Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter

by Jordan T. Camp (editor), Christina Heatherton (Editor)

How policing became the major political issue of our time

Combining firsthand accounts from activists with the research of scholars and reflections from artists, Policing the Planet traces the global spread of the broken-windows policing strategy, first established in New York City under Police Commissioner William Bratton. It’s a doctrine that has vastly broadened police power the world over—to deadly effect.

With contributions from #BlackLivesMatter cofounder Patrisse Cullors, Ferguson activist and Law Professor Justin Hansford, Director of New York–based Communities United for Police Reform Joo-Hyun Kang, poet Martín Espada, and journalist Anjali Kamat, as well as articles from leading scholars Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Robin D. G. Kelley, Naomi Murakawa, Vijay Prashad, and more, Policing the Planet describes ongoing struggles from New York to Baltimore to Los Angeles, London, San Juan, San Salvador, and beyond.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: Nonfiction, Race, Politics, Social Justice, History, Essays, Sociology

342 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 10, 2016

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should note that I am most likely a little less left leaning than the majority of Verso readers. I have the publishers, it makes me think, and I always learn something. But my politics are less revolutionary and radical.

On one hand, this book is a little repetitive and slightly misnamed. I'm not sure why it is policing the planet when the essay focus on the US. There is mention of Toronto and many of the groups interviewed have voiced support for Palestine, but it is really focus on broken windows policing in the United States. Additionally, I found it interesting that while the groups would express support for a variety of causes and make stands against a variety of -ism, the one ism that was never mentioned was Anti-Semitism. Yet, get care seemed to be taken to point out support for Palestinians. I know that the whole Middle East question is a conflicting area of racism, colonialism, Anti-Semitism and so on, but it is possible to condemn anti-Semitism and not support Israeli building. It does not look good that anti-Semitism is never, ever mentioned by any of the groups. And for the record, I know Muslim men and women who speak out against Anti-Semitism so it is an issue for the book and those in it, not an issue about the wider group.

On the other hand, this is an important book because it does present the effects and impact of broken windows policing. Not only is broken window policing explained, but the effects on police are also shown. To say this book is anti-cop is wrong because one of the issues details the story of a police officer who is exactly what you want a community police officer yet who had to leave the police force. There are very good interviews and essays on Indigenous people and interactions with the police. This section is particularly important because it usually does not get as much attention, at least in some parts of the country. The look at the effect on the LGBTQ groups are welcomed as well. I particularly enjoyed the interviews, even if the editors tended to ask the same questions in different ways. The interviews gave more insight into the different groups.

It is worth a read, especially if you are interested in politics, race, policing, or if you read or teach books that deal with any of those issues.

[Vishal Misra · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of essays that reveal how the "law and order" dogwhistle in politics has been usurped by the concepts of "zero tolerance" and "community policing". The essays are all responses to the rise of "Broken Windows" policing. This was a thesis that first appeared in "The Atlantic", and suggested that minor incivilities that were tolerated in a neighbourhood would lead to a zone of major offences. This shifted the focus of criminal justice to criminal prevention, which in turn is part of the society and culture of control.

Although this book doesn't mention it, it builds upon the work of criminologist David Garland, who wrote "The Culture of Control". What "Policing the Planet" does, is take a specifically racialised lens to the issues of Broken Windows policing. These essays and interviews highlight how policing disproportionately targets certain 'problem communities', even though the evidence suggests that Black and Brown bodies will yield fewer results in stop, search and frisks by the police. Irrespective, the lens of police is firmly affixed on them, and this in turn fuels deprivation amongst them.

Finally, the book also looks at how Broken Windows and zero tolerance does nothing for crime rates, as it merely displaces the problems to new neighbourhoods. This constant displacement keeps the Black and Brown community from coming together in solidarity, as they cannot form communities. This atomisation goes hand in hand with lowered tax revenues collected by States. Therefore, States increasingly rely on punitive fines on the poor and transient.

This book is a great example of how 'networks of exclusion' operate, and why the interests of big Capital, in the form of private prisons, financial and military Keynesianism and the continued gentrification of inner city areas will always trump addressing structural problems of poverty and deprivation. Indeed, the book demonstrates how police brutality will not be overcome by tinkering around the edges, adding protocols and procedures, or even issuing body cameras. This is because the legacy of policing has always been to mark the boundaries of networks of exclusion and to then aggressively defend and enforce those boundaries. This is what policing is, and until this changes, the poor, the mariginalised and the "Other" will never be able to trust the police.

[Tiffany Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

The majority of the essays were thought-provoking but they began to get quite repetitive because the authors referenced the same incidents time and time again. Overall, it was interesting to read to gain some background knowledge on the history of police and their role in minority neighborhoods, to hear a number of possible solutions, and to see that the subject matter didn't only pertain to black folks as relationships between the police, Hispanics, and the LGBT community were also discussed. 3.5 stars

[Amber Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book has a really solid wealth of information on racial tensions, broken windows policing and the like...I actively struggled to get through it and did not finish. Lots of academic texts, lots of repetition. I found the particular chapter on Indigenous people to be fascinating. I enjoyed the chapters that gave a more human voice to the subjects being discussed.

[zaynab · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a time where abolition is slowly becoming less utopian and more of a pragmatic reality, this anthology is a necessary tool in the move towards a police free society. Conducted in interview format, each chapter full of information, oral histories, and personal perspectives.

While I gave it five stars, there are some critical perspectives missing from this book:

1. disabled abolitionists- I find it hard to believe in a book spanning 20-odd chapters that no one who openly identified as disabled was interviewed for their perspective on how broken windows policing impacts folks with disabilities. Not to mention there could have been a chapter on how policing, as an institution predicated on foundational violence, is a disabling agent in the sense that police brutality strips people of their able-bodied status as punishment (that is if they live to survive).

2. trans women of color abolitionists: the acronym "LGBTQ" was thrown around a lot, and many interviewees made mention of trans women of color as part of their articulation of praxis, but yet trans women of color were not interviewed on the abolitionist work they are doing. again, i find it hard to believe abolition is a completely cissexist party. but maybe that's a point of reflection for us cis folks- why we can talk about twoc but not center their voices when it comes time to discuss strategies.

3. black muslims, particularly black immigrant muslims- framing muslims as non-black people of color who are the primary targets of broken windows policing is only the half truth. it ignores how black muslims, particularly black immigrant muslim communities, are targeted by both the nexus of immigration and domestic policing. not to mention the affect U.S foreign policy has in majority muslim African countries.

Overall, I think it was a more than solid anthology, but I do think the need to have "big" names being interviewed overwhelmed the potential to center unheard voices in the fight to end broken windows policing. At some point anthologies have to move beyond name recognition and focus on centering the voices that aren't often heard. Captive Genders does a good job of this in my mind. An anthology as critical and as dialectically dense as Policing the Planet would do well to expand its view of who are "authorities" on the subject and who gets to occupy textual space within an anthology.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

this one was a bit long and repetitive at times but overall a good collection. i really loved some of the essays, especially in the second half of the book.

[Brian Bean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to say I was a little disappointed in this book. That being said there are some excellent essays in it, notably Robin Kelley’s, Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s, and the one by Mitchell, Attoh, and Staeheli. The strength of the book is that it pretty sharply takes down ‘broken windows’ policing from every angle in great devastating detail and connects it with the racism and neoliberalism that marks the changes in American cities in the last 30-odd years. It is also cool how the editors attempted to integrate theoretical articles with voices of activists. However I thought there was a lot of repetition in the essays and the basics and history of ‘broken windows’ policing. This I amount to bad editing and the book could either have been a lot shorter or been more decisive with the scope of the individual essays. Many of the essays seemed to really be minor variations on a similar theme such that it actually lacked the breadth that it seemed to want to reflect. Lastly, the subtitle of the book is “why the policing crisis led to Black Lives Matter”. I don’t think the book actually substantially answers this question. While I agree that the changes in policing have played a large role in the intensification of police violence I think the books focus on the strategy of policing misses some of the larger political dimensions. The violence and terror of the police has always been a flashpoint of antiracist struggle and so there is—in my opinion—a danger in focusing too much on ‘broken windows’ as opposed to the social role of the police as such as the problem. I am sure the editors do not hold this position but I could imagine someone reading the book and thinking if we end ‘broken windows’ policing that will fix the problem. Also the ‘why’ BLM pops off I think has broader dimensions that the book skips over or minimizes due to its intense focus on police policy and practice. For example how has the intensification of poverty and racism, the whittling away of Civil Rights era gains, the failure of Black leadership, and the contradictions of the Obama presidency play a role in the massive movement of Black Lives Matter that was certainly sparked by, and primarily about police violence but also was a deeper expression of a deeply anti-Black, racist society.

[Zack]

It was really good. Seems like a lot keeps coming back to broken windows policing and how incredibly evil and racist it is. I want to see more writing specifically imagining a copless world. But maybe that's another book.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published after the protests in Ferguson, in response to the killing of Michael Brown, in 2014, but tragically, and in hindsight unsurprisingly, its content is still highly relevant and useful for understanding the US policing crisis of 2020 after the killing of George Floyd. It centers on addressing the role of 'broken windows theory' in US policing and the human, social, political, and economic consequences for Black communities and people, as well as people of colour in general. The book definitely provides more context and history to the Instagram/social media posts I consumed this summer which I appreciate, but again, points to how little fundamental change has occurred in the US in the past 6 years.

Also I appreciated the addition of linking neoliberal austerity politics to the policing crisis, in that as funds were progressively pulled from various government agencies, they had to start 'competing' with other agencies for funding, and thus started taking on more and more functions that would in the past have been separated out. For example, education departments taking on policing schoolchildren. Or, police departments taking on social services functions (both as social services were cut but also for police departments to appear like they were 'serving communities').

[Karin · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, this is interesting, but it's very repetitive and narrow focused, and i feel like there needed to be more of an in depth connection to BLM if that's going to be in the title.

[Megan Sanks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like almost every chapter had a "oh wow" moment. Also, half the chapters are interviews, which were super engaging to read!

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS AND INTERVIEWS CRITIQUING CURRENT POLICING

Editors Jordan T. Camp and Christina Heatherton wrote in the Introduction to this 2016 book, “This book… is a collaborative effort between social movement organizers, scholar-activists, journalists, and artists … it reassesses the policing philosophy known as ‘broken windows theory.’ Praised as a comprehensive model of ‘community policing,’ this doctrine has vastly broadened the capacities of police both nationally and globally. Through essays and interviews, the book explores the rise and spread of broken windows policing. In analyzing vengeful policing campaigns waged against the racialized poor, Native people, immigrant workers, Black and Brown youth, LGBTQI and gender-nonconforming people, the homeless, sex workers, and others, it demonstrates that broken window policing emerged as an ideological and political project. In examining its spread throughout the United States and around the world, it explores how broken windows policing has become the political expression of neoliberalism at the urban scale. Racism, it argues, has sustained and naturalized these processes as inexorable and inevitable. The book therefore considers the struggle against racism, militarism, and capital---the policing of the planet---as a central political challenge of our times.” (Pg. 2)

They continue, “The underlying concept of broken windows policing is deceptively simple: to stop major crimes from occurring, police must first prevent small signs of ‘disorder’ from proliferating, such as graffiti, litter, panhandling, public urination, the sale of untaxed cigarettes, and so forth. It proposes that the best way to prevent major crimes is for people to take responsibility for their neighborhoods and for the police to facilitate the process. The metaphor goes that if a window in a neighborhood stays broken, it signals neglect and encourages small crimes, which then lead to larger ones. Disorder in the form of minor violations is presumed to breed larger disorder.” (Pg. 3)

They go on, “Broken windows… became the hegemonic strategy of community policing … In the logic of broken windows policing, ‘aggressive panhandling, squeegee cleaners, street prostitution, “boombox cars,” public drunkenness, reckless bicycles, and graffiti’ constituted the source of economic and even existential insecurity… [It] proposed ‘zero tolerance’ measures as the solution to these problem ‘behaviors.’ … This volume argues that … broken windows policing has functioned as an urban strategy enabling the gentrification of cities---a class project that has displaced the urban multiracial working class worldwide.” (Pg. 5) They add, “[this book] highlights how his new urban security regime has given rise to dramatic and increasingly internationalized social movements confronting racist and uneven capitalist developments worldwide…[it] foregrounds the visions that have emerged from antiracist social movements. [It] explores how the demand to abolish broken windows policing and mass incarceration might contribute to popular democratic struggles against neoliberal racial regimes and for social and economic justice across the United States and the world.” (Pg. 6-7)

Patrisse Cullors observes in an interview, “We live in a police state, in which the police have become judge, juror, and executioner. They’ve become the social worker. They’ve become the mental health clinician…. They’ve become the expectation. Instead of a mass movement saying ‘No, we don’t want them,’ the mass movement is saying, ‘How do we reform them? How do we hold a couple of them accountable?’ The conversation should be: ‘Why are they even here?’ … Why to the police even exist? … Many of us understand that their original task was to patrol slaves… People say, ‘What are we going to do with criminals?’ by which they mean, ‘What are we going to do with Black people?’ … I believe we should abolish the police. I think they are extremely dangerous and will continue to be. That doesn’t mean I don’t believe in police reform…” (Pg. 36)

Cullors continues, “It’s either all of us, or it’s none of us. That has been the reason, coming specifically from #BlackLivesMarrer and its co-founders, for why we ride and fight so hard for Black trans women… It is our duty to ensure that we understand, as cis people in particular, that our liberation is only going to happen if Black trans women, and Black trans people in particular, are liberated.” (Pg. 40)

George Lipsitz notes, “Fines assessed for … trivial pedestrian violations range from $159 to $191 per offense, a huge burden for people on fixed incomes … Those who cannot pay the fines are often arrested and incarcerated for both failure to pay and the initial offense.” (Pg. 123)

Hamid Khan suggests, “The LAPD was the launching ground for the National Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative… requiring LAPD officers to file [reports] of any observed or reported ‘suspicious’ behaviors that might be connected to terrorism or crime. ‘Suspicious’ behaviors included non-criminal behaviors, such as using cameras in public, using binoculars, taking notes, walking into an office and asking for hours of operation, and changing appearances. The ‘suspicion’ cast on such benign daily behaviors opened the door for racial profiling and for using these activities as a pretext to open investigations on law-abiding citizens.” (Pg. 152)

Justin Hansford argues, “The term ‘community policing’ denotes nothing in particular, but it hints at positive values such as community control and police de-escalation. In truth, however, community policing not only does little to help the problem, but as an ideological framework it is essential to support broken windows policing, mass incarceration, and America’s system of anti-Black state violence.” (Pg. 217)

Naomi Murakawa acknowledges, “police officers have difficult, ill-defined jobs. They are meant to enforce penal codes that are so enlarged they cannot possibly know how to prioritize everything that they’re supposed to be doing… Police officers must use discretion, especially the discretion NOT to arrest. If police officers had no discretion and were just bureaucrats enforcing the law, they would be arresting people constantly… But then broken windows policing emerges. It announces that everything is a priority, because… even tiny infractions produce a climate of rampant rule breaking that then leads to murder.” (Pg. 231)

Three authors explain, “some community members conflated [community policing] with broken windows policing… In the words of a Denver activist seeking to distinguish between the two: ‘Community policing is about getting to know who lives in the neighborhood; is about getting out of your car; is about walking through the neighborhood; is about knowing my son… when he’s coming home at night, he’s coming home from college or work. He is not a gang member. You know this because you know him, because you are familiar with our neighborhood.’” (Pg. 251)

Asha-Rosa Ransby-Sporn points out, “a study done in a poor Black neighborhood… It looked at what happens when you put more police on the streets in the neighborhoods where there’s supposedly a lot of crime and already a lot of police. Nothing really changes. If in that same neighborhood you give young people jobs, violent crime actually goes down… Whenever there are police there is going to be crime, because it’s their job to find it… if you support people, they do well, but if you assume that they’re going to mess up, they get punished. That is really how the system works.” (Pg. 263)

Vijay Prashad states, “When there are no decent jobs, and no decent state apparatus, society putrefies. It leads inevitably to frustration and disorder, to civil war that manifests itself in different places in accordance with their different histories. Here it is the ghastly military and prison industrial complexes, the antidote to chronic joblessness; there it is the narcotics and terrorist industrial complexes. If the present is allowed to continue, it will end badly. The task is to identify the limitations of the present and to produce an actual future. We need to outgrow our madness.” (Pg. 285)

This book will be of keen interest to those studying alternatives to the current policing system.

[Taylor T · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of essays and interviews highlighting our country's problem (and the world's problem) with the militarization of police and the flaws in broken windows policing masquerading as "community policing." Anyone who doubts the importance of the Black Lives Matter organization, read this.

[Soph Nova · Rating 5 out of 5]

A VITAL collection that takes a deep dive into the theory and practice of broken windows policing, and resistance to it as expressed by the height of #BlackLivesMatter organizing. I zipped through this in part because about half the book is comprised of interviews with organizers talking about their work in multiple localities - a format I deeply appreciate!

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful series of interviews which highlight the nefarious roles/uses of policing in the US & abroad. Check the @lacanetwork & @stoplapdspying interviews!

[Mills College Library]

363.23097 P7666 2016

[Jonathan]

Dispatches from a Prison Planet, broken windows hypothesis as magical thinking and the bleak certainty that none of thisnisngoing to get better soon.

[Scott Neigh]

Reviewed here.

[Sonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite book I've read this year- essential read on policing.

[Genesee Rickel]

I read the "We Charge Genocide" chapter for a book club. I plan on reading the entire book in the future (hence no rating).

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information. A boring read, but the content was good. It felt a little bias, but it's worth the read if you're interested in learning about the police system.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book provides so many viewpoints via anthology that reiterate and highlight the need to defund and/or abolish and/or reimagine police forces and the systems that allow them to maintain their hold on the people they are meant to "protect". The number of voices saying the same thing from several areas of the globe is proof that we aren't alone. Published in 2014 and my read in 2020 after yet more deaths of black and brown and red bodies at the hands of officers, our situation is frustrating but knowing there are people who have been studying this for years is heartening that the calls for defunding/aboltion are NOT new and not unfounded and NOT naive.

I highly recommend this book for anyone on either side of the issue as it elaborates problems and encourages changes.

My only regret is that I was a slow reader and didn't highlight as much as I could have in the digital copy (Verso) as there were so many noteworthy facts and statements. Would have marked most of it!

[Justin T · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read to understand how policing fits into a system of racism and economic disempowerment and why police abolition is an essential part of racial justice. It’s a collection of essays that can be read separately or all together. “Thug Nation: On State Violence and Disposability”, “Policing Place and Taxing Time on Skid Row” and “This Ends Badly: Race and Capitalism” were some of the high points for me but they’re all worth a look.

A quote from “How Liberals Legitimate Broken Windows: An Interview with Naomi Murakawa” :

“‘Police brutality’ is also a hollow term, in the sense that all police interactions, by definition, occur under the threat of brutality. They unfold under the threat of violence. If you are being questioned by someone who has a gun strapped to his or her hip and is authorized to use it, and you know that this person uses it in particular against people of your race in your neighborhood, you may agree to the transaction. The transaction happens because there is the threat of brutality. The gun might not be used against you, but the act is still brutal.”

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think these essays are a solid starter’s manual for those new to the idea of defunding the police. This compilation does a great job of addressing 1)the origins and consequences of broken windows policing, community policing, and the difference between the two, 2) how the policing structure has been influenced by real estate, the media, and the war on drugs, and 3) the effects of homelessness, mass incarceration, and surveillance on the black community.

There were a few essays that were weaker than the rest, and I wish some had gone more in-depth with their observations, but overall I found a ton more resources to look into from this book to follow up with, and I think it’s a thorough, clear overview of the issues to be tackled. I’d say most bookshelves could benefit from adding this to your collection.

[Eric Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye-opening collection of introductory essays and interviews related to social justice, the tragic proliferation (and failure) of broken windows policing strategies, the political and economic ballet that suppresses the implementation of universal needs, and countless more topics. I was on this side of the fence already, but this collection is highly informative, crystal clear and bleeds with passion and truth if you care/learn to connect the dots spread across our modern, (sadly) binary and capitalist society.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really great compilation of different views and research on the broken windows theory. I took it out to supplement some student reading and I would highly recommend it. It not only gave a good and deep background on the issue but also allowed for a lot of thoughtful discussion on what’s important and how we can move forward, while considering the problems and potential solutions.

[Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was great and greatly disturbing to see what different leaders have to say about the current broken windows policing. Would recommend for those that want to see the huge flaws and the racial bias in policing.

[Rebecca Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robin DG Kelly? Nick Estes? George Lipsitz? Sign me up. This book rules. Chapters with different voices help keep this difficult and triggering topic digestible. Vital for readers with an interest in understanding why defunding the police is an absolute NECESSITY.

[Daniele · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of essays focused on broken windows policing. It's a bit repetitive sometimes, because the same concepts are repeated multiple times in different chapters, but overall it is quite interesting.

[Viral · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid collection of different essays on policing in the U.S. and around the world. Focuses a bit much on the NYPD and stop and frisk for my liking. I wish it had gone more into the global arms trade and training systems, especially in light of global uprisings against state violence.