Cooperation from Police can End Violence at Protests
Hi readers! I’m excited to share with you that today, I have an op-ed out in the New York Daily News, co-authored with the inimitable David White and Nancy Rodríguez.
Protests related to the Israel-Palestine conflict have erupted on campuses across the United States, often resulting in police intervention. In our op-ed, we explain how history, data, and mathematics reveal which police responses inflame violence and which can maintain peace. Our goal in writing this piece was to close the gap between what experts know about managing protests and what decision makers and some members of the public believe.
The piece is paywalled but here is the start of it. Enjoy and please consider sharing. The more people who understand what a productive police response looks like, the more likely we are to have peace.
Protests related to the Israel-Palestine conflict have erupted on campuses across the United States, often resulting in police intervention. At Dartmouth College, police tackled a professor to the ground. At UCLA, officers fired rubber bullets into crowds. And at Columbia, amidst historical NYPD aggression towards protesters, police discharged a gun in a campus building. These acts of violence are a chilling reminder: fifty-four years ago, at Kent State University, the Ohio National Guard shot and killed four student protesters and injured nine others. Today’s incidents highlight the urgent need to keep protests peaceful and avoid past mistakes. Science and history can show us how.
Facing sustained large-scale protests, police frequently employ an “escalated force” approach—the use of progressively more aggressive tactics—believing that arrests, rubber bullets, and tear gas will disperse crowds and reduce future protests. However, our research — grounded in decades of experience applying mathematics to social systems — contradicts this belief. Traditional tactics of escalated force fail to suppress protests and often intensify them, leading to more violence and injuries.
Our study consisted of two distinct parts: First, we statistically analyzed 23,869 protest events across the US in 2020 and early 2021, focusing on the frequency, scale, police interventions, and injuries. This analysis revealed that the use of forceful tactics is associated with more protests and more violence soon thereafter. For example, each use of rubber bullets was associated with an average of 19 more protests the next day nationwide and a statistically significant increase in injuries and deaths. Second, we developed mathematical models based on principles of social psychology and procedural justice. These models simulate “what-if” scenarios to explore the potential outcomes of different police responses to protests. The results consistently showed that escalated force exacerbates tensions, leading to an escalation in unrest.
What’s a better alternative? Negotiated management — which emphasizes communication and cooperation between law enforcement and protesters — is more effective for controlling protests and preventing violence. Negotiated management involves establishing designated spaces for safe dialogue with protest leaders, collaboratively choosing protest routes or areas to minimize disruption, and outlining expectations — like noise levels — beforehand. Trained officers act as liaisons to bridge communication gaps, and pre-arranged “cooling-off” periods help ease tensions without loss of face.
Article continues behind New York Daily News Paywall at:
https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/05/16/cooperation-can-end-violent-protests
