This Subject Speaks to many Areas

Each are highly relevant for both public and academic concerns

The Immediate Situation Preceding the Homicides of

Trayvon Martin (February 26, 2012)

The Immediate Situation Preceding the Homicides of

Eric Garner (July 17, 2014)

The Immediate Situation Preceding the Homicides of

Michael Brown (August 9, 2014)

The Immediate Situation Preceding the Homicides of

Tamir Rice (November 22, 2014)

The Immediate Situation Preceding the Homicides of

Tony Robinson (March 6, 2015)

The Immediate Situation Preceding the Homicides of

Among many, many others

Racial Profiling and Differential Treatment Under Law

POLICE Militarization

Image courtesy of Jamelle Bouie

American Gun Culture and Laws

Image courtesy of M Glasgow

or, Why Police DOn't Go to Jail for Homicide

Of 1,500 sampled police officers who killed while on-duty, only three were convicted of murder

Kobler. 1975. "Police Homicide in a Democracy," Journal of Social Issues 31:164, supra note 7

Instead, Let's Talk about the Resultant Movements

Social Movement Characteristics

Snow, Soule, and Kreisi (2004)

Collective or Joint Action

Goals for Change

Operating Outside Formal, Institutional Channels

A Degree of Organization or Basic Coordination

Temporal Continuity

Related Phenomena that Are not Movements

• Collective Behavior
  • Fads
  • Fashion
  • Panics
  • Crowds
• Interest Groups

Key Concepts

Mobilization

Resources

Politics
Discourse

What are Some Typical Questions Asked when Studying Movements?

"The Mobilization Question"

• Where does social mobilization occur?
• When does social mobilization occur?
• Who participates and who does not?

Smaller Subjects

• Tactics
• Collective identity
• Discourse usage
• Organization forms
• Policing protest

Tactics

Collective Identity

Image courtesy of The All-Nite Images

Collective Identity

Collective Identity

Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.

Discourse Usage

Image courtesy of Jamelle Bouie

Discourse Usage

Image courtesy of otto-yamamoto

Discourse Usage

Image courtesy of David Shankbone

"Million Hoodie March" (March 21, 2012)

Organizational Forms

• Black Lives Matter (founded March 2013)
  • Founders
    • Alicia Garza (National Domestic Workers Alliance, f. 2007)
    • Patrisse Cullors (Coalition to End Sheriff Violence)
    • Opal Tometi (Black Alliance for Just Immigration, f. 2006)
  • 23 Chapters, 700+ protest events
• Hands Up United (focus on transparency, digital access, f. 2014)
• Ferguson Action/Ferguson October
  • Organized by Hands Up United, the Organization for Black Struggle (f. 1980), Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, and others
• Radical organizational presence at Ferguson
  • New Black Panther Party
  • Oath Keepers

Policing Protest

Citizen protest has now become a normal part of the political process, its messages seen as a legitimate supplement to voting, petitioning, and lobbying efforts to influence government policy and practice. At the same time, the recurring behavioral repertoires of both protesters and police, and their interactions with one another, have become institutionalized and therefore routinized, predictable, and, perhaps as a result, of diminishing impact. 

Text

- McCarthy and McPhail (1998: 84), cited in Soule and Earl (2005:348)

Ferguson was, as we say, a "Deviant Case"

Ferguson was, as we say, a "Deviant Case"

Movement Outcomes

What actually happens as a result of social mobilization?

Common Myths about Social Movement Outcomes in the U.S.

• "Movements can fully succeed."
  • Only if their goals are very limited.
  • If so, the movement disbands.
  • "Outcomes" vs. "success"
• "If a movement does X, Y, and Z, they will achieve their goals."
  • It's not like ordering a pizza. There's a political process.
  • If an optimal recipe existed, everyone would use it, weakening its impact.
    • Occupy Wall Street used one, resulting in questionable gains.
• "Social change sometimes occurs rapidly."
  • The founders of the U.S. designed a slow and stable government.
• "Sympathetic political campaigners will deliver on movement promises."

Types of Outcomes

• Political
  • Politicians engaging with the movement
  • Legislation
    • Hearings
    • Voting and passage
• Cultural
  • Media coverage
  • Casual conversations
  • Attitudes and values
• Organizational
  • Effects on businesses
  • Higher education and public sector
• Within the Movement
  • Activist experience and skills
  • Abeyance
  • Tie formation and bridging

How are Positive Outcomes Usually Explained?

• Within the Movement
  • Number of protests, their size
  • Disruption and violence
  • Professional organizations
  • Diversity, varied tactics (insider and outsider)
• Within Politics
  • Political allies, sympathetic party as a supermajority
  • Divided elites, particularly during an election year
• Within the Organizational Milieu
  • Competition within the media
  • Connections movement organizations make with established organizations

How are Positive Outcomes Usually Explained?

Have the Movements on Behalf of the Victims of Police Violence Obtained DESIRABLE Outcomes?

Yes, Absolutely.

But So Much Hasn't Changed!

• No federal legislation passed!
• The police haven't faced adequate punishment!
• Many people, still defend the police responsible, even giving them millions of dollars!
• Racial profiling by the police will continue and black incarceration rates will likely remain high!

Some Perspective

Most Movements Pass without Anyone Noticing

Some Perspective

Most Movements Pass without Anyone Noticing

We usually base our expectations of movements relative to the ones we read about in the news or in history books.

Typically, those are the most successful and talented.

Some Perspective

Most Movements Pass without Anyone Noticing

Some Very Real Results

People Are Talking about The Issue, in a Big, Big Way

Sure, Sometimes It's Superficial

Sometimes It's Ill-Advised

But Some of these Voices Carry Significant Weight

But Some of these Voices Carry Significant Weight

"Anyone who thinks race does not skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention."

And It's Moved Beyond the U.S.

Okay, Talk is Cheap, What Else?

ALEC Backs Down

See PoliticsOutdoors

works to advance the fundamental principles of free-market enterprise, limited government, and federalism at the state level through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America's state legislators, members of the private sector and the general public

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) 

State-Level Policies

• Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act
• Voter identification
• 'Stand Your Ground' laws

Many corporate sponsors dropped off, following pressure from NAACP and Color of Change

Attorney General Holder's investigation on Ferguson PD

• No federal civil rights charges against Officer Darren Wilson, but...
• On police practices
  • An "implicit and explicit racial bias" in policing
  • Police violated Fourth Amendment rights of citizens
  • Critical of revenue generating policing model
• In the process of negotiating a settlement to change practices, potential lawsuit otherwise
• Would this report develop under different administrations?

See Washington Post summary.

Aftermath of Investigation

• Explicit
  • Police chief Thomas Jackson resigns
  • Sergeant William Mudd resigns
  • Captain Rick Henke resigns
  • City Court Clerk , Mary Ann Twitty, fired
• Implicit
  • Mayors and police chiefs know the report
  • Their practices may change in light of it

But what about Laws?

Potential Limitations on 1033 program Military Transfers to Local Police

Along with Developing Activists, The Campaigns have also Created a Rich Organizational Networks and that can be Deployed again in the Future

These Campaigns did not get Everything they wanted, or Deserved, but It would be Difficult to Attribute these changes to Anything other than Social Mobilization

Discussion