Crime, Class and Corruption: The Politics of the Police

by Audrey Farrell

The last decade has shattered the myth that Britain has a uniquely benevolent police force. Crude corruption has been exposed in the cases of the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four and the Tottenham Three.
Police violence has been seen time and again as riot squads attacked miners, printers, anti poll tax demonstrators and travellers. But are these exceptions? Do the police still fulfil other useful roles? Do they protect us from the crime that seems to blight so many people's lives?
Audrey Farrell examines the real roots of crime and finds the police have virtually no role in stopping it. She asks and answers many more questions. If the police don't stop crime, then what do they do?

'Very well researched. Explained easily enough for all to understand.'
MALIK ABDULLAI, CARDIFF THREE CAMPAIGN

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

207 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Brian Bean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this book is a little dated and narrow due it’s facts and reference points being 1980s England it is a tremendous read as it’s general arguments about the police are crystal clear, razor-sharp, and astonishingly both very succinct and very comprehensive. This kind of short book , written for a popular audience, with revolutionary politics that are unabashed but also unpretentious, is a model.

[Tess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. As debates about defunding and abolishing the police rage in the wake of yet another wave of racist police murders, this book clearly lays out the facts about the police. From their origins as slave catchers, strike breakers and colonial oppressors to today, not much has changed. They don’t exist to solve crime—indeed they themselves commit crime on a mass scale, and they protect the system that drives ordinary people to crime in the first place. Instead they exist to protect the rich and their system of oppression and exploitation. We can’t reform the police. We can certainly campaign to defund them. But ultimately they must be abolished, and that means a revolution to overthrow capitalism.