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Research Article
Open Access

Changes in the Policing of Civil Disorders Since the Kerner Report: The Police Response to Ferguson, August 2014, and Some Implications for the Twenty-First Century

Patrick F. Gillham, Gary T. Marx
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences September 2018, 4 (6) 122-143; DOI: https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2018.4.6.06
Patrick F. Gillham
aAssistant professor of sociology at Western Washington University
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Gary T. Marx
bProfessor emeritus at MIT
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Abstract

The Kerner Commission identified factors contributing to police ineffectiveness during the 1960s civil disorders. Since release of the Kerner report, the frequency and intensity of civil disorders has declined and the policing of disorders has changed. Using the report recommendations as a framework, we analyze changes in police disorder management during the 2014 events in Ferguson as these involve operational planning and equipment. Data for the Ferguson case are constructed from media reports, police and activist accounts, after action reports, and field observations. We link changes seen in Ferguson to larger institutional changes in law enforcement over the last fifty years. We conclude with discussions on what did and did not work in the policing of Ferguson and highlight implications for policing of protest and disorder in the twenty-first century.

  • Kerner Commission
  • National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders
  • democratic policing
  • protest
  • riots
  • Ferguson
  • © 2018 Russell Sage Foundation. Gillham, Patrick F., and Gary T. Marx. 2018. “Changes in the Policing of Civil Disorders Since the Kerner Report: The Police Response to Ferguson, August 2014, and Some Implications for the Twenty-First Century.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 4(6): 122–43. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2018.4.6.06. The authors thank Blake Gardner and Hugh Jones for field assistance in Ferguson. In addition, they thank participants in the RSF Conference on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Kerner Commission Report and anonymous reviewers at RSF for their insightful comments on this manuscript. Direct correspondence to: Patrick F. Gillham at pat.gillham{at}wwu.edu, Department of Sociology, 516 High St., MS-9081, Bellingham, WA 98225; and Gary T. Marx at gtmarx{at}mit.edu, http://www.garymarx.net.

Open Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences: 4 (6)
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
Vol. 4, Issue 6
1 Sep 2018
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Changes in the Policing of Civil Disorders Since the Kerner Report: The Police Response to Ferguson, August 2014, and Some Implications for the Twenty-First Century
Patrick F. Gillham, Gary T. Marx
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Sep 2018, 4 (6) 122-143; DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2018.4.6.06

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Changes in the Policing of Civil Disorders Since the Kerner Report: The Police Response to Ferguson, August 2014, and Some Implications for the Twenty-First Century
Patrick F. Gillham, Gary T. Marx
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Sep 2018, 4 (6) 122-143; DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2018.4.6.06
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  • Article
    • Abstract
    • THE ABEYANCE OF LARGE-SCALE CIVIL DISORDERS
    • VARYING POLICE RESPONSES TO PROTEST AND DISORDERS
    • KERNER FINDINGS
    • TRANSFORMATION IN THE POLICING OF DISORDER
    • HOW MANY CHEERS? SOME IMPACTS IN FERGUSON AND BEYOND
    • APPENDIX: WORKING FOR THE KERNER COMMISSION AND RELATED REFLECTIONS
    • FOOTNOTES
    • REFERENCES
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Keywords

  • Kerner Commission
  • National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders
  • democratic policing
  • protest
  • riots
  • Ferguson

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