Gendering Pacification: Policing Women at Anti-fracking Protests

Abstract

This article seeks to consider the policing of anti-fracking protests at Barton Moss, Salford, from November 2013 to April 2014. We argue that women at Barton Moss were considered by the police to be transgressing the socio-geographical boundaries that establish the dominant cultural and social order, and were thus responded to as disruptive and disorderly subjects. The article draws upon recent work on pacification, which views police power as having both destructive and productive dimensions, to consider the impact of police violence on women involved in protest. We seek to explore the ways in which this violence impacts not only on those involved in protest but also those on the peripheries. The article suggests that the threat and use of sexual violence by police towards women aims to enforce compliance within the protest movement and to send a message, specifically to those on the fringes of the movement, that protest is illegitimate and inherently dangerous. As such, sexual violence forms part of the social production and construction of gender and is instrumental in the making and remaking of subjectivities. The case study suggests that police brutality towards women at Barton Moss, therefore, operated as a disciplinary function to regulate acceptable forms of protest and acceptable forms of femininity.

Fear and Violence as Organizational Strategies: The Possibility of a Derridean Lens to Analyze Extra-judicial Police Violence

“…While earlier literature on police violence has focused on the relationship between Hindu nationalism and police violence, the emphasis has been on Hindu nationalism providing a culture of impunity to police personnel (Jagannathan and Rai 2015 , 2017 ; Shroff 2020 ; Simpson 2006 ). This is in line with broader literature on a culture of permissiveness enabling police violence (Monk et al 2019 ; Perry et al 2019 ). Ethical issues including police violence are tolerated by administrative actors so long as an explicit breach of law with a potential for public scandal does not occur (Gonzalez and Perez-Floriano 2015 ; King and Land 2018 ).…”

“…In the act of killing alleged Muslim terrorists, the suspected terrorist become disposable figures at the hands of the sovereign authority of the police (Duschinski 2010 ; Peteet 1996 ; Prasad 2014b ). The Indian literature on police violence is in line with the broader literature which suggests that police engage in an insensitive manner towards ethnic minorities and women due to the institutionalization of implicit forms of racism, and informal socialization of police personnel where racial and gendered prejudices are reinforced (Monk et al 2019 ; Perry et al 2019 ; Waddington 1999 ). It is also in line with the broader literature on organizational violence which suggests that organizational actors engage in violence due to a climate of ideologization that prevails in society (Bergin and Westwood 2003 ; Malesevic 2017 ).…”

“…We also agree with the broader literature on organizational violence which suggests that violence results from the privileging of ideology over processes of everyday life (Bergin and Westwood 2003 ; Malesevic 2017 ). While we agree that socialization nurtures religious, racial and gendered prejudices among police personnel (Monk et al 2019 ; Perry et al 2019 ; Waddington 1999 ), we are more cautious about this line of theorization as it can potentially naturalize police violence. This line of theorization risks the danger of presenting police personnel as innocent actors who have been contaminated by processes of socialization.…”

“…First, they have located the linkages between majoritarian religious nationalism and police violence by outlining the politics of fear that police violence engenders (Jagannathan and Rai 2015 , 2017 ; Perry et al 2019 ; Prasad 2014a ). The focus of this perspective has also been on processes of socialization that cement religious, racial and gendered prejudices among the police (Monk et al 2019 ; Perry et al 2019 ; Waddington 1999 ). Second , they have studied police violence as being located in cultures of impunity where police personnel know that they will not suffer adverse consequences for breaching the law (Duschinski 2010 ; Jagannathan and Rai 2015 , 2017 ).…”

“…Third, they have argued that cultures of intimidation are a part of police identity and that police violence is a result of misrecognition and the limits of sensemaking and framing (Cornelissen et al 2014 ; Gonzalez and Perez-Floriano 2015 ; Courpasson and Monties 2017 ). Fourth , they have argued that police violence is ingrained in the functioning of the State and its tension with citizens, particularly minorities (Jagannathan and Rai 2017 ; Karpiak and Garriott 2018 ; Monk et al 2019 ). This tension of the State with citizens is manifested in the global politics of fear directed against Muslims (Afshar 2013 ; Althiede 2003 , 2006 ; Gore 2004 ).…”