Summary Of Policing Class By Spence

READING RESPONSE TEMPLATE

LABR 2P91

Article: (Spence, Lester, (2016). “Policing Class.”)

Summary: Spence’s main argument he makes in Policing Class, is that police violence seen specifically in the state of Baltimore, but also seen throughout the United States, is not just a expression of racism but coincides with class. Furthermore is not targeted to a specific racial hierarchy but to a class hierarchy and dynamic as well. This was proven by Spence in his life examples of his run ins with the police. Spence is a working class family man. He was stopped by the police twice and was he let go both times once police officers took a look at him. If police brutality was driven on racism alone, he would of been aterogated, fined or the like;

It states for over six years there has been officers: continually using “unreasonable force against people who presented no threat to officers or to others, routinely detained, arrested, and used force against people exercising their First Amendment rights, routinely blamed victims of sexual assault for their assault, particularly those in the sex trade, and failed to properly investigate over half of rape charges brought to them” and the like (p.2). Spence expresses that “these practices, which the report notes have been disproportionately used against black men, women, and children, are so deeply ingrained in the police department that some occurred during ride-alongs” (p. 2). Going to the extreme of officers being told by higher powers to ‘make something up’ if a patrol officer has no valid reason to stop a black citizen located in these impoverished areas and gloating about this on social

That because of the neoliberal shift and that every time urban policing in the US occurs, it negatively impacts the political capacity of the residents before they can even imagine alternatives (p.3). ‘They make it more difficult to organize for better housing, for better schools, for better public transportation.Every arrest keeps someone from holding or even finding a job. Prevents a father from taking care of his family. Prevents a woman from realizing her dreams as a nurse. Keeps a kid from running for office” (P. 3). Overall, Spence concludes with the argument that the city of Baltimore are using its police officer as a toll of social control. That from police stops majority occurring in Western and the Central Districts affecting the poorest black neighbourhoods “is producing and reproducing a population that has no functional purpose other than to be policed” (p.3). This is not just occurring in Baltimore either. “Seeing police violence as simply an expression of racism omits this crucial component. It overlooks that in Baltimore and elsewhere, repressive policing is animated not just by a racial dynamic, but by a class dynamic. The race of the police officer doesn’t matter. The race of the major implementing the policy doesn’t matter. What matters is who enjoys a “ right to the city”— and who gets