Democracy, Disorder and the Role of Police Executives - Essay Example

 Democracy, Disorder and the Role of Police Executives Introduction Historically the police have been looked upon as serving status quo interests. A central issue for police executives and public administrators in modern policing will be the role they play in shaping and developing social change, given its pervasiveness and accelerating rate (Johnson, 2003). Looking at civil disorder in the history of this young country, one can view the metamorphosis of the police function and how policy development has been applied, for better or worse. Democracy and Disorder Beginning in the civil war era, our nation experienced one of the most deadly riots on American shores known as the "anti-draft riots," which rocked New York City shortly after the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. While the estimates vary, most historians agree that about 100 soldiers and civilians, many of whom were African Americans who were targeted as the reason Lincoln was fighting the war in the first place, were killed. Federal soldiers had to be diverted from around Washington D.C. to quell the outrage (Encyclopedia of War & American Society, 2005). The rise of organized labor near the turn of the century meant that organized police forces were even more important than ever. Several state police forces had their beginnings and endings related to the use of police as strike breakers in factories and on railroad holdings. This had the adverse effect of developing resentment by legislatures in various parts of the country towards police who had been used to enforce the power of management over unions (Johnson, 2003). During World War II, young Hispanic men whose attire was unique, fought with soldiers and sailors home on leave during the so-called "zoot suit" riots in Los Angeles, California. Servicemen who were dating the Hispanic women of Los Angeles were involved in numerous brawls with Hispanic men over the rights to courtship. The police were often accused of enforcement that was prejudicial to the Hispanic men (Wilson & Taub, 2006). The 1960s brought the "Civil Rights Movement" into American consciousness, and was anything but boring for law enforcement. Protest marches, sit-ins, and demonstrations, particularly in the South, brought National Guard troops out as well as police dogs and horses to attack passive, mostly Black Americans expressing their constitutional rights. As free speech was taken to another level at Berkeley in 1964, America watched as students crusaded while yelling four letter words (Stevens, 2002). Television and the media were beginning to play a role in the American psyche of social unrest. Images of the Harlem riot of 1964 were brought to us by virtue of television (Johnson, 2003). The images of New York cops ducking and dodging the rocks and heavy masonry being dropped on them from skyscrapers and firing their side-arms at the roofs on occasion were brought into American living rooms. Less than a year later, in August 1965, two brothers would fight with California Highway Patrol during an arrest, and the Los Angeles Police Department would get the blame for starting the Watts Riot (Johnson, 2003). Innumerable buildings shooting flames into the night sky and looters carrying televisions and appliances away from shattered businesses would be occurrences that the American public would see again and again (Johnson, 2003). Riots seemed to engulf the nation in 1967 and 1968, especially in the wake of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. By the late 1960s through the early 1970s, countless protests over the Vietnam War dragged on and inflamed groups large and small (Johnson, 2003). Then on May 4th, 1970, four university students would be slain by a volley of fire from the Ohio National Guard. The effect of Kent State was considered by many media analysts as one of the most unnecessary and yet most momentous events leading up to the popular disavowal of the war in public opinion polls (Kelner and Munves, 1980). While the National Guard was not prepared to adequately handle rowdy students, it was evident that correctional authorities in Attica, New York were not up to the task of calming the riot that took place in September of 1971. Eventually, prison authorities and state troopers stormed the prison, which resulted in inmates (guilty or not) and guards taken hostage being killed. Such inadequacies in the face of the disorders in the 1960s, along with the massacre by the National Guard at Kent State, and the bloody fiasco at Attica in 1971, led to intervention by government officials in cities, state capitals, and Washington D. C (Wilson & Taub, 2006). The hope was to teach police administrators how to better deal with riots and disorder, along with limiting human casualties. As money from Washington was forthcoming to provide training and equipment, the Vietnam War was winding down along with the rallying cry for many students in universities. By the mid 1970s the National Task Force on Disorders and Terrorism (1976) had reported on the innumerable failures in leadership at the political and law enforcement levels. Dozens of recommendations were laid out that to this day provide a benchmark for agencies to measure their levels of readiness in the specific areas of prevention, intelligence gathering, training, inspection, and planning. Protests did not go away in the United States, and still had the potential for damage and human suffering. Iran had tossed out the Shaw and put Ruhollah Khomeini in his place. In Beverly Hills, California, of all the unlikely places to have not one but two riots, the pro-Shaw Iranians and "patriots" of non-Iranian extraction fought the anti­ Shaw Iranians on the streets and in the hills of that posh city (Wilson & Taub, 2006). The Jewish Defense League and others got into the fight and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the local police department were in the middle of the fray which had its origins almost 12,000 miles away. During the early 1980s, on the other side of the country, the City of Miami was experiencing several riots related to the police department's confrontations with members of the African American community (Porter, 1984). Both the city and the county law enforcement agencies were caught unprepared despite the 1976 National Task Force recommendations. Miami would move on to be among the best prepared law enforcement agencies in the nation regarding civil disorder, but the learning and readiness carne at the expense of some hard lessons (Porter, 1984). As the 1980s moved along, civil disorder seemed to disappear in this country as Americans watched uprisings in such far away places as China, Poland, Bulgaria, and East Germany (Cannon, 1997). But in 1991, those countries turned their attention to Los Angeles as an amateur cameraman's tape of the Rodney King arrest involving the Los Angeles Police Department seemed like a surreal incident occurring in a foreign country. The emotions surrounding the thousands of repeat showings of that beating incubated for more than a year before the all-white jury in Simi-Valley found all four officers on trial "not guilty." As a result came the explosion of fire, gunshots, sirens and looting that set all the riot records but one for the United States history books. Only the number of people killed, some 56, did not reach the level of the previously mentioned anti-draft riots in New York (Cannon, 1997). Eventually, with police, deputies, the National Guard and even some regular army and marine units on hand, the rioters were moved off the streets. Once more, the blame was placed on a lack of adequate planning, training, and leadership by a police department that was thought to be one of the best in the world. Summary & Conclusion Of course, not all riots can be prevented, but it is the responsibility of police administrators to be ready for all sorts of unusual occurrences, such as, tornadoes, earthquakes, major fires, floods, airline crashes, hazardous materials incidents, and riots. Mayors and city managers are certainly right in expecting their law enforcement agencies to be able to cope professionally with these kinds of disasters. The role of a police chief is one of the most demanding, challenging, and important executive functions anywhere in public administration (Goldstein, 1977). Yet, it is imperative that these executives seek to understand the underlying causes of civil disturbance and focus their organization and policies to not be the spark that starts a disturbance. References Cannon, L. (1997). Official negligence: How Rodney King and the riots changed Los Angeles and the LAPD. New York: NY. Times Books. Encyclopedia of War & American Society. 2005. New York City Anti-Draft Riots. SAGE Publications. 19 Jul. 2011. . Goldstein, H. (1977). Policing a free society. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing Co. Johnson, M. S. (2003). Street justice: A history of police violence in New York City. Boston: Beacon Press. Kelner, J. & Munves, J. (1980). The Kent State Coverup. New York, NY: Harper & Row. Porter, B. D. (1984). The Miami riot of 1980: crossing the bounds. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. Stevens, D. (2002) Policing and community partnerships. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Wilson, W. J. , & Taub, R. P. (2006). There goes the neighborhood: Racial, ethnic, and class tensions in four Chicago neighborhoods and their meaning for America . New York: Knopf Read More