Policing White Supremacy: A Comparative-Historical Analysis

• In Event: 4246 - Violence

Abstract

Studies of protest policing emphasize how the actions of authorities are conditioned by the degree of threat associated with, e.g., the size or capacity for violence of a given protest target. While cognate literatures focus on threat perception and thus recognize the constructed nature of protest threats, few studies are able to demonstrate how such factors operate within protests to shape police orientations to different protest constituencies. Through a comparative-historical analysis of two cases notable for their association with violence - the policing of the civil rights-era Ku Klux Klan and the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia - this paper examines the degree to which a social movement's political orientation shapes how it is policed as well as how such effects unfold within protest events. Findings emphasize how the degree of ideological overlap between police and protesters shapes policing agents' preparations for - as well as operational considerations within - protest events, providing a basis for asymmetric communication with, and distinct orientations to, different protest targets.

Author

• David Cunningham, Washington University in St. Louis