Our Enemies in Blue
by Kristian Williams
This book examines the deeply problematic origins of the police and their role as violent forces of social and political control both now and throughout history.
“The order that the police preserve is the order of the state, the order of capitalism, the order of White supremacy. These are the forces that require police protection. These are the forces that created the police, that support them, sustain them, and guide them.”
MY TAKEAWAYS
At a macro level, the primary functions of police are centered in social control and the maintenance of capitalism, not public safety.
“To the degree that a social order works to the advantage of some and the disadvantage of others, its preservation will largely consist of protecting the interests of the first group from the demands of the second. And that, as we shall see, is what the police do.”
Police are an inherently violent institution despite their purported purpose of public safety. “…Violence—or its threat—is implicit in every police interaction and manifests at times when it is undeniably inappropriate.”
“Comparing the numbers, we find that the police use violence…nine times as often as they face it…”
The “dangerous job” and “dealing with dangerous people” excuses police claim when defending their constant use of violence are both based in false narratives.
“As dangerous professions go, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, policing is not even in the top ten.” Yet, “If we do the math, we see that the police kill almost seven times as often as they are killed.”
The state claims a monopoly on “legitimate violence” and deploys said violence via the police (onto the public). Although sometimes the police turn against the state, most commonly in pursuit of greater autonomy and less oversight.
Police unions are not legitimate labor unions. Their claim of union status is contradictory, as the police have always been the natural enemy of the working class and organic labor movements. “…They organize police as police, not as workers.”
Even when crime rates are steadily declining, the media and police employ fear-mongering tactics to gain support for even more (of our) money going to police budgets (rather than to community resources of actual value).
Whereas most labor unions advocate for things like better working conditions or fair pay and benefits, “the police, in contrast, advocate for longer prison sentences, fewer safeguards against brutality, and new weaponry.”
Community policing is a facade of a “reform” that claims to give citizens some semblance of oversight on their police department. In reality, this strategy is (as usual) self-serving and essentially attempts to convert community members into unofficial officers. “In other words, community policing is a strategy for making the community’s total ‘expertise and resources’ available to the police [to in turn be used against said community].”
Above all, police protect and serve themselves. Their efforts are always self-serving; seeking greater control, greater involvement in politics, and less accountability to the public they claim to “serve”.
“It is the nature of power to preserve itself, and this requires that efforts to change the structures of society be actively opposed by those who profit from the existing order.”
“It is a bad habit of mind, a form of power-worship, to assume that things must be as they are, that they will continue to be as they have been. It soothes the conscience of the privileged, dulls the will of the oppressed. The first step toward change is the understanding that things can be different.”