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33 American J. Crim. Just. 1 (2008)

handle is hein.journals/acnjrlocm33 and id is 1 raw text is: Am J Crim Just (2008) 33:1-18 DOI 10.1007/s12103-008-9032-4 Policing Protest Events: The Great Strike of 1877 and WTO Protests of 1999 Matthew DeMichele Received: 6 February 2008 /Accepted: 19 February 2008 / Published online: 29 March 2008 © Southern Criminal Justice Association 2008 Abstract The notion of the police as protecting dominant economic interests is explored by presenting two case studies of direct action social movements occurring nearly 100 years apart. Recent protests in response to a non-state international organization (the World Trade Organization) are compared with a major labor strike of the late 19th century (the Great Strike of 1877). Historical data supports the contention that, despite many changes to contemporary policing strategies, the police are routinely used to protect existing economic structures. These narratives demonstrate how shifts in economic institutions shape formal social control practices. Comparing these events reveals how new technologies have allowed for certain adaptations and innovations for contemporary protesting and protest breaking activities. It is argued that the police institution should not be understood as only charged with responding reactively to criminal violations, but rather as serving more important social functions such as protecting dominant economic structures. Keywords Comparative-historical. Civil disobedience . Police functions. Protest/strike breaking Introduction The criminal justice system is embedded within social structures. Formal social control practices are a reflection of, and maintain powerful relations in a society. Prison literature is filled with accounts demonstrating connections between socio- economic contexts and penal practices (Feeley and Simon 1992, 1994; Foucault 1975; Garland 1990; Rusche and Krichheimer 2003; Spierenburg 1984), but there is comparatively little written about similar structural relationships with the police. This article uses a historical-comparative approach (Mahoney 2004) to demonstrate M. DeMichele (E) Department of Sociology, The University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA e-mail: mdemichele@csg.org eSpringer