Policing Protests at the 2016 Republican and Democratic National Conventions

• In Event: Roundtable: Policing Strategies

Abstract

Focal points of the most tumultuous presidential campaign in recent memory, this summer’s national political conventions will be the site of demonstrations from across the political spectrum, testing the ability of the police in Cleveland and Philadelphia to simultaneously maintain order and protect the protesters’ constitutional rights to demonstrate. While police and protesters had achieved détente for most of the final quarter or the 20th century, since protesters succeeded in shutting down the first day of the 1999 WTO Ministerial Conference in Seattle, the streets at major events in the United States have been contested terrain. While police gained the upper hand in the years after 9/11, recent rounds of protest against police brutality and the contemptuous nature of the political campaign promise to bring many people into the streets on a range of issues. Roundtable presenters will be in both cities observing protests and the police response to them. Topics to be discussed include: the robustness of the “strategic incapacitation” explanation of police response to protests; a comparison of the response of the Philadelphia police to protests at the 2000 RNC and 2016 DNC; and the police response to transgressive (i.e.: not permitted and/or uncooperative) protesters in both cities.

Authors

• Favian Alejandro Martin, Arcadia University

• Anne Lee, Arcadia University

• John Noakes, Arcadia University