|
|
|
Book Review
| Marilynn S. Johnson, Street Justice: A History of Police Violence in New York City, Boston: Beacon Press, 2003. Pp. 365. $30.00 cloth (ISBN 0-870-5022-9); $19.00 paper (ISBN 0-870-5023-7).
|
| As suggested by the recent trial relating to the death of Sean Bell—killed in a storm of fifty police bullets—members of New York City's Police Department often have engaged in acts of violence while purporting to protect its people. Although it is difficult to measure the level and extent of such activity, as Marilyn Johnson concedes in the introduction to her book Street Justice, she convincingly demonstrates that the use of excessive force and brutality are serious problems that have plagued the nation's largest police department for well over 150 years. |
1
|
|
From indiscriminate "clubbing" practices of the late nineteenth century, to torturous "third degree" tactics in the early 1900s, to the more recent use of stun guns, tazers, and firearms during citizen encounters, Johnson provides a detailed and in-depth description of the methods and means of New York City police abuse over the decades. Her account begins with the earliest documented police complaints filed in 1846, the Department's first year of operation in which twenty-nine individuals claimed to have been assaulted at the hands of officers, and concludes in the present day. Drawing from a variety of historical sources, she catalogues the various forms of violence used by overreaching City officers, often explaining why such practices developed or were abandoned. By way of example, Johnson notes that use of "third degree" tactics declined after the Supreme Court decisions in Jackson v. Denno and Miranda v. Arizona. Prosecution dismissal of charges where statements appeared to have been extracted illegally worked as a further deterrent. Similarly, following the establishment of the Firearms Discharge Review Board in the 1970s, gun fatalities appeared to drop in New York City while the use of choke holds came back into fashion. |
2
|
|
Johnson provides not only a comprehensive outline of forms of police violence that have been used, but a compelling description of the people affected by such behaviors. Indeed, Street Justice is most engaging when focusing on the details of individual incidents and victims—such as Ira Wallace, an unemployed, homeless man who was shot and killed by police on a fire escape during a failed burglary attempt during the Depression Era—and the reactions to such incidents. Johnson also allows her lens to linger on particular neighborhoods like Harlem and Bedford Stuyvesant, largely African-American, which have been most profoundly impacted by law enforcement misconduct in recent years. |
3
|
|
As Johnson acknowledges, however, the story of New York City police violence is not as neat and tidy as a series of snapshots of events and neighborhoods. Nor is it defined by racism alone. It is non-linear and complex, implicating not only racial but political, economic, class, religious and other concerns. Thus, Johnson also ambitiously attempts to chronicle the work of different organizations, actors, and investigative bodies that converged—and diverged—around the issue of police brutality throughout the years. Looking at the problem from a number of vantage points, she follows the strands of various movements as they began, intertwined, tangled, and unwound in their attempts to suppress police wrongdoing. In particular, Johnson traces the reform efforts of the Communist Party, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the American Civil Liberties Union and how the groups worked both together and at odds to suppress police brutality. |
4
|
|
For all of its strengths—and there are many—Johnson's book falters just slightly in its concluding chapter in proposing possible solutions. For instance, Johnson suggests the current iteration of New York City's Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB)—with independent citizen review and oversight—is most effective in, if not "vital" to, addressing the problem of police brutality (304). As Johnson's account earlier notes, however, even with a staff independent from the Police Department, New York City's CCRB has at times been ineffectual—mired in a backlog of thousands of unresolved cases. Also, without sufficient sanctioning ability—a feature which Johnson does not extensively address—a Board, regardless of its independence, lacks the ability to hold rogue officers accountable or serve as a deterrent. Johnson also urges modern police reformers to consider promising alternative strategies like those employed in two South Bronx precincts that are at once "effective and respectful" (305). Unfortunately, little detail is offered for readers to assess the strengths of these practices—other than indicating South Bronx commanders employ "high standards, firm disciplinary practices, and good community outreach" (300). This said, these shortcomings may reflect one of the very points Johnson's book sets out to demonstrate—that the use of excessive force, brutality, and violence by New York City's Police Department is a deeply entrenched and complex problem that, historically, has encountered no easy solution. And in her informative and comprehensive history of police misconduct Johnson certainly was under no duty to solve it. |
5
|
| Mae C. Quinn
|
| University of Tennessee |
|
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|