Police, Picket-lines and Fatalities explores public protests and their management by the police, focusing on the fatalities of strikers at the hands of police and outlining practices towards preventing such tragedies. Uniquely examining the only three worker fatalities in Australian industrial history due to police use of deadly force, this book analyses the frenzied policing involvement that led to the deaths; the lack of accountability of police leadership and individual actions; government and press partisanship; and the deficiencies in criminal justice administration. Baker ultimately questions: were the police merely performing their duty by enforcing the law or were they agents complicit in reckless violence and collusion? With analysis of the recent police shooting of 34 platinum miners at Marikana, South Africa in 2012, Baker looks at the lessons of these case-studies, both past and contemporary, to provide specific applications for developing best practice of police and union peace-keeping protocols during industrial protests and the wider issues pertinent to public order policing of demonstrations in general.
Annotation Police, Picket-lines and Fatalities explores public protests and their management by the police, focusing on the fatalities of strikers at the hands of police and outlining practices towards preventing such tragedies. Uniquely examining the only three worker fatalities in Australian industrial history due to police use of deadly force, this book analyses the frenzied policing involvement that led to the deaths; the lack of accountability of police leadership and individual actions; government and press partisanship; and the deficiencies in criminal justice administration. Baker ultimately questions: were the police merely performing their duty by enforcing the law or were they agents complicit in reckless violence and collusion? With analysis of the recent police shooting of 34 platinum miners at Marikana, South Africa in 2012, Baker looks at the lessons of these case-studies, both past and contemporary, to provide specific applications for developing best practice of police and union peace-keeping protocols during industrial protests and the wider issues pertinent to public order policing of demonstrations in general.
Police, Picket-lines and Fatalities explores public protests and their management by the police, focusing on the fatalities of strikers at the hands of police and outlining practices towards preventing such tragedies. Uniquely examining the only three worker fatalities in Australian industrial history due to police use of deadly force, this book analyses the frenzied policing involvement that led to the deaths; the lack of accountability of police leadership and individual actions; government and press partisanship; and the deficiencies in criminal justice administration. Baker ultimately questions: were the police merely performing their duty by enforcing the law or were they agents complicit in reckless violence and collusion? With analysis of the recent police shooting of 34 platinum miners at Marikana, South Africa in 2012, Baker looks at the lessons of these case-studies, both past and contemporary, to provide specific applications for developing best practice of police and union peace-keeping protocols during industrial protests and the wider issues pertinent to public order policing of demonstrations in general.
In 2015, The Washington Post launched an unprecedented effort to account for every fatal shooting by an officer of the law. Their study has motivated the FBI to action, and changed the way we think of those who serve and protect. After a police officer shot and killed a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, the media began to pay greater attention to deadly interactions between black men and the law. But when reporters tried to get to the bottom of some basic questions—how often do police shoot people? Who are the victims? Are officers ever charged with crimes?—they came up blank. Police departments were not required to report these statistics to the FBI. The Washington Post set out to track every fatal shooting by an on-duty officer in 2015. Its database chronicled the shootings in real time, using news reports and other public sources. It compiled a trove of data, from the race of the person killed, whether the person was armed when killed, to whether the person was purported to have threatened the officer prior to being killed. The results found by the Post are shocking and haunting, from the sheer breadth of shootings by police in the U.S. to the stories of those killed. And its call to reform is being heeded. This groundbreaking book will radically alter how you view confrontation and accountability within the ranks, and offer a new perspective going forward.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports Section selected and analyzed 51 incidents of police officer killings in order to evaluate the psychology of the offender, the behavior of the police officer, and circumstances in which the police officer lost his or her life. The study was conducted over a 3-year period; the 51 incidents resulted in the death of 54 police officers and involved 50 offenders. Results demonstrated that, while no single offender profile could be established, most killers of police officers had been diagnosed as having some type of personality disorder. Behavioral descriptors of victims were frequently similar in that they were good-natured and more conservative than their fellow officers in the use of physical force. The incidents themselves revealed that killings were often facilitated by some type of procedural miscue (e.g., improper approach to a vehicle). Type of assignment, circumstances at the scene of an encounter, weapons involved, and the environment in which events occurred all played a role in the preponderance of police officer deaths in the South. The report presents extensive information on the victims, offenders, and incidents studied. It identifies personality types of offenders, provides guidance on how individuals of a given personality type interact with authority figures, and offers approaches to interrogation. The report also points out specific areas where law enforcement training and procedures may be improved. Appendixes contain the study methodology and a description of personality types.
“A remarkable book.”—Malcolm Gladwell, San Francisco Chronicle Deaths of civilians at the hands of on-duty police are in the national spotlight as never before. How many killings by police occur annually? What circumstances provoke police to shoot to kill? Who dies? The lack of answers to these basic questions points to a crisis in American government that urgently requires the attention of policy experts. When Police Kill is a groundbreaking analysis of the use of lethal force by police in the United States and how its death toll can be reduced. Franklin Zimring compiles data from federal records, crowdsourced research, and investigative journalism to provide a comprehensive, fact-based picture of how, when, where, and why police resort to deadly force. Of the 1,100 killings by police in the United States in 2015, he shows, 85 percent were fatal shootings and 95 percent of victims were male. The death rates for African Americans and Native Americans are twice their share of the population. Civilian deaths from shootings and other police actions are vastly higher in the United States than in other developed nations, but American police also confront an unusually high risk of fatal assault. Zimring offers policy prescriptions for how federal, state, and local governments can reduce killings by police without risking the lives of officers. Criminal prosecution of police officers involved in killings is rare and only necessary in extreme cases. But clear administrative rules could save hundreds of lives without endangering police officers. “Roughly 1,000 Americans die each year at the hands of the police...The civilian body count does not seem to be declining, even though violent crime generally and the on-duty deaths of police officers are down sharply...Zimring’s most explosive assertion—which leaps out...—is that police leaders don’t care...To paraphrase the French philosopher Joseph de Maistre, every country gets the police it deserves.” —Bill Keller, New York Times “If you think for one second that the issue of cop killings doesn’t go to the heart of the debate about gun violence, think again. Because what Zimring shows is that not only are most fatalities which occur at the hands of police the result of cops using guns, but the number of such deaths each year is undercounted by more than half!...[A] valuable and important book...It needs to be read.” —Mike Weisser, Huffington Post
" . . . a sweeping, analytical synethsis of collective violence from the colonial experience to the present." —American Studies "Gilje has written 'the book' on rioting throughout American history." —The Historian ". . . a thorough, illuminating, and at times harrowing account of man's inhumanity to man." —William and Mary Quarterly " . . . fulfills its title's promise as an encyclopedic study . . . an impressive accomplishment and required reading for anyone interested in America's contentious past." —Journal of the Early Republic "Gilje has written a thought-provoking survey of the social context of American riots and popular disorders from the Colonial period to the late 20th century. . . . a must read for anyone interested in riots." —Choice In this wide-ranging survey of rioting in America, Paul A. Gilje argues that we cannot fully comprehend the history of the United States without an understanding of the impact of rioting. Exploring the rationale of the American mob brings to light the grievances that motivate its behavior and the historical circumstances that drive the choices it makes. Gilje's unusual lens makes for an eye-opening view of the American people and their history.
The 1980s was the revolutionary decade of the twentieth century. To look back in 1990 at the Britain of ten years earlier was to look into another country. The changes were not superficial, like the revolution in fashion and music that enlivened the 1960s; nor were they quite as unsettling and joyless as the troubles of the 1970s. And yet they were irreversible. By the end of the decade, society as a whole was wealthier, money was easier to borrow, there was less social upheaval, less uncertainty about the future. Perhaps the greatest transformation of the decade was that by 1990, the British lived in a new ideological universe where the defining conflict of the twentieth century, between capitalism and socialism, was over. Thatcherism took the politics out of politics and created vast differences between rich and poor, but no expectation that the existence of such gross inequalities was a problem that society or government could solve - because as Mrs Thatcher said, 'There is no such thing as society ... people must look to themselves first.' From the Falklands war and the miners' strike to Bobby Sands and the Guildford Four, from Diana and the New Romantics to Live Aid and the 'big bang', from the Rubik's cube to the ZX Spectrum, McSmith's brilliant narrative account uncovers the truth behind the decade that changed Britain forever.
This book examines the nature of protest and the way in which the police and state respond to the activities associated with this term. Protest is explored within the context of the perceived decline in public engagement with recent general election contests. It is often thought that protest is regarded as an alternative to, or as a replacement for, formal political engagement with electoral politics, and this book provides a thoughtful assessment of the place of protest in the contemporary conduct of political affairs. Analysing key forms of protest such as: demonstrations, direct action, protest conducted within the workplace, riots and terrorism, this study also illustrates each of these activities with a wide range of examples of events that have taken place within the UK since 1945. It will be of keen interest to students of criminology, criminal justice studies, police studies and politics.
