Let's begin with the basics: violence is an inherent part of
policing. The police represent the most direct means by which the
state imposes its will on the citizenry. They are armed, trained, and
authorized to use force. Like the possibility of arrest, the threat
of violence is implicit in every police encounter. Violence, as well
as the law, is what they represent.
Using media reports
alone, the Cato Institute's last annual study listed nearly seven
thousand victims of police "misconduct" in the United
States. But such stories of police brutality only scratch the surface
of a national epidemic. Every year, tens of thousands are framed,
blackmailed, beaten, sexually assaulted, or killed by cops. Hundreds
of millions of dollars are spent on civil judgments and settlements
annually. Individual lives, families, and communities are destroyed.
In this extensively
revised and updated edition of his seminal study of policing in the
United States, Kristian Williams shows that police brutality isn't an
anomaly, but is built into the very meaning of law enforcement in the
United States. From antebellum slave patrols to today's unarmed youth
being gunned down in the streets, "peace keepers" have
always used force to shape behavior, repress dissent, and defend the
powerful. Our Enemies in Blue is a well-researched page-turner
that both makes historical sense of this legalized social pathology
and maps out possible alternatives.
An incriminating investigation into the domestic army that protects and serves the status quo.
