ABSTRACT

This handbook offers a comprehensive historical overview and analysis of police brutality in US history and the variety of ways it has manifested itself.

Police brutality has been a defining controversy of the modern age, brought into focus most readily by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the mass protests that occurred as a result in 2020. However, the problem of police brutality has been consistent throughout American history. This volume traces its history back to Antebellum slavery, through the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, the two world wars and the twentieth century, to the present day. This handbook is designed to create a generally holistic picture of the phenomenon of police brutality in the United States in all of its major lived forms and confronts a wide range of topics including:

  • Race
  • Ethnicity
  • Gender
  • Police reactions to protest movements (particularly as they relate to the counterculture and opposition to the Vietnam War)
  • Legal and legislative outgrowths against police brutality
  • The representations of police brutality in popular culture forms like film and music
  • The role of technology in publicizing such abuses, and the protest movements mounted against it

The Routledge History of Police Brutality in America will provide a vital reference work for students and scholars of American history, African American history, criminal justice, sociology, anthropology, and Africana studies.

chapter |10 pages

Introduction

part Section 1|61 pages

Police Brutality and Race Before World War II

part Section 2|22 pages

Police Brutality and Unionism in the United States

part Section 3|50 pages

Police Brutality and Race After World War II

chapter 10|15 pages

Walking the Tightrope of Self-Defense

Imagery, Rhetoric, and Commemoration of the Black Panther Party

chapter 11|13 pages

“I Don't Mind Dying”

Police Violence, Resistance, and the Urban Uprisings of the 1960s

part Section 4|63 pages

Police Brutality Against Immigrant and Ethnic Groups

chapter 13|23 pages

Latinx Populations and Policing

chapter 14|14 pages

Islamophobia

Supplement for Anti-Black Racism and Policing

chapter 15|12 pages

From A. Mitchell Palmer to Joe McCarthy

Police Brutality in the Fight Against Communism

part Section 5|27 pages

Police Brutality and Protest in the Era of Vietnam

chapter 16|13 pages

Behind the Billy Club

Chicago Police and the Violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention

part Section 6|61 pages

The Legal and Legislative History of Police Brutality

chapter 18|11 pages

Police Brutality and The Nonhuman

chapter 19|10 pages

Brutality at the Bar

The Supreme Court and Police Misconduct

part Section 7|46 pages

Cultural Representations in Literature, Music, and Film

chapter 22|13 pages

Not Only Compton

Gangster Rap, Policing, and Protest

chapter 25|12 pages

From Dragnet to Brooklyn 99

How Cop Shows Excuse, Exalt, and Erase Police Brutality

part Section 8|75 pages

Alterity and Brutality in the Late-Twentieth Century

chapter 28|12 pages

The Multiple Meanings of the ASSAULT ON RODNEY KING

Revisiting Grassroots Discourse After the Los Angeles Rebellion of 1992

chapter 29|16 pages

Police Brutality in 1990s New York City

The Scars of Zero Tolerance and Community Struggles for Justice

chapter 30|16 pages

Enacting and Enabling Violence

Policing Indigenous Communities 1

part Section 9|49 pages

Police Brutality in the Twenty-First Century

chapter 31|13 pages

Make Visible

Akua Njeri, Breonna Taylor, and Critical Amplification of Police Brutality

chapter 32|12 pages

#BlackLivesMatter

chapter 33|12 pages

Smartphones as Technologies of Accountability

Exposing and Investigating Police Brutality Using Smartphone Cameras

part Section 10|53 pages

Conceptual and Pragmatic Issues in Police Brutality

chapter 36|12 pages

Police Terror as Totality

Reformism and the Ensemble of Counterinsurgency

chapter 37|16 pages

Police Unions

The Police Shield for Abuse and Brutality in America

chapter 38|11 pages

All It Takes Is One Block

A Case Study of the History of Police Brutality in Public Health 1