POLICING DIVERSE COMMUNITIES

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POLICING DIVERSE COMMUNITIES

• Mike Kilroe
• February 2008

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OUTLINE

• Reminder Ashes to Ashes BBC 1, 9 pm Thurs
• Policing Diverse Communities The problem for
  policing
• Understanding Diverse Communities
• Policing, Protest and Conflict
• Can You Feel the Force (Documentary on the
  Toxteth Riots)

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POLICING DIVERSE COMMUNITIES

• The Problem for Policing
• Policing Communities of Risk and communities at
  risk (Johnson 2000)
• Conventional model of community policing was
  grounded in the conception of community as
  embodiment of collective sentiments
• Community diversity/community plurality
• There needs to be a deeper understanding of
  community plurality and increased diversity of
  policing which sees crime control not the
  exclusive function of the police

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UNDERSTANDING DIVERSE COMMUNITIES

• Ulrich Beck and Risk (2006)
• Risk in pre modernity/modernity/late modernity
• Robert Puttnam Bowling Alone (2000)
• The importance of Social Capital
• Merryfield 1998 Community research in Liverpool 8
  (Toxteth) Divisions
• Castells (1997) The Power of Identity
• Resistance Identity Individuals devalued by
  the global social order build trenches of
  resistance Fundamentalism-Far Right Militias-New
  Social Movements
• Morgan (1998) Class divisions in the gay
  community

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POLICING,PROTEST AND CONFLICT

• David Harvey Social Justice and the City (1973)
• A Marxist account of social relationships in the
  urban environment
• The city, under capitalism, is an inequality
  generating machine characterised by
  conflict/competition for space resources
• Ghetto formation and fragmentation (see also
  Trevor Phillips Commission for Racial Equality
  CRE 2005)
• Tensions/strains between different groups
• Toxteth 1981/Bradford/Oldham 2001 and Birmingham
  2005

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POLICING,PROTEST AND CONFLICT

• A history of oppressive relations?
• Riots
• 1950s - Nottingham, Notting Hill
• 1980s - Liverpool, Bristol, Brixton
• 1990s - Manningham, Bradford, Sheffield
• 2001 - Oldham-Leeds- Burnley- Bradford
• 2003 - Birmingham

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POLICING, PROTEST AND CONFLICT

• Explanations
• The role of the police
• Deprivation
• Political/social exclusion/racism
• Criminal activity
• Culture clashes between Muslim and white
  communities
• Divided communities

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UNDERSTANDING THE RIOTS

• The Reports
• The Scarman Report 1982
• The Gifford Report 1989
• Bradford Commission Report 1996
• The Cantle Report 2001
• The Denham Report 2001
• The Ouseley Report 2001

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MAIN POINTS FROM THE CANTLE REPORT 2001

• Commissioned by Home Secretary
• After riots in Oldham, Bradford and Burnley
• All towns show in-depth polarisation
• Segregated communities
• Living parallel lives
• No- go areas
• Further violence is likely
• Government, Police, community leaders need to
  break polarisation
• Police should extend community policing
  initiatives breaking up drug networks

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THE CRIMINALISATION OF BRITISH ASIAN YOUTH

• Jo Goodey ( 2001)
• Research involving young British Pakistani males
• Sheffield/Bradford mid 1990s
• Young males A feeling of marginalisation
• Police actions (Stop and search/
  overpolicing)criticised by the young men in the
  authors research
• She refers to the reactions of white society
  and the police to the riots involving young
  Pakistani males in mid 1990s
• Negative imaging/stereotyping etc

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THE FRENCH CONNECTION

• Paris November 2005
• Riots
• Seine Saint Denis
• Largely immigrant communities
• 10 of Frances population
• High levels of deprivation/ unemployment
• Many without citizenship/voting rights
• Political debate
• Rioters described as rabble Scum by
  police/some politicians and Nicolas Sarkozy (then
  Interior Minister, now President)
• Relations with police historically hostile

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FRENCH CONNECTION 2

• October 2006
• Policing one year on described as urban warfare
• Increased attacks on police
• No-go areas
• Anti-Crime Brigades
• High turnover of police officers
• Recent research suggests intense hostility from
  local youths to police
• Growing divide
• But older residents resent what they see as
  rampant lawlessness and want more police
• Rioting again in November 2007
• Could it happen here?