael Moss,
Page 297 and 298: ...t--...I00...c...CFJ00::0]:.l;.CF
Page 299 and 300: U"\..I
Page 301 and 302: 1 Eugene L Leach, "The Litcratllre
Page 303 and 304: M'"""I0000,...(fJ00::0'""(fJ1-
Page 305 and 306: 00N100a--,...(J)C)0>0-(J)E-
Page 307 and 308: (:ommunity Policing," in Victor E.
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the United Statf>" (Pittsburgh: Uni
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I'- ..NI"
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1'5olire (Berkeley, CA: Center for
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and oppressed people suffer. The Pa
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70 J\kl:voy and Mik,l, "Republican
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selected bibliographyI HAVE TRIED T
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This is the most readable of the hi
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INSTITUTIONALIZED BRUTALITY AND POL
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Six Sociological Essays, edited by
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Smith, Bruce. Police Systems in the
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CHAPTER 7: SECRET POLICE, RED SQUAD
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This collection features studies of
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Policing Consortium. NCJ 148457. Au
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Mika, Harry and Kieran McEvoy. "Res
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Andrews, Avery D., 288n.4Anthracite
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...>< California Supreme Court, 291
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Constables of the Commonwealth(Mass
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Ettor, Joseph, 112-113Everett cotto
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homelessness and vagrancy (cont.)Se
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...X "Letter from Harlem." See "Fif
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National Commission on the Causesan
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:>< Pennsylvania State Federation o
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prostitution (ca nt.)See also broke
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X Scranton Commission (President's
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:>< Ta mmany Hall, 51, 52, 55, 250n
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Weisburd, David, 243n.137Weiss, The
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Even critics have a difficult time
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