Sunday, February 2, 2025
A Critical Application to the Policing of Anti-
globalization Protest
Policing
- Model used to explain why some potentially disorderly incidents ( ashpoints) fail to
ignited, while other, ostensibly similar, incidents can trigger o an explosive social
reaction
An overview of the Flashpoints model
- Origins rooted in explanations of riotous behaviour before incident, on account of the
media, during the England & Wales riots
- Model contextualizes and explains why the incident occurred, not just cause
- 6 integrated levels of model:
A. Structural
- Material inequalities, inferior life chances & patterns of political impotence that
underpin collective grievances in society
- Exclusions from social order through legislations that sti e dissent and make
individuals feel excluded
B. Political/ Ideological
- How does the state and its actors react to stated demands and activities of
protesting groups
- Police treat groups de ned as problematic or marginal to the political mainstream
harshly
C. Cultural
- Cultures / subcultures lend substance to their members' de nition of themselves and
others
1
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, - Inform attitudes to potential use of violence and recipes of action relevant to
particular situations
D. Contextual
- Dynamic communication processes occurring in the build-up to an event that make it
more or less conducive to disorder.
E. Situational
- Spatial or social determinants of order or disorder pertaining to the actual setting of
the relevant social interaction
F. Interactional
- Concerned with the quality of social interaction between police and protesters
Developing the ashpoints model
- Criticism that the term " ashpoint" cannot be empirically tested or analyzed because
the ashpoint model cannot correctly isolate the precipitating incident that caused
the riot
- Does not make a di erence what was the nal straw that led to the riot and the form
it which it is presented, the signi cance is in the capacity to crystallize enduring
sensations of injustice
- Riots often characterized by lulls (expectant interval or period of suspended action)
between the precipitant event and the possible outbreak of rioting
- Della Porter: possible variables that help to determine/ in uence outbreaks of
disorder that operate on factors such as the con guration of political power w/in the
speci c state, the institutional characteristics of the police, as well as their
occupational culture, and public opinion.
- Porter argues that police perception of external reality shapes the concrete policing
on the ground and is the main intervening variable between structure and action
- Police knowledge formed based on what they know, perceive and have experiences
in relation to speci c protest groups. It determines the tactics which are applied.
- "Police knowledge" the information, strategies, and assumptions law enforcement
uses to assess, predict, and respond to protests. Knowledge shaped by institutional
2
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A Critical Application to the Policing of Anti-
globalization Protest
Policing
- Model used to explain why some potentially disorderly incidents ( ashpoints) fail to
ignited, while other, ostensibly similar, incidents can trigger o an explosive social
reaction
An overview of the Flashpoints model
- Origins rooted in explanations of riotous behaviour before incident, on account of the
media, during the England & Wales riots
- Model contextualizes and explains why the incident occurred, not just cause
- 6 integrated levels of model:
A. Structural
- Material inequalities, inferior life chances & patterns of political impotence that
underpin collective grievances in society
- Exclusions from social order through legislations that sti e dissent and make
individuals feel excluded
B. Political/ Ideological
- How does the state and its actors react to stated demands and activities of
protesting groups
- Police treat groups de ned as problematic or marginal to the political mainstream
harshly
C. Cultural
- Cultures / subcultures lend substance to their members' de nition of themselves and
others
1
fi fl fi ff fl
, - Inform attitudes to potential use of violence and recipes of action relevant to
particular situations
D. Contextual
- Dynamic communication processes occurring in the build-up to an event that make it
more or less conducive to disorder.
E. Situational
- Spatial or social determinants of order or disorder pertaining to the actual setting of
the relevant social interaction
F. Interactional
- Concerned with the quality of social interaction between police and protesters
Developing the ashpoints model
- Criticism that the term " ashpoint" cannot be empirically tested or analyzed because
the ashpoint model cannot correctly isolate the precipitating incident that caused
the riot
- Does not make a di erence what was the nal straw that led to the riot and the form
it which it is presented, the signi cance is in the capacity to crystallize enduring
sensations of injustice
- Riots often characterized by lulls (expectant interval or period of suspended action)
between the precipitant event and the possible outbreak of rioting
- Della Porter: possible variables that help to determine/ in uence outbreaks of
disorder that operate on factors such as the con guration of political power w/in the
speci c state, the institutional characteristics of the police, as well as their
occupational culture, and public opinion.
- Porter argues that police perception of external reality shapes the concrete policing
on the ground and is the main intervening variable between structure and action
- Police knowledge formed based on what they know, perceive and have experiences
in relation to speci c protest groups. It determines the tactics which are applied.
- "Police knowledge" the information, strategies, and assumptions law enforcement
uses to assess, predict, and respond to protests. Knowledge shaped by institutional
2
fl fi fl fiff fl fi fi fi fl
