Normalising police militarisation, living in denial

Abstract

The militarisation of policing in the USA continues to be a critical area of enquiry for both the police and the society. Recent events in Boston speak to the centrality of this area of research for understanding state responses to an array of social problems, including violence, terrorism and civil unrest. The police capacity to organise and distribute state-sponsored violence as well as the ability to shape institutional appearances while doing so, impacts issues of civil rights, domestic order and the quality of political life in a democracy. The importance of the topic, coupled with the fact that we have made a modest contribution to the literature on this phenomenon, led us to read Garth den Heyer's essay with keen interest.

Keywords:

• militarization
• SWAT
• PPU
• policing
• paramilitary
• force