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- Title
Responses to "The Right Fight": History's Shadow.
- Authors
Robin, Corey
- Abstract
The article focuses on issues related to law enforcement in the U.S. Although author Daniel Richman admirably addresses the threat to civil liberties posed by his recommendation for greater coordination between federal agencies and local police departments in the war on terrorism, he misconstrues the nature of that threat. Richman suggests that most police officers, left to their own devices, seek to protect persons and property within their respective jurisdictions and to ensure local peace. But once the feds get involved, they may dragoon local police departments into a federally dominated, and potentially repressive, national intelligence network. What history demonstrates is that police officers often use their powers, with or without federal prompting, as instruments of larger political purpose. The danger of cooperation between federal agencies and local police is not that the former will conscript the latter into repressive programs the latter would not otherwise pursue, but that it allows the police to apply the legitimizing gloss of national security to their own pet projects of repression.
- Subjects
UNITED States; LAW enforcement; RICHMAN, Daniel; CIVIL rights; POLICE; GOVERNMENT agencies
- Publication
Boston Review, 2004, Vol 29, Issue 6, p20
- ISSN
0734-2306
- Publication type
Article