The Deradicalization of the Policeman: A Historical Analysis

Abstract

This paper attacks the commonly held view that police are naturally con servative. It looks at the police function historically and treats the police man as a worker-whose relationship to government is determined by his contradictory position as a member of the working class used by the rul ing elite to control other members of the working class. From this point of view, the author reviews a series of attempts, at the end of the nineteenth century, to police the working class. Creation of the professionalized state police resulted from the inadequacy of the local po lice, local militia, the state guard, and the army in protecting the ruling elite. The paper relates the growth of police unions to the union movement in general and traces the increased police militancy from the Boston police strike of 1919 to the present. Finally, it evaluates the nature of police militancy and concludes that the police do adhere to standards of Ameri can working-class militancy. They can be considered radical in that their actions restrict or have the potential to restrict government action.