Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2011
Keywords
Policing protest, Public order management, Repression, Surveillance, Social movements, Dissent
Abstract
During the 1970s, the predominant strategy of protest policing shifted from “escalated force” and repression of protesters to one of “negotiated management” and mutual cooperation with protesters. Following the failures of negotiated management at the 1999 World Trade Organization (WTO) demonstrations in Seattle, law enforcement quickly developed a new social control strategy, referred to here as “strategic incapacitation.” The U.S. police response to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks quickened the pace of police adoption of this new strategy, which emphasizes the goals of “securitizing society” and isolating or neutralizing the sources of potential disruption. These goals are accomplished through 1) the use of surveillance and information sharing as a way to assess and monitor risks, 2) the use of preemptive arrests and less-lethal weapons to selectively disrupt or incapacitate protesters that engage in disruptive protest tactics or might do so, and 3) the extensive control of space in order to isolate and contain disruptive protesters actual or potential. In a comparative fashion, this paper examines the shifts in U.S. policing strategies over the last 50 years and uses illustrative cases from national conventions, the global justice movement and the anti-war movement to show how strategic incapacitation has become a leading social control strategy used in the the policing of protests since 9/11. It concludes by identifying promising questions for future research.
Publication Title
Sociology Compass
Volume
5
Issue
7
First Page
636
Last Page
652
Required Publisher's Statement
Copyright © 1999-2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
"This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Gillham, Patrick F. “Securitizing America: Strategic Incapacitation and the Policing of Protest Since the 11 September 2001 Terrorist Attacks.” Sociology Compass 5(7):636-652. , which has been published in final form at DOI: 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2011.00394.x. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving."
Recommended Citation
Gillham, Patrick F., "Securitizing America: Strategic Incapacitation and the Policing of Protest Since the 11 September 2001 Terrorist Attacks" (2011). Sociology. 12.
https://cedar.wwu.edu/sociology_facpubs/12
Subjects - Topical (LCSH)
Problem-oriented policing--United States; Social control--United States; Police patrol--Surveillance operations
Subjects - Names (LCNAF)
World Trade Organization
Geographic Coverage
United States
Genre/Form
articles
Type
Text
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
