| Review of: | The Policing of Transnational Protest edited by Donatella della Porta, Abby Peterson, Herbert Reiter |
|---|---|
| Reviewed By: | Ramón Spaaij |
| Reviewed in: | Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management |
| Date accepted online: | 02/11/2007 |
| Published in print: | Volume 15, Issue 2, Pages 115-118 |
Book Reviews
In recent years there has been a heightened interest in the ways new forms of political protest test the adequacy of public order policing. In a 1998 publication on the policing of mass demonstrations, Donatella della Porta and Herbert Reiter introduced the concept of protest policing. According to the authors, the style of protest policing is determined by a combination of five key variables: the organizational feature of the police; the configuration of political power; public opinion; the police occupational culture; and the interaction with protesters. These aspects are filtered by police knowledge, defined as 'the police's perception of external reality, which shapes concrete policing of protest on the ground' (p. 2). In
Della Porta and Reiter analyze three interrelated strategies for protest policing: coercive strategies (the use of force to control demonstrations); persuasive strategies (discursive contacts with activists and organizers); and information strategies (the general and targeted collection of information to prevent disorder and to identify law-breakers). For each of these strategies, two different policing styles are distinguished: escalated force, which gives low priority to the right to demonstrate; and negotiated management, prioritizing the right to demonstrate peacefully and focusing on communication between protesters and the police. The authors note a historical shift in protest policing in Western democracies from escalated force to negotiated management. This shift is characterized by a reduction in the use of force, greater emphasis on communication with demonstrators and the investment in information gathering. The policing style during the G8 summit at Genoa shows that this development does not follow an unambiguous trend towards de-escalation, but takes on an at least partly cyclical dynamic. The policing at Genoa reveals an overall strategy 'tending to exclusion instead of inclusion' (p. 37). The security of the summit was the key objective, to which the right to demonstrate peacefully was subordinated.
Abby Peterson examines the ways in which territorial places become the loci for contentious politics and police responses to these mobilizations. Comparing recent counter-summits in Copenhagen and Stockholm, Peterson contends that excessive use of coercive force, together with non-selective forms of arrest, openly jeopardize the civil and political liberties of activists. It is argued that although enlarged public spaces for protest can vitalize democratic processes, these spaces may at the same time be made less hospitable for protesters through the police's 'show of force' technique.
Mike King and David Waddington question the belief that public order policing is increasingly moving away from a reactive, incident-led orientation towards a twofold strategy combining a 'paramilitary' approach with pro-active negotiation and intelligence gathering. They argue that the policing of protest at high-profile transnational events features more overtly coercive policing strategies or even a 'show of force'. The authors characterize this strategy as 'exclusionary fortress-oriented policing'. It is intelligence-led through risk assessment, consultation and infiltration of 'non-negotiable' groups, intensive surveillance and the preemptive removal of potential troublemakers.
John Noakes and Patrick Gillham argue that police tactics during recent protests in the United States are rooted in neither the escalated force nor the negotiated management style. Instead, the police tactics reflect a third type of response referred to as 'strategic incapacitation'. This policing style contains three key features: risk assessment, temporary incapacitation and the rearrangement of offenders. The heightened use of intelligence gathering allows the police to assess the risk and to identify individuals and groups who are subjected to various forms of strategic incapacitation. Police commonly seek to incapacitate protesters for as long as possible by creating obstacles to participation in demonstrations. Arrests are often intended to incapacitate rather than punish demonstrators.
Mattias Wahlström and Mikael Oskarsson's contribution focuses more specifically on the negotiations between protesters and the police. They contend that the emphasis on risk and security in contemporary societies, in combination with the asymmetric relations between police and protesters based on their respective legal powers and access to intelligence, entails definitive limits on the kinds of agreements these parties are able to reach. Another factor limiting the possibilities of negotiations is the lack of authority that both police and protester negotiators may have in their own groups and organizations. The reasons for protesters' distrust of the police are found in their knowledge of the police's use of coercive force and breaches of promises in past years and in other places, as well as in the performance of the police during the period immediately prior to the summits.
Herbert Reiter and Olivier Fillieule examine the responses to the global justice movement within the European Union. At an EU level, the global justice movement is increasingly framed as one of the new security threats alongside transnational terrorism. The development of an EU approach to transnational public order policing involves the formalizing of informal practices and the 'unionizing' of pre-existing inter-governmental arrangements. After the G8 summit at Genoa, the shortcomings of the EU approach became apparent, in particular its lack of efficiency and its lack of respect for civil liberties and individual rights. The authors also stress the lack of transparency and democratic accountability in EU justice and home affairs.
The concluding chapter by della Porta and Reiter shows that, at recent transnational protest events, coercive strategies returned as a dominant aspect of protest policing, although, the authors contend, 'with adaptations to new protest repertoires, police frames and technologies' (pp. 176-7). This includes a heavy police presence, a range of 'less-lethal' arms and mass arrests. Police charges have occasionally triggered violent reactions by previously peaceful groups of protesters. Coercive strategies are coupled with pre-event negotiations. However, this persuasive strategy usually features strong deterrent elements rather than cooperation. Deterrence of protesters is a major strategic element in protest policing, including the introduction of 'no-go areas', the reintroduction of border controls and preventive arrests. The policing of transnational protest is also characterized by an intelligence-led approach, although police forces' capacity for monitoring suspect protesters was usually insufficient to enable them to intervene efficiently.
The book concludes with a review of the original model for explaining protest policing. The authors contend that the model must also accommodate the transnational dimension of protest policing. They add the organizational structures of international policing, its formal competences and the unaccountability of informal cooperation as key factors determining the style of protest policing. Furthermore, it is argued that political opportunities have been more or less closed for transnational protest. Transnational protest often targets intergovernmental organizations that offer few channels of access. Although these final observations remain underspecified and require further elaboration, the volume's contribution to the literature on transnational protest policing is evident. Its multidisciplinary approach, analytical focus and detailed descriptions make