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

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in determining action in any single case." Darrell Huff, How to Lie with Statistics (NewYo rk: W.W. Norton, 1954), 92-93.48 Faced with statistics showing that 85 percent of Vo l usia County's asset fo rfeiture cases (duringthe years 1989-1992) involved Black motorists, Bob Vo gel offered this analysis: "What this datatells me ... is that the majority of money being transported fo r drug activities involves blacksand Hispanics." Quoted in Christian Parenti, Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age 0/Crisis (London: Verso, 1999), 54.49 Harris, Profiles in Injustice, 78. Emphasis in original.50 LAPD ofilcers unwittingly parody Parker's example in this exchange from their Mobile DigitalTe rminal system, made public by the Christopher Commission:"U can c the color of the interior ... dig.""Ya stop cars with blk interior.""Bees they naugahyde.""Negro hide.""Self tanning no doubt."Quoted in Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department [The ChristopherCommission] , Report 0/ the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department(July 9, 1991), 76.51 Harris, Profiles in Injustice, 59. An earlier study showed that, while Black and White peopleviolated traffic laws at the same rate, and only 13.5 percent of the vehicles traveling on the NewJersey turnpike had a Black occupant, Black drivers represented 35 percent of those stopped and73.2 precem of those arrested. Harris, Profiles in Injustice, 54-55.52 Quoted in Harris, Profiles in Injustice, 58. Drawing from the same well of excuses, ClaytonSearle, the president of the International Narcotics Interdiction Association, states: "the minoritiesof any major city commit most of the street drug sales and then get arrested disproportionately."Harris, Profiles in Injustice, 73.53 Harris, Profiles in Injustice, 61-62.54 Harris, Profiles in Injustice, 68.55 Harris, Profiles in Injustice, 80-8 1.56 Erica Leah Schmitt et a!., Characteristics o/Drivers Stopped by Police, 1999 (U.S. Department ofJustice: March 2002), 1.57 Black people represent 4.6 percent of the state's driving-age population, but receive 10 percentof all traffic citations; Latinos are 5.6 percent of the driving population but 9.6 percent of thoseticketed. Hill Dedman and Francie Latour, "1raffic Citations Reveal Disparity," Boston Globe,Januaty 6, 2003 [database: NewsBank Full-Text Newspapers, accessed January 26, 2003].58 White people were .33 percent of the drivers stopped and 29.7 percent of the population; Latinos,38 percent of those stopped and 46.5 percent of the population. Tina Duant and Jill Leovy,"LAPD Offers 1st Data on 1raffic Stops," Los Angeles nmes, January 7, 2003, http://www.latimes.com/newsllocallla-me-lapd7jan07.story (accessed January 7, 2003).59 Harris, Profiles in [njustice, 80.60 Ibid.61 Harris, Profiles in Injustice, 80-8 1.62 Dedman and Latour, "Traffic Citations."63 Michael Cooper, "Officers in Bronx Fire 41 Shots, and an Unarmed Man Is Killed," New YorkTimes, february 5, 1999; and Robert D. McFadden and Kit R. Roane, "U.S. Examining Killingof Man in Police Custody," New Yo rk Times, February 6, 1999.64 Quoted in McFadden and Roane, "U.S. Examining Killing." It seems the police can mistakepractically anything fo r a gun, when it's in the hands of a young Black man. For instance, inNovember 1997, a U.S. Marshal shot Andre Burgess, a seventeen-year-old Black man, as heunsuspectingly walked by an unmarked car. The Marshal explained that he mistook Burgess'candy bar fo r a gun. Amnesty International, United States of America: Rights for All; Race, Rightsand Police Brutality (London: Amnesty International, September 1999), 27.65 Peter Noel, "When Clothes Make the Suspect: Portraits in Racial Profiling," Village Vo ice, March15-2 1, 2000, http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/OO 1 1/noel.php (accessed April 23, 2002).Though comprising only I percent of NYPD officers, the Street Crimes Unit was responsible for10 percent of all documented stops. Harris, Profiles in Injustice, 26.A few months after Diallo's shooting, officers fro m the Street Crimes Unit shot anotherunarmed Black man. sixteen-year-old Dante Johnson. Johnson panicked when police stoppedhim fo r questioning. He ran, and the cops fired after him. Unlike Diallo, Johnson was fortunateenough to survive. Amnesty International, Rights for All, 9.66 Quoted in McFadden and Roane, "U.S. Examining Killing."67 Thomas P. Bonezar and Allen J. Beck, "Lifetime Likelihood of Goillg to State or Federal Prison,"Bureau o/Justice Statistics Sp ecial Report (U.S. Department of Justice: March 1997) , I.257
o'"I0000rJlWc..?c.::o'""'rJlWf-;ozGH Bonczar alld Beck, "lifetime' Likelihood," 7. A diffe rcnt report orkrs slighrly lower tigu res:"Black non-Hispanics were 5 times more likely than white non-Hispanics, over 2 112 times morelikely than Hispallics and II times more likely than persons of other races to have beell in jail."Allen J. Beck ct aI., "Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2001," l!urMu o/JII.,ti{·e Stali.-lics Bullctill(U.S. Department of Justice: April 2002), 9.('9 Michael Stephen Hindus, Prison and Plantation: Crime, Justice, and Authority in MflHflChusl'ttslind SOllt!> (.arolilltl, 1768- 1878 (Chapel Hill: University ,,( North Carolina Press, I'JHO)' 24H.70 Parenti, Lockdown AmcriCtl, 124-125.71 Quoted in Parenti, Lockdown America, 124.72 Parenti (19')9) 12,); and Pt'lt'l B. Kraska and Victor E. Kappeler, "J\1ilitarizing American Policc':The Rise and Normalization of Paramilitary Units," in Police Perspectives: An Anthology, ed. LarryK. Caines and Cary W. Cordner (Los Angeles: Roxhury Puhlishing, 1999), 44(J.75 Randall C. Sheldon "t aI., }JlIlh Ga1lgs ill Amaic,m SociCl), (Belmont, CA: \X/adsworrh, 20(1).24,). At the same time, on the other side of the contineI1l, the Boston Police Department W:1Sconducting its "search on sight" campaign against suspected drug dealers, especially young BlackIllen . [':ut of the effort included taking RIack youths off of' public huses and r'Jl, ing their pantsdown in public view. Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. et aI., Beyond the RodlllJ King Story: All hil'i'Sligtltioli 0./Police Misconduct in Minority Co mmunities (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1 ')95), 137.74 Sheldon ct aI., }IJUth Gangs, 244 . Parentheses in original.7') Mike Davis, City iif'QU(lrtz: Fvcr1lJatilig the Futllre ill Los !lngI'll'S (London: Ve rso, 1991) '277-27H.76 Both quoted in Davis, City o/ Quartz, 278.77 Christopher Commission, Report, 59.7H Christopher COlllmi;sion, He!,ort, 74. Notably. the Christopher Commission hoth denouncedand perpetuated the stereotype of Illack criminality. While it disapproved of tlw style of policingin minoriLY co m nlllitics. it also cited the "concentration and visihility of gangs and streetcrilnc" as dl'scrving a larger share of police attention. Tn other words, it takes it fo r granted thatminority neighhorhoods need higher levels of police arremion, jmt a diFfe rent kind of attention.79 Tim Wise, "Racial Profiling and Its Apologists," )'; Jvf(lgazine, March 2002, 44. William Chamblissargues that it is always easier fo r the police to frofites ill Injustice, 106. Parentheses in original.81 Most famously, police hase this perception of deviance on race, but they also use age, economicstatus, and national origin.82 David H. Bayley and Harold Mendelsohn, Minorities and the Police.' Confrollt,1tion in America(New Yo rk: The Free Press, 1 %9), 9.3.83 A story from my own experience: I was driving across New Mexico with Fo ur friends when weencountered a Border Patrol checkpoint. I produced my license, as requested, and when asked,explained that one of my companions was visiting from England, The border guard-a Latino-askedmy English friend if she had her papers, She said she did, hut they were in the trunk.Wo uld he like her to get them? "Nah," he said, "we don't mess with people from England."Here's another: I was traveling through Idaho, this time on a Greyhound bus. The busmade a regular stop on its route and was boarded by two Border Patrol agents. They said thatthey would only keep us a minute, and if everyone would get out their JD it would save a lot oftime. They then moved throllgh the bus, Front to rear, examining ",'eryone's identification andasking a few people questions ahout it. When they reached my seat, I did not have out my 10.They asked lO see it. I replied with a flat, "No," and they moved on to the next person, just likethat. But when they reached the back of the bus, a young Latino man did not respond to theirquestioning. He was escorted off the bus and placed in a van. I don't know what happened tohim, My fellow passengers were, to their credit, quite angry. But it's hard to say whether theywere outraged by the obviously racist natute of the arrest, or by the fact that the authoritieshad stopped them on their travels and-like the secret police in some old movie-demanded"papers, please."258
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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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sion and brutal tactics is dangerou
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PLAYING BY THE RULESThe Negotiated
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f-;Cl.But the city council's perspe
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formalizes the strategy of violence
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Militarization ... can be defined i
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The nationwide craze for SWAT teams
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a--institution into believing that
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tiUCommon features seemed to connec
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Page 225 and 226: Community policing does not imply t
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Page 229 and 230: one to the other) . lther than inve
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Page 233 and 234: center . . .. I don't think there's
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
Page 253 and 254: sion. Underlying the search for jus
Page 255 and 256: 0-'Ilr)[/)'"-l()et::01516[/) 17'"-l
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Page 259 and 260: 98 This grotesque overstatement ori
Page 261 and 262: 140 \X'illiam Chambliss explains th
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Page 265 and 266: tr)"1"I.."1"rJ)00rJ)E-
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: ..,..00I000
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
Page 293 and 294: Dominance," 17.176 Smith concurs: "
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.
Page 309 and 310: the United Statf>" (Pittsburgh: Uni
Page 311 and 312: I'- ..NI"
Page 313 and 314: 1'5olire (Berkeley, CA: Center for
Page 315 and 316: and oppressed people suffer. The Pa
Page 317 and 318: 70 J\kl:voy and Mik,l, "Republican
Page 320 and 321: selected bibliographyI HAVE TRIED T
Page 322 and 323: 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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