ABSTRACT

Research on policing has emphasized the ubiquity with which police rely on stereotypes (Skolnick 1966, Holdaway 1983, Policy Studies Institute 1983, Brewer 1990). It has also repeatedly been found that the police jealously guard their “backstage” areas (Punch 1979) and seek to exclude those who, like lawyers, might seek to challenge their control of their working environment (Holdaway 1983). This touches on the general issue of police-public relations and the democratic control of policing. Those issues are no less real in the context of policing political protest. In this chapter we will explore police stereotypes of protestors, and their relations with third parties with a vested interest in protest.