Recent Book: The Difficult Dialogue: Police-Community Relations
| Date | 01 January 1971 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7104400119 |
| Published date | 01 January 1971 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
THE DIFFICULT DIALOGUE
WILLIAM
H.
HEWITT
and
CHARLES
L.
NEWMAN:
Police-Community Relations.
An Anthology and Bibliography. The Foundation Press, Mineola, New York.
The intention of the authors in
preparing this book was to bring
together in a single volume the most
readable essays, in their opinion, on
the dilemma confronting the police in
the United States and, in doing so, to
present all viewpoints on the problems.
Events there in the past few years,
including the assassinations of the
Kennedys and Martin Luther King,
violent disturbances in 125 cities in
one year in which 43 people died,
and a crime incidence unparalleled
anywhere else in the civilised world,
have spawned these essays, all of which
are of interest to a British audience.
The views often contrast; some are
self-accusatory, self-reproaching; some
self-justifying; a few constructive.
The main problems identified as the
cause of the recent outbreaks of
violence and civil disobedience in the
United States are twofold; the first is
the inequality in status and oppor-
tunity of the Negro in American
Society; the second is the Vietnam
War. The underlying grievances are
identified-the
"dynamite", as it were,
waiting to be
exploded-and
the
incidents that led to the violence and
rioting-the
"detonators"
-analysed
and subjected to merciless post-
mortem
..
From
this searching exam-
ination the police of the United States
emerge sadly.
For
example:
"The
order-maintenance function of the
patrolman defines his role and
that
role, which is unlike
that
of any other
occupation, can be described as one in
which sub-professionals, working
alone and episodically, exercise dis-
cretion in matters of utmost impor-
tance (life and death, honour and
dishonour) in an environment
that
is
apprehensive and perhaps hostile".
On the Chicago Riots, David
Ginsburg, executive director of the
National Advisory Commission on
Civil Disorders, is quoted as saying,
"That
there was major provocation
of the police was unquestionably
true.
It
must be said that some demon-
strators were deliberately trying to
provoke the police,
that
police were
often deliberately attacked,
that
police
were injured and wounded. But a
disciplined police force must be
capable of coping with a mob without
yielding to its passions and fears".
In this context it is interesting to
read that Newark City, New Jersey,
January 1971
budgeted 331,000 dollars in 1967 for
riot control equipment including
AR-15 rifles, barbed wire, armoured
cars and high-intensity lights to blind
snipers.
Lack of imiginative leadership bears
its share of the blame. One writer says,
"Lateral
entrance-which
would allow
qualified people to enter the service at
all levels, and in many
capacities-is
the primary device by which new
blood, ideas and vitality can be
brought to a semi-comatose or mori-
bund police organisation". This has a
familiar ring on this side of the Atlan-
tic.
Perhaps the most important single
paragraph in the whole work is
that
which reads, "Whenever we see the
conjunction of 'police-community', as
the title
...
we should be uneasy, for
it implies an incorrect disjunction, an
unsuitable dichotomy." We have
known for some time that there is a
separatist quality about United States
police forces vis-e-vis the public.
Could it develop here?
The American Police, says Professor
Hewitt, are in a rebellious mood.
"The
grumbling in the station houses
and the squad cars throughout the
land goes far beyond the normal
gripes of the low pay and citizen
indifference. The American policemen
feel that both their lives and the roots
of their moral values are in danger."
On the philosophy that the
hurricane
that
sweeps Central America
today still has the power to take the
tiles off the roofs a fortnight later in
this country, this book is well worth
reading. The problems and grievances
that
constitute the "dynamite" may be
different in this country at first glance,
but the more one reads the more one is
driven to see ominous similarities.
Perhaps
our
police forces are so con-
stituted and commanded
that
the
American situation could
not
arise
-or
could
it?
In any case, prevention
is better
than
cure.
Are
our
recruits
being instructed thoroughly in how to
approach the public, and especially
that growing section of the public that
is racially "different"? Are we keeping
pace with the changes in
our
own
society? Experience exists to teach us.
We can find much to guide us in this
anthology and its listing of books and
articles is very reliable indeed.
P.B.C.
87
To continue reading
Request your trial