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unhinged
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'it is far from clear whether police practices common to many cities across the united states make matters better or worse. while for white, middle-class families in middle-class areas, the police presence tends to be modest, and is generally perceived as benign if not actually protective, it is a very different matter elsewhere. in poor, segregated neighborhoods, as amy lerman and vesla weaver write, 'the infrastructure of surveillance - from police substations to squad cars to policemen descending through residents' buildings in vertical patrols - is a pervasive part of the architecture of community life. in these neighborhoods, citizens regularly encounter the police in their daily routines, through involuntary and largely unwelcome interactions.
residents of high-poverty neighborhoods, particularly african americans, widely distrust the police. rather than seeing them as a resource to fight the crime and violence that they fear, they are as likely to see them as a hostile occupying force...only one of three 'generally support how the police act in [their] community' and that fewer than one out of four believed that 'the police department holds officers accountable for wrong or inappropriate conduct.'
..crime *is* a problem, but as lerman and weaver point out, 'residents of high-policing areas report feeling less safe both because they reside in high-crime areas and because they see interactions with police as unsafe.' tensions cut both ways. many police officers feel no more comfortable in many low-income areas than their residents feel being around the police.' - alan mallach
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180815
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