Protest policing

at a protest in Washington, D.C. Under authoritarian regimes, protest policing tends to be violent and has resulted in massacres. Police in more democratic societies must undertake a delicate balance between public order and protection of citizens’ rights to public participation, right to protest, and freedom of assembly, which are central democratic values. There are varying styles of protest policing, expressed by varying degree of tolerance toward protestors. Institutional variables that affect policing style include: • Legislation on individual freedom • Organizational structure of the police, including the degree of centralization, accountability, and militarization • Police culture, which shapes discretionary actions of individual officers Protest policing style is also shaped by social movements, public opinion, and police knowledge of protestors. == Strategies ==

Academic study of protest policing has identified several protest policing strategies. Escalating force is a legalistic and repressive approach toward protest. Negotiated management is a communication-based approach emphasizing negotiation with protestors. Strategic incapacitation is a policing strategy that emphasizes less lethal weapons like tasers or tear gas; kettling; no-protest zones; and surveillance or information campaigns to manage protests. Militarized protest policing sees protest as a threat, negotiates incoherently, and uses indiscriminate surveillance and coercive strategies to suppress protest. It is associated with the “strategic incapacitation” approach to protest policing. == History ==

Protest policing began to attract attention of social scientists as a field of study beginning in the 1980s when several researchers launched quantitative, ethnographic, and case studies of protest policing. The book Policing Protest (1998), edited by Donatella della Porta and Herbert Reiter, was a notable early work in the field. When it was written, empirical studies of protest policing in western democracies were uncommon. Since World War II, modern states have consistently decoupled police forces from the political regime they function under, leading to greater independence of police agencies in making protest management decisions. Throughout the first decades of the 21st century, liberal democracies have increasingly policed dissent through strategic incapacitation, especially in conflicts related to the environmental justice or global justice movements, and when protests are seen as “transgressive”. Criminalization of dissent is often most severe in authoritarian countries, resulting in cruel punishments or even killings of protestors. However, both authoritarian and democratic states have restricted the right to protest; and criminalization of dissent has been “firmly entrenched” in liberal democracies since their origin. Criminalization of dissent may also take the form of intimidation, disappearances, or violence against human rights defenders or political dissidents. It may also occur as a discursive battle that frames defense of human rights or the environment as a threat to national security. “Thus, a main component of criminalization is legitimizing the repression of the peaceful and democratic conduct of community members, transforming them into public enemies and accusing them of illegitimate violence, delinquency, terrorism, etc.” == References ==