Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America (Revised Edition) | Kristian Williams

Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America (Revised Edition) | Kristian Williams | Right On Point

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	Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America (Revised Edition) Kristian Williams South End Press, 2007 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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?Should become mandatory reading for all police academy students.??Damon Woodcock (Ret.), Portland, Oregon, Police Bureau

?A well-researched, historically grounded, and mordant critique of American policing past and present.??Christian Parenti

Even critics have a difficult time imagining a world without police. But just what is the role of police in a democracy: to serve the public or to protect the powerful? Tracing the evolution of the modern police force back to the slave patrols, this controversial study observes the police as the armed defender of a violent status quo.

Kristian Williams is the author of American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination.

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You may not agree.

This book will appeal to those of you who are already educated to the reality that police exist for one reason and one reason alone : To maintain the current class order and hierarchies of society.
Let's be honest here. Poor people go to jail. Not the rich.
The idea that this book is filled with "distortions, lies, urban myths, twisted logic,absurd claims and bizare conlusions" (as one reviewer wrote) is certainly true if you've spent your life living in those wonderful, white, suburban hoods. If, however, you grew up in the neighborhoods consisting primarily of poor, black folk, you'll have no trouble seeing where the author is coming from. The fact that people either love or hate this book speaks volumes in and of itself. It proves many of the points the writer is trying to make. The police no longer 'protect and serve' the citizens of this country. If they ever did. They protect and serve the masters of America. The rich policy makers. The ruling white class.
You may not believe this, but that does not make it any less true.

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Right On Point

Mr Williams exposes not only the extreme ignorance among the general population (as evidenced by the one-star reviews) of the United States regarding police abuse and corruption, but the institutions that benifit from the existance of a police force. It's no accident that those in positions of power rely on brute force to keep the "rabble" in line. Since 9/11 the violations into people's lives in the form of "sneak-n-peek searches", the TIPS program, spying into library reacords - and then threatening the librarians with prosecution if they inform anyone of this activity - is completely outrageous. The increasing number of unjustifiable searches and seizures, arrests and killings by the police in their "War on Drugs" fiasco has led to the biggest increases in prison populations and deaths. A greater increase in law enforcement does not mean a more protected populace; on the contrary, the more cops you have on the streets the more crime there is. Remember, police forces don't want to eliminate crime all together, because then there would be no reason for a police force, and all the graft and corruption that exists within them. Also, the culture of the police acts as a safe haven for those who have an authoritarian mentality. So, when the powers-that-be want your head clubbed by a cop, he shouldn't be that sympathetic towards your condition.

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Politically and Intellectually Bracing

This book deftly serves up a wealth of material to try to convince your liberal friends (I'm presuming 'you' are a radical) that the police really are a pillar of racism and capitalism, and not simply a bunch of oppressed workers who don't understand that the protesters they are hitting on the head are actually on their side. But even better, Williams account has real intellectual substance, both historical and sociological. As history, he grounds the evolution of the police in the evolution of American racism, dating back to the slave patrols. As sociology, he scoops the 'bringing the state back in' crowd, which, for all its talk about the importance of looking at institutions of the state, has missed the growing autonomy and political power of the police in the US. My only kvetch is that he fails to look more than superficially at the roots of public support for the police--but I suppose you can't do everything in one book.

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Much needed analysis

*Our Enemies in Blue* is a fantastic analysis of the systemic nature of bolice corruption and brutality. Williams brilliantly takes on the major myths about police - that they have the most dangerous job there is, that brutality is rare, that corruption and violence are the fault of a few bad apples, and that they do good for communities. Williams charts the history of the modern police state from its British and American roots. This book is of urgent necessity for anyone that opposes racism and dreams of a better world.

Well researched

Very well researched. Every controversial claim is backed up with a wealth of scholarly information.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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