The rubber brick’s story: A cultural sociology of policing protest in Europe

ABSTRACT

This ethnographically based article investigates the simulated enactments European police forces undergo in mock cities in order to train for protest policing. From a perspective grounded in cultural sociology, the analysis focuses on the rubber brick used in these simulations as a substitute for the stones that protesters sometimes hurl at police. It looks at the brick as a cultural materialisation that marks a specific form of police training, as well as policing more generally. By following the stone’s trace, the article argues that the brick acts as a medium that reflects police action: It derives its meaning from the imaginary of the demonstrators and protesters as violent, and sometimes even as hostile, in the sense of forces which should be met with a combative police reaction. Thus, the stone creates a self-image of the police characterised by toughness, courage, and strength. The thorough article adds to the research about protest policing by offering the first investigation of the meaning of simulated training for police forces.

KEYWORDS:

• police training
• rubber brick
• enactment
• cultural sociology
• simulation theory
• protest policing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 However, since the group leaders are responsible for the decentralized, weekly unit-internal training, their training is also relevant to the latter training sessions.

2 Generally, previous research describes police forces in continental Europe as more centralized, authoritarian, and militarily organised than those in common law systems (e.g. Mawby, 2008, p. 18). However, within the context of protest policing, this is not entirely accurate. France and England can still be contrasted in this way, but because of Germany’s federal structure, it is inaccurate to ascribe a centralized or primarily military character to its protest policing. Northern Ireland’s military orientation is also at odds with this classification. The French police, with their centralized structure and their strategies and weapons, is much more at the military end of the continuum with regard to protest policing than many other police forces in Europe (cf. Descoulx et al., 2015). England, however, takes a more civilian approach based on its British model of policing, which states that police officers do not stand in opposition to the citizens but rather police them according to an implicit consensus as ‘m[e]n in the middle, uniformed but unarmed’ (Brewer et al., 1996). Germany’s protest policing can be situated somewhere between France and England; it seeks close contact with the protesters and uses a more moderate range of weapons compared to France. Northern Ireland’s police force can be distinguished from other police forces in the UK because of its special status: it is subject to different weapons regulations and, in some cases, different doctrines. As a former civil war country, it disposes of military equipment and practices (cf. CAJ, 2016). At the same time, it is strongly oriented toward the British model of policing and emphasizes – even more than the mainland does – a dialogue-based approach. Here, policing protest to a high degree means community policing (this is also true in the case of demonstrations, which are potentially violent) in order to achieve a dialogue with protesters.

3 The term ‘escalated force’ refers to a mission philosophy that was dominant until the 1960s. Its primary tactic, in the sense of an overenforcement of law, is the use of force, which is often exerted until a demonstration disperses. In contrast to this, the philosophy of negotiated management tolerates minor offenses, protects the rights of the demonstrators, and aims to keep the disturbances caused by the demonstration to a minimum. It is based on communication between the police and demonstrators.

4 The history of the stones used in the simulations reflects the increased attention that has been given to the safety of police officers over the years. Initially, real stones were used in trainings in France and England, but that practice soon stopped due to excessive injuries. In France, the cobblestone was eventually replaced by a wooden stone, but even that was thought to be too dangerous, so the rubber stone was finally chosen (as a temporary end point of this development).