Policing the Union’s Black

‘County lines’: racism, safeguarding and statecraft in Britain

“…To not assume so would mean to fall foul of the fallacy of technocratic rule; as Fatsis has recently reminded us, 'mainstream thinking within criminology and legal scholarship more broadly treats crime as a matter of "technocratic evaluation" rather than an issue of political contestation'. 92 Yet, such depoliticising portrayals not only expose contemporary criminology's misplaced belief in the possibility of neutral research and application but also reduce our public understanding of a politics of crime to 'a mere "contest" between tactics and technique, thereby misleading us into thinking about crime and politics as an odd couple rather than as intimate bedfellows'. 93 Indeed, as a long line of critical criminologists, from Stuart Hall to Paul Gilroy to contemporary work in decolonial scholarship has shown, 94 crime itself is a political resource mobilised by the state in its hegemonic pursuit of moral and social order.…”

“…92 Yet, such depoliticising portrayals not only expose contemporary criminology's misplaced belief in the possibility of neutral research and application but also reduce our public understanding of a politics of crime to 'a mere "contest" between tactics and technique, thereby misleading us into thinking about crime and politics as an odd couple rather than as intimate bedfellows'. 93 Indeed, as a long line of critical criminologists, from Stuart Hall to Paul Gilroy to contemporary work in decolonial scholarship has shown, 94 crime itself is a political resource mobilised by the state in its hegemonic pursuit of moral and social order. This, in turn, leads us to our final point: what the tale of 'county lines' tells us about the workings of state power in contemporary Britain.…”

Copping the blame: the role of YouTube videos in the criminalisation of UK drill music

“…Such convergence of divergent interests by ‘drillers’, ‘YouTubers’ and ‘coppers’ in the same digital space doesn't just highlight the difficulty of disconnecting online life from its offline effects. It also demonstrates how digital platforms can be turned into policing and prosecutorial tools – in ways that complicate our understanding of rap music as inherently ‘criminal’ (Fatsis 2019a, b, 2021b), YouTube broadcasting as ‘innocent’ (Burgess and Green 2018) and policing as ‘neutral’ (Fatsis 2021a; Fatsis and Lamb 2021).…”

“…Such asymmetry of blame naturally creates disparities in law enforcement that are not only normalised or legitimised but legalised too – when digital platforms become technologies of policing and criminal justice reveals itself as a system of racial(ised) discrimination (Williams 2014; Owusu-Bempah 2017; Williams and Clarke 2018; Fatsis 2021a; Fatsis and Lamb 2021, especially pp. 23–34 and 79–112).…”

“…Moral double-standards aside, the selective criminalisation of Black cultural expression serves as a reminder of stereotypical associations between ‘blackness’ and ‘criminality’ (Gilroy 1987; Young Review 2014; Lammy Review 2017; Owusu-Bempah 2017; Williams and Clarke 2018; Phillips et al . 2020; Fatsis 2021a, b; Paul 2021) – but also alerts us to how the police, prosecutors and judges translate drill music videos into incriminating evidence in ways that put an entire music genre on trial (Fischoff 1999; Fried 1999; Dennis 2007; Kubrin and Nielson 2014; Dunbar and Kubrin 2018; Lerner and Kubrin 2021).…”