The containment of Occupy: militarized police forces and social control in America

Abstract

The spread of the Occupy movement across the globe has reinvigorated the political, expanding the horizon of possibility after over thirty years of closure imposed by neoliberalism. While a literature which analyzes the interlinking nature of these social movements across the world is emerging, the response to them by powerful public and private actors is less examined. This paper focuses upon the attempt by domestic authorities in the United States to curtail these struggles. Applying the work of Nicos Poulantzas on authoritarian statism it examines how private and public actors have worked together to contain the recent surge of protest. Specific attention is paid to the harsh response of police forces to the Occupy protests, which is analyzed in the context of the growing militarization of American police that has been underway since the declaration of the War on Drugs in 1971.

Protest

“…Next, Matthew Morgan (2014) explores the militarisation of policing in relation to the containment of political protest in the United States. Morgan asks some important questions about the relationship of the expansion of state power and the militarisation of law and order that was an integral structural transformation demanded by the War on Drugs.…”

The ‘problem’ of abuse in Ontario’s Social Inclusion Act: A critical exploration

“…Zero tolerance policies are part of a penalistic, disciplinary turn in social policy, which has been most manifest and extensive in the United States (see Becket and Western, 2001; Wacquant, 2009). Penalistic disciplinary policies are most commonly identified as informing policies addressing protest (Morgan, 2014), immigration and refugee claimants (Chan and Chunn, 2014), and poverty (Gaetz, 2013). Other areas of social policy have also been influenced by the turn towards penalistic discipline, such as in education (Daniel and Bondy, 2008) and nursing (RNAO, 2008).…”