Policing the Anticommunity: Race, Deterritorialization, and Labor Market Reorganization in South Los Angeles

Recent decades have seen the rise of both community partnerships and the carceral state. Community policing in Los Angeles arose after the 1992 uprisings and was built on two conceptual building blocks—the territorial imperative and community partnership—which remain central more than 20 years later...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Law & society review 2015-12, Vol.49 (4), p.813-845
Main Author: Roussell, Aaron
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acquittals & mistrials
Community policing
Demographic change
Demography
Evacuations & rescues
Governance
Imprisonment
Informal economy
Labor market
Law enforcement
Neighborhoods
Participant observation
Partnerships
Police
Political economy
Race
Racism
Rebellions
Reorganization
Residents
Rhetoric
Soja, Edward W
Trends
Wages & salaries
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Summary:Recent decades have seen the rise of both community partnerships and the carceral state. Community policing in Los Angeles arose after the 1992 uprisings and was built on two conceptual building blocks—the territorial imperative and community partnership—which remain central more than 20 years later. At the same time, LA has undergone a significant black-to-Latino demographic shift linked with its restructured economy. This article discusses these changes using archival analysis and 5 years of participant observation in one South LA precinct. Police help to reshape the demography of South LA in ways conducive to post-Fordist economic shifts. The "community" concept appropriated by urban governance initiatives is composed against an unwanted "anticommunity," which serves to heighten territorial control over black and Latino residents. Rather than encourage community cogovernance over the institution of policing, community rhetoric facilitates racial preference in neighborhood transition under the auspices of an increasingly bifurcated labor market.
ISSN:0023-9216
1540-5893
DOI:10.1111/lasr.12168