unit4

definition: protest policing

A.policing

  1. Dealing with something ‘crime related’ and ‘non-crime related’
  1. representations of police in popular culture are often crime-related

B. during protests, at least some laws are often breached

C. moral ambiguity involved

D. While protesters usually refer to the policing of
protest as ‘repression’, the state sees it as ‘maintaining law and order’.

Marxist social theory

  1. more sympathetic to protesters
  1. view the policing of protests as acts of repression.
  1. see protesters’ acts as motors pushing forward social change

Gary T Marx state repressive actions

1.gathering information;

discouraging activists

• creating an unfavourable image of protesters

Official government statements

1.facilitate the right to
protest

  1. policing protests should be performed within a framework of policing by consent

Types of police intervention — violent and non-violent interventions

non-violent tactics

violent tactics

Before protest

  1. meetings with protesters to negotiate with them about the organization of the protest event

2.collect information and intelligence about protesters and/or their organizations

During the protest

2.verbal commands

3. use of video recording devices against the protesters

1.presence (including the presence of uniformed police officers and police vehicles)

2. Slightly higher level

very rare occasions

1. Lower-level

use of ‘stop and search’ or ‘search and seizure’

control and constraint tactics such as surrounding protesters,using cable ties and handcuffs,use of ‘less-lethal’ arms such as pepper spray, tear gas, water cannons

firearms

  1. the more violent tactics the police use, the closer the police agencies come to acting as a ‘repressor’
  1. less violent the tactics they employ, the more likely the police agencies are acting as ‘facilitators’.

Three main strategic areas

1. coercive strategies

2.persuasive strategies

3. information strategies

  1. using weapons and physical force to control or disperse protests;

gathering information as a preventive feature in protest control, which can involve collecting information about lawbreakers without interfering with protests directly

attempts to control protest through establishing contacts with the protesters and the organizers of the protests;

2.Less-lethal’ arms might also be used.

3.make arrests

2.• Minimal bargaining: discussion with protest organizers

3.Cooperation:police agencies collaborate
with protesters in the development of a peaceful demonstration.

1. intimidation: use of police power to discourage potential participants in a protest. For example, police agencies often threaten protesters that they will be arrested if they do not break up.

Models for protest policing

B negotiated management model

A. the escalated force model

C strategic incapacitation model

Perspective: no matter how rational, peaceful, or law-abiding a protest might start out, it can potentially develop into an irrational, violent, law-breaking ‘mob’

protests and demonstrations were not tolerated by the state,The right to demonstrate at that time was given low priority. Massive use of force was deployed to suppress even small violations of laws and ordinances

Lohman’s stages of mob formation(TABLE4.2)

Three main strategic areas

Persuasive strategies

Information strategies

Coercive strategies

the presence of a massive number of uniformed police officers that are highly visible to protesters. They are usually equipped with heavy anti- riot gear

Different types of ‘less-lethal’ arms are often used against protesters,

arrest a large number of protesters,

discourage and deter potential protesters, the police agencies threatened the protesters by different means.

2.infiltrated protest organizations, and/or made use of informants, to gather intelligence about protesters

3.collected information about both influential and less-influential activists

1.all protesters and their organizations were seen as transgressors and potential dangers that needed to be combatted.

  1. the information used to disrupt and discredit these influential leaders and their organizations.

created many troubles for police agencies, including deaths, injuries, property damage, public criticism, and pressure from political elites

background: The escalated force policing strategy generated long-lasting public controversy over the process of policing protest events.

Three main strategic areas

  1. excessive use of force
  1. intolerance of disruption of public order.
  1. indiscriminiate arrests
  1. disrespect protester liberties and rights
  1. ineffiective communication

more tolerant protest policing model emerged the negotiated management model.

  1. protest was increasingly seen as legitimate means of political expresson.
  1. the role of the police was to protect the freedom of expression and association of protesters as it maintained social order
  1. dominated protest policing in the 1980s and well into the 1990s
  1. growing tolerance for minor law violations, large-scale collection of information, and increasing willingness for police agencies and protesters to bargain and negotiate with each other
  1. Persuasive strategies

Information strategies

  1. Coercive strategies
  1. coercive intervention was used
    only as a last resort. E.g. 1980s, Italy: coercive strategies were increasingly limited to situations in which the
    security of the citizens was at risk
  1. principle of the minimum use of force was
    also adopted
  1. restrictions imposed by the police were only ‘friendly advice’, and in the best interests of the protesters
  1. ‘liaison officer was also sometime appointed to carry
    out communication between protesters and police
  1. tendency for police agencies not to intimidate protesters, but ideally to cooperate with them both before and during an actual protest
  1. gave advice to inexperienced protesters in terms of how the protest could be organized, how a parade could be instructed

5.establish a climate of mutual trust between the
police and the protesters

  1. protest-permitting process
  1. aimed at facilitating police agencies’ collection of information about protesters and planned events.
  1. to communicate with the protest organizations, and to help the police to avoid troubles such as using excessive force,
  1. reduced conflicts between police and protesters by making each better known and more predictable to the other

definition

Three main strategic areas

Reason

  1. police agencies had few rights to put surveillance on protest groups that had not yet committed any illegal offences
  1. negotiation between the police and protesters became increasingly difficult
  1. strategic incapacitation was affected by the social control philosophy
  1. maintain security and to neutralize those people who are most likely to threaten internal security and public order
  1. categorize protesters into two types: the ‘good protesters’ and the ‘bad protesters’,
  1. good protesters’ are typically defined by police agencies as those who use predictable, conventional, and law-abiding tactics, who are willing to negotiate with police agencies, and who are generally older.
  1. ‘bad protesters’ are those who use unpredictable and illegal tactics, who refuse to negotiate with police agencies, and who are generally younger
  1. only the rights of ‘good protesters’ are protected
  1. Persuasive strategies
  1. Information strategies
  1. Coercive strategies
  1. routinely use force against both those they perceive to be potential law-breakers, and against actual law-breakers (i.e. ‘bad protesters’)
  1. Less lethal weapons such as tear gas, pepper spray, are used by the police agencies against the protesters
  1. one-way communication process to inform the protesters what protest activities will be allow, and where and when they will be allowed.
  1. usually refuse to communicate or negotiate with protest organizers whom they see as ‘transgressive’, ‘potentially transgressive’, ‘bad’, or ‘potentially bad’, while at the same time protesters now also refuse to negotiate in advance with police
  1. Before and between different protests,
  1. covertly infiltrate into protest groups to collect
    intelligence.
  1. extensive
    surveillance
  1. by collecting information during the protests, police agencies can categorize protesters as ‘good’ and ‘bad’,

collect intelligence from a wide range of sources, i.e. from both those who have and have not committed any crimes.

2.join their discussion lists,

  1. track them over long
    distances when they travel from one place to another
  1. monitor
    protesters’ websites

5.This information is used by police agencies against ‘bad’ protesters to neutralize or incapacitate them. Images collected from videoing and photographing are also used as criminal evidence

Controlling space in the strategic
incapacitation model

  1. Soft zones: usually right outside the hard zone; usually the area in which most direct confrontations between the police and the protesters take place
  1. free-speech zone: usually far away from the targeted building, usually out of sight and hearing; guarded with fences and armed police officers
  1. Hard zones: protesters are not allowed to enter; to prevent protesters from accessing and disrupting their targeted organizations; well- protected

Social media and protests :

  1. powerful in terms of their ability to diffuse protest information

2. Alternative journalism: journalism outside the mainstream mass media

  1. Government reactions

4. The limitations of social media

may not in fact be as powerful as they seem