I. Police and protest

A. My experience as an anti-Vietnam War protestor in Seattle in the early 1970s

B. Rodney Stark: Police Riots

C. Police and protests against the World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle in 1999

II. Good guys and bad guys vs. the power of the situation

A. George Kirkham: Criminologist as police officer

1. "Excuse me, sir..."

2. "Police officers should not be armed with shotguns."

3. "I'm talking to you, punk."

III. Police subculture: "Forget what they taught you at the University (or at Police Academy, or in your POST training). Here's how it really is."

A. People can't be trusted.

B. People who are not controlled by fear of punishment break the law.

C. Experience is more important than abstract rules.

D. The legal system is untrustworthy; it's the police who make the best identification of crime and criminals.

E. The world is divided into two types of people, those that are basically law-abiding and the bad actors. "Rights are for decent people, not scum like you."

F. You've got to make people respect you.

G. The best tool you've got for that is force and the show of force.

H. Outsiders do not understand or really support the police.

I. Therefore never rat on a fellow officer.

IV. Skolnick and Fyfe: "Rodney King and the Use of Excessive Force"

"Trouble arises out of social interactions, especially when cops encounter people who may not be engaging in criminal activity, but whose conduct suggests that they might be, or might be the sort of people who would if they could."

1. Symbolic assailants: race, age, gender as clues to potential for danger. Anderson, Streetwise, and the dilemmas of the young black man in America

2. 3-step escalation process:

a. Perception of a challenge to authority... high speed chase, or even being a "wise guy": Howard in the Wiseman film, "Law and Order"

b. Police action

c. Offender's response

"If he persisted in defying police authority an arrest would typically follow. If he further persisted, he would be taught a lesson of compliance by being beaten and then charged with resisting arrest."

3. Social and cultural context in which defiance is defined:

a. Siege mentality vis-a-vis minority community

b. Recent incidents in Philadelphia and Los Angeles (the Ramparts Division)... acting like a gang to fight the gangs... it's a war.