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Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America

Kristian Williams

4.33 · Rating details · 316 ratings · 45 reviews

“Should become mandatory reading for all police academy students.”—Damon Woodcock (Ret.), Portland, Oregon, Police Bureau

“A well-researched, historically grounded, and mordant critique of American policing past and present.”—Christian Parenti

Even critics have a difficult time imagining a world without police. But just what is the role of police in a democracy: to serve the ...more

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Paperback, 400 pages

Published August 1st 2007 by South End Press (first published June 1st 2003)

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Aug 20, 2014 Whitney rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, 60s, capitalism, history

This is not some emotional anti-police rant/manifesto. It is a very measured and well researched piece of theory. Police are a relatively new phenomenon in human society and Kristian Williams shows how they are only necessary to protect capitalist elites. Our Enemies In Blue Traces the genealogy of the police state from its beginnings from antebellum slave patrols to the modern monolith we know it as today.

Police in America got boosts in legitimacy and power during the machine politics of the ea ...more

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Jul 07, 2016 Mike rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Our Enemies in Blue makes a five-star case. As a methodical, scathing indictment of the history, purpose, and origin of the U.S. police, I have never seen such a well-researched and calculated primer from Day 1 to Day Now. The case is so startlingly made that certain facets of it seem somewhat gratuitous, but if you do enjoy a lacerating parade of absolutely damning critiques with accompanying evidence, there's much schadenfreude in which to relish while reading the book.

There are different arc Our Enemies in Blue makes a five-star case. As a methodical, scathing indictment of the history, purpose, and origin of the U.S. police, I have never seen such a well-researched and calculated primer from Day 1 to Day Now. The case is so startlingly made that certain facets of it seem somewhat gratuitous, but if you do enjoy a lacerating parade of absolutely damning critiques with accompanying evidence, there's much schadenfreude in which to relish while reading the book.

There are different arcs to the book, some more enjoyable to others but preferences seem to vary. The first third is tracing the origin of a police force in the United States from its pre-Constitution heyday into a fully-functional and highly organized 'arm' of the state; the middle third painstakingly chronicles how the police function as a right-wing arm against civil rights, labor rights, LGBT rights, and just about any other left-wing and/or progressive cause for citizen equality; the last third deals primarily with contemporary issues of militarization, a brilliant cautionary tale about the subtle (and not-so-subtle) damages wrought by this trend toward community policing, and lastly the gathering of intelligence for its own sake. Needless to say, the critiques against the police as an institution are well-backed, mind-expanding, and practically endless. I'm particularly thankful for Kristian Williams's ability to examine how community policing extends state authority and pinpoints a new-found ability to control other aspects of civil society. Its status as a hegemony is proven with logical virtuosity, bolstered by the fact that the word is used - gasp! - correctly.

I do recommend this book for people who may be wary of a daunting "preaching to the choir" effect, because I promise there are facets to police corruption and brutality that are subtle, behind-the scenes, oftentimes surprisingly pervasive and other times weirdly unsung. It opens one's eyes as to the why and how, not simply the "what." In short, it's an opportunity to see how deep the rabbit-hole goes, and can still thrill by making familiar claims by making those claims with such authority.

Does this mean that the police as individuals do not have functions or have never been of benefit to me personally? Of course not. There is a blurb on the back of the book that thinks it ought to be mandatory reading for new recruits. While I acknowledge that this sort of feeds into the idea of dissent being co-opted by this larger institution, I do see the reviewers' point: any opposing viewpoint this well-voiced is simply worth the edification, and it's also a startling chronicle of the mistakes accumulated by standard operating procedure. There's a wealth of opportunity here for learning experience (the baiting book title be damned -- 'Police and Power in America' is a great sub-title that I feel is more indicative of the book's subject matter).

The book does not come without its flaws, however. Occasionally there are pockets in the middle chapters that rely too much on quoting the political and sociological theory of others rather than the hard evidence of the police's actions at that time, and Kristian Williams's talents are a bit under-utilized in these sections because Williams simply summarizes the quoted material. Certain sections here and there tend to banish the specific evidence to the footnotes, with the saving grace that the facts are there. Thankfully, the majority of the book gives ample specific evidence -- these chunks are often the most satisfying and occur very frequently -- but in some sections earlier on I found the balance not to be in the book's favor. Too much of the call-and-response with the quoted theory and the summary resembled an echo chamber and could have easily been edited.

I also found the afterword to be a bit unsatisfying. While I admire the ambition of prescribing a thoughtful diagnosis, sometimes writers place the onus on themselves to answer the tried-and-true "Well, do you have a better idea?" The fact of the matter is: Williams does not, and I think taking on the burden is unnecessary. Williams does chronicle some laudable and historical attempts at pursuing that better idea, which gave the afterword considerable potential, but there's a pretty galling part when Williams addresses the community-organized police created for the safety of Blacks in South Africa in the apartheid era. This organization still exists, and Williams praises them even if there have been slight aberrations in administering "brutal punishments." The endnote to this quote in the book refers to how many who have committed misdemeanors had a tire set around their necks and set on fire. Williams continues by quoting polling data that the community would rather call this force than the official state police.

Obviously, police-sanctioned lynching in the United States is the low-hanging-fruit example by which violence-through-law can match this practice of "necklacing" (or exceed it). However, it's the method of suppressing this fact to the endnotes while trying to show this operation as a step in the right direction that I find troublesome; furthermore, appealing to the survey opinion just reeks of an ad populum fallacy, a disappointment in a work that tends toward logical rigor. (Williams commits an A > B, therefore A > ~B fallacy earlier in the afterword, which after a string of hermetically sealed points was outright frustrating).

Save the occasional misstep and the rare lapse into the heavy use of anarchist jargon (e.g., there is a section where the rise of the 'political machine' becomes a tiresome cadence), the book is a stunning aggregation and survey of public-police relations with so many fresh, unsung, and generally unheard insights in the public discourse. In this way, it is invaluable, but there are too many aspects of the book that one needs to resist against or check against while reading it to ensure its full impact. Its flow as a book is not as seamless as most of its arguments are, for sure, but believe me, the takeaway is staggering. ...more

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Oct 29, 2011 Dan Sharber rated it it was amazing

Shelves: criminal-justice-true-crime, own

this is a must read. couple with The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness and you will have a clear understanding of many aspects of the current criminal justice system from cops to courts to prisons and beyond. this book in particular is very enlightening and gives great ammo against the mainstream view of the nature and the role of the cops. they are, in fact, not our friends and this book will explain why and more importantly, how this is not accidental. ...more

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Jul 27, 2015 Spicy T AKA Mr. Tea rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy, journalism, history, anarchism, prison-industrial-complex, cultural-studies, activism, anti-war, police-abuse, anti-racism

IN-FUCKING-CREDIBLE! As I was writing a 50+ page report on the history of rochester's police accountability systems, I had the pleasure of finally getting to read this gem. If you want a solid analysis and history of the origins of police and where they are headed, from an abolitionist position, READ THIS BOOK.

The "Rotten Apple" theory...

“Given such pervasive violence, it is astonishing that discussions of police brutality so frequently focus on the behavior of individual officers. Commonly call IN-FUCKING-CREDIBLE! As I was writing a 50+ page report on the history of rochester's police accountability systems, I had the pleasure of finally getting to read this gem. If you want a solid analysis and history of the origins of police and where they are headed, from an abolitionist position, READ THIS BOOK.

The "Rotten Apple" theory...

“Given such pervasive violence, it is astonishing that discussions of police brutality so frequently focus on the behavior of individual officers. Commonly called the 'Rotten Apple' theory, the explanation of police misconduct favored by police commanders and their ideological allies holds that police abuse is exceptional, that the officers who misuse their power are a tiny minority, and that it is unfair to judge other cops (or the department as a whole) by the misbehavior of the few. This is a handy tool for diverting attention away from the institution, its structure, practices, and social role, pushing the blame, instead, onto some few of its agents. It is, in other words, a means of protecting the organization from scrutiny, and of avoiding change.”

Definitions of force...

“The study of police brutality faces any number of methodological barriers, not the least of which is the problem of defining it. There is no standard definition, nor is there one way of measuring force and excessive force. As a consequence, different studies produce very different results, and these results are difficult to compare.” And later down the page, “Things get even stickier when general patterns of violence are scrutinized, even where no particular encounter rises to the level of official misconduct. 'Use of excessive force [sic] means that police applied too much force in a given incident, while excessive use of force [sic] means that police apply force legally in too many incidents.'While the former is more likely to grab headlines, it is the latter that makes the largest contribution to the community's reservoir of grievances against the police. But, since the force in question is within the bounds of policy, the excessive use of force is more difficult to address from the perspective of discipline and administration. All of this controversy and confusion points to a very simple fact: Police brutality is a normative construction. It involves an evaluation, a judgement, and not simply a collection of facts.”

On community policing...

“The overall result of these efforts is to increase the police role in the community, meaning that the coercive apparatus of the state will be more involved with daily life.” He calls this a “smarter approach to repression,” not “demilitarization, liberalization, or democratization.” He writes, with regards to the more recent use of the term “community policing,” “The goal of community policing is to reduce resistance before force is required.” However, he also emphasizes that the dual strategy of community policing and militarization actually make the police “less tolerant of resistance and disorder, [and] even more forceful in their own demands.”

Just great. Very excited to hear that a new, expanded, and updated version is being printed in August. Don't forget to check out his latest "Fire the Cops."

Totally love this book. So great. ...more

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Feb 08, 2016 Ollie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Since I have no clue how to start a review let me just begin by saying that I don’t just love this book but I also think it’s about an important and overlooked aspect of our society. One that hopefully is getting more attention these days. It’s one thing to adopt a hashtag mentality when approaching social issues, and another to actually look more in-depth at the origins and causes of a problem like the policing institution.

Throughout this book Kristian Williams does a thorough job (almost a qu ...more

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Nov 26, 2013 D rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own

Here's a list of the chapters:
One
Police Brutality in Theory and Practice

Two
The Origins of American Policing

Three
The Genesis of a Policed Society

Four
Cops and Klan, Hand in Hand

Five
The Natural Enemy of the Working Class

Six
Police Autonomy and Blue Power

Seven
Secret Police, Red Squads, and the Strategy
of Permanent Repression

Eight
Riot Police or Police Riots':,

Nine
Your Friendly Neighborhood Police State

Afterword
Making Police Obsolete

I really enjoyed the read, finally helped me ...more

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Jun 17, 2014 Jonathan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Despite it's inflammatory title this is a well researched, incredibly detailed, and methodical analysis of the history of policing in the US and the current role of police in our society. As someone with a police officer in my family, I think it would be hard for someone who works or has worked in a police organization to pick up this book and not feel criticized. But of course this book is not about individual police, it is about the establishment and current operations of police organizations ...more

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Jun 09, 2010 Pasquale rated it really liked it

A really well written analysis of police brutality in the United States. While this book cannot document every case, it shows clearly that police brutality is a problem beyond severity. It (police brutality) is a fundamental flaw of the United States police system. This book should be on the literature lists of every high school in the United States, and beyond that it should be a requirement for criminal justice majors and police academy cadets.

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Jun 19, 2020 hima ☾ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-reviewed, 2020, left-policing-prisons, left-anarchism, adore

the police represent the most direct means by which the state imposes its will on the citizenry. when persuasion, indoctrination, moral pressure, and incentive measures all fail—there are the police. in the field of social control, police are specialists in violence. they are armed, trained, and authorized to use force. with varying degrees of subtlety, this colors their every action. the possibility of arrest, the threat of violence is implicit in every police encounter. violence, as well as

the police represent the most direct means by which the state imposes its will on the citizenry. when persuasion, indoctrination, moral pressure, and incentive measures all fail—there are the police. in the field of social control, police are specialists in violence. they are armed, trained, and authorized to use force. with varying degrees of subtlety, this colors their every action. the possibility of arrest, the threat of violence is implicit in every police encounter. violence, as well as the law, is what they represent.

◦ i adore this book and have read it twice, despite how dense—and chilling—it is. it is invaluable, and urgent, and incredibly well-researched. it's a great analysis, and certainly will help contextualize current conversations for skeptics and supporters alike. our enemies in blue delivers stunning insight on the institution of american policing. it's not an easy read—it'll make your blood boil.

◦ written from an anarchist perspective—and it shows. which is great! expect that to underscore most of its arguments.

◦ it's a bit heavy-handed on the sociological theory at times, but that's exactly to my interests, so i didn't mind. there are definitely slow parts. the afterword, which explicitly calls for dismantling the police, doesn't necessarily leave you hopeful—but it acknowledges this, and instead serves as an exploration of all the possibilities for a future that's yet to be imagined.

◦ if you picked up the end of policing, then i urge you to read this as well. immediately. while i think both have their uses, our enemies in blue is far more historically grounded, broader in scope, and illuminates often-overlooked abuses. i'd also say that this is best read as a supplement to revolutionary texts from Black/non-white authors.

◦ i just think this book is so fucking important. it's a chronicle of police for what they are: the protectors, and manifestation, of every evil american society has to offer.

◦ the e-book is currently $2!!!!! ...more

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Sep 03, 2016 Adam rated it it was amazing

While I've always theoretically understood that police were created by many white power nationalists and slave patrols this book really helped me contextualize and understand it historically. Although the title of the book seems like it would be a theoretical tirade and rant against police- this is a well documented and very thorough research study that proves the case that the police are created to repress and oppress the people. As a labor organizer, the police as strike breakers paid by the p ...more

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Aug 24, 2015 Coop Williams rated it really liked it

Shelves: politics

a very soft 4/5. The book is very well-sourced and presents damning evidence against basically every incarnation of American police forces. The chapter about the Klan's involvement with the police is truly horrifying. However, it gets a little slow after the first half.

I'd recommend this to anyone who doubts that elitism, authoritarianism, retributivism, and white supremacy are integral components of the modern police institution.

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Jun 06, 2007 Nara rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

An excellent exploration of the history of police brutality in America, with careful attention paid to the politics of race. This is not a topic in which I am organically interested, but the book is well-written enough that I stuck with it, and I learned a great deal about both history and current events.

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Sep 16, 2007 Tom rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: politics

Kristian Williams' book combines a penetrating critical history of the police with a lucid analysis of their role in the modern capitalist state.

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Mar 05, 2013 Kyle Mytruk rated it it was amazing

One of the best books on the subject

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Aug 15, 2013 Mari rated it it was amazing

militarization is a key component of community policing.

KRS-ONE- Sound of the Police

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VRZq3... ...more

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Apr 13, 2015 Kate Press rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Fantastic!

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Nov 02, 2019 Anna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fem-antifa-acab

Damn, what a research!

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May 24, 2009 Ashanti rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nation-state

"if we are to understand the phenomenon of police brutality, we must get beyond particular cases. we can better understand the actions of individual police officers if we understand the institution of which they are a part. that institution, in turn, can best be examined if we have an understanding of its origins, it social function, and its relation to larger systems like capitalism and White supremacy" (9).

i really like kristian! his analysis is steady and consistent in that he does not stray "if we are to understand the phenomenon of police brutality, we must get beyond particular cases. we can better understand the actions of individual police officers if we understand the institution of which they are a part. that institution, in turn, can best be examined if we have an understanding of its origins, it social function, and its relation to larger systems like capitalism and White supremacy" (9).

i really like kristian! his analysis is steady and consistent in that he does not stray away from this intent. upon choosing this text i was suffering from that particular terminal uniqueness called, "my personal experience." such is the course of my reading choices to makes sense of the particular dynamics that i imagine determine my own prejudices.

i am grateful that williams provides a bit of a breakthrough in his thoughtful engagement with historical documents, which examines different notions of citizenship, how it is defined, how it has shifted over time (from London to the Antebellum South) to modern constructions of city governments. he makes it clear out the blocks, "violence is an inherent part of policing."

oh! i knew this. but did he really have to say it like that? do i have to accept this right now? kinda, if you want to keep on reading. so now comes the cumbersome unearthing of texts that trace modern policing formations from London to New York, which do not account for the myriad of ways that determine police behavior (individuals always included - no innocents here) upon people of color; blacks in particular.

in essence, "Our Enemies in Blue," is a revisionist history making the obvious, but overlooked linkages of voluntary and compulsurary "right of passage" community patrolling in London to slave patrolling in the amerikkkan south to modern policing practices. the practices that have virtually gone unchanged, which says all too much about what has not changed, but williams doesn't have to even mention this.

it's icky, but interesting to note how the process of writing history once again strips the obvious violence of our institution to justify what seems to represent benign "service and protection."

with williams, the gig is up and the work has been done. in this reading, he quotes other revisionist work and takes them to task on not allowing the "institution" of policing to rest on the ideas that individuals are not complicit. in this sense, it's is a harder read and makes it difficult to chit chat with my LAPD cousins who are Black.

Peace,

a

...more

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Dec 22, 2007 Brian rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: youth, copwatchers, organizers

Shelves: police-state

The history of policing section was a little dry, but did show connections between class formation and urbanization with the forms that state repression took and how it got to be more and more formalized, better funded, and more totalitarian from town guards to slave patrols to the klan to red squads to paramilitaries.

The evolution from keeping the peace to counterinsurgency was the most interesting part of the book for me. The notion that community policing was the soft/preventative face of cou ...more

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Jul 10, 2011 Emma rated it really liked it

Shelves: prisons-police

this book is amazingly researched. many US statistics and anecdotes of police brutality and murder and the recurrent predictable official responses and impunity to these. theoretically, it moves through the origins of modern policing (developed in England) to contemporary manifestations of policing today (paramilitary + community policing initiatives) with much inbetween (slave patrols + cointelpro). though it is very US specific, a lot of the analyses are internationally relevant, especially th ...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Shay Gabriel rated it it was amazing

An exhaustive examination of the trajectory of policing in America. Unlike most critics of our police system, Williams is not afraid to point out that what the mainstream sees as regrettable flaws are actually features built into the fabric of the police — whether that's the origin of the police as a racist institution designed to reinforce slavery, the inherently authoritarian nature of preventative policing, or how tactics for policing protest inevitably lead to brutality and violence.

Each cha ...more

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May 20, 2016 Spicy T AKA Mr. Tea rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, prison-industrial-complex, political-science, activism, police-abuse, anti-racism, civil-rights-movement, surveillance-privacy, totalitarianism-fascism, white-supremacy

I read the original of this book a year ago and recently finished the 10 year update and revision version.

See my original review here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

Three things I love about this book:
1) Williams updates the book through the early 2010s which is awesome as he was able to incorporate the start of the Black Lives Matter movement and other pertinent cases seen in the papers and online today
2) He takes some of his concepts and theories, such as his section on police viole ...more

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Oct 06, 2015 Chris rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I was pleasantly surprised by this well-thought out and thoroughly researched book. As my 1980’s studies in criminology were anything but radical, I thought (and kind of hoped) that I was ordering an anarchist polemic against the police. This book is not such a screed. It is a very informative book that uses historical examples and current events to make a very reasonable point: the police in the USA are a self-interested arm of the capitalist state …an arm this is growing in influence, autonom ...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Ryan rated it really liked it

Shelves: politics, history, justice-law, my-physical-bookshelf

An important read, the kind of book that draws the veil back on an institution we take for granted in society. It is a bit of a slog. At 238 pages it feels much longer, and at times the book becomes bogged down in details (the amount of footnotes and research is commendable). So, it's not an easy, pleasurable read, but it is enlightened, informed, caustic, self-reflective, and conscious of the dangers of alternatives to the police model as well.

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Sep 18, 2016 Muffin rated it liked it

If you're completely new to the subject, it's full of extremely useful and exhaustively-researched data and historical examples. If you're already anti-police, even if you're not fully an abolitionist, I think you can reasonably just read the Afterword ("Making Police Obsolete") and refer to earlier in the book as needed.

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Dec 09, 2014 Corey rated it really liked it

A well researched exposition of the origin and history of policing.

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May 18, 2016 Panashe M. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: black-struggle, essentials, race-in-america

An important, thoroughly researched and persuasive book about the institutionalized violence of the state.

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Jul 23, 2020 laura rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, political

An excellent socio-political analysis of the role of police in American society. The writing is not dull, which makes it a digestible read.

It does a very good job at explaining how while the police are a manifestation of the state's power, they are also not entirely accountable to the state. It is a very sobering book in parts, and the stories of police entrapment, surveillance, and other abuses of power from the 1960s to the War on Terror are chilling.

While Vitale's book the End of Policing ha ...more

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May 24, 2018 Matt Sautman rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The title's provocative nature may put off some potential readers of this book, but I feel that Williams's prose style is far less confrontational than the title itself is. This book in many ways resembles the writings of Foucault, with Williams' providing a high level of scrutiny into the history of policing in the United States that also interrogates the theoretical motivations for policing. (Unlike Foucault, Williams is a bit more readily accessible in his prose.) I feel that this is a book t ...more

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May 13, 2018 Jeff rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

Very Thorough Research. This book both predates and succeeds (and even cites) Radley Balko's stronger work RISE OF THE WARRIOR COP: THE MILITARIZATION OF AMERICA'S POLICE FORCES. While it cites *volumes* more incidents than Balko's work, and is thus very illuminating because of it, this book has a fatal flaw that is lacking in Balko's work - namely, that it constantly comes at the issue of police brutality as a form of racial and/ or class warfare/ oppression. Its discussions of Anarchism and th ...more

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About Kristian Williams

Kristian Williams

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member of Rose City Copwatch in Portland, Oregon, and of the National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981)

Books by Kristian Williams

Life During Wartime: Resisting Counterinsurgency

American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination

Fire the Cops!: Essays, Lectures, and Journalism

Hurt: Notes on Torture in a Modern Democracy

More…

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“The police cannot be considered simply the custodians of the legal order, but must be seen as the guardians of the social order as well. That they defend it wearing blue uniforms rather than white sheets is a matter of only minor importance.” — 5 likes

“In Uprooting Racism, Paul Kivel makes a useful comparison between the rhetoric abusive men employ to justify beating up their girlfriends, wives, or children and the publicly traded justifications for widespread racism. He writes: During the first few years that I worked with men who are violent I was continually perplexed by their inability to see the effects of their actions and their ability to deny the violence they had done to their partners or children. I only slowly became aware of the complex set of tactics that men use to make violence against women invisible and to avoid taking responsibility for their actions. These tactics are listed below in the rough order that men employ them.… (1) Denial: “I didn’t hit her.” (2) Minimization: “It was only a slap.” (3) Blame: “She asked for it.” (4) Redefinition: “It was mutual combat.” (5) Unintentionality: “Things got out of hand.” (6) It’s over now: “I’ll never do it again.” (7) It’s only a few men: “Most men wouldn’t hurt a woman.” (8) Counterattack: “She controls everything.” (9) Competing victimization: “Everybody is against men.” Kivel goes on to detail the ways these nine tactics are used to excuse (or deny) institutionalized racism. Each of these tactics also has its police analogy, both as applied to individual cases and in regard to the general issue of police brutality. Here are a few examples: (1) Denial. “The professionalism and restraint … was nothing short of outstanding.” “America does not have a human-rights problem.” (2) Minimization. Injuries were “of a minor nature.” “Police use force infrequently.” (3) Blame. “This guy isn’t Mr. Innocent Citizen, either. Not by a long shot.” “They died because they were criminals.” (4) Redefinition. It was “mutual combat.” “Resisting arrest.” “The use of force is necessary to protect yourself.” (5) Unintentionality. “[O]fficers have no choice but to use deadly force against an assailant who is deliberately trying to kill them.…” (6) It’s over now. “We’re making changes.” “We will change our training; we will do everything in our power to make sure it never happens again.” (7) It’s only a few men. “A small proportion of officers are disproportionately involved in use-of-force incidents.” “Even if we determine that the officers were out of line … it is an aberration.” (8) Counterattack. “The only thing they understand is physical force and pain.” “People make complaints to get out of trouble.” (9) Competing victimization. The police are “in constant danger.” “[L]iberals are prejudiced against police, much as many white police are biased against Negroes.” The police are “the most downtrodden, oppressed, dislocated minority in America.” Another commonly invoked rationale for justifying police violence is: (10) The Hero Defense. “These guys are heroes.” “The police routinely do what the rest of us don’t: They risk their lives to keep the peace. For that selfless bravery, they deserve glory, laud and honor.” “[W]ithout the police … anarchy would be rife in this country, and the civilization now existing on this hemisphere would perish.” “[T]hey alone stand guard at the upstairs door of Hell.” — 4 likes

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