Blue Power - by Stuart Schrader (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A history of police unions that reveals how American law enforcement built a political movement that made cops untouchable

In America today, police enjoy unmatched power. On the streets, officers employ violence at their own discretion. Behind closed doors, they are even more powerful. In city halls, police strong-arm local leaders and nullify attempts at public oversight. And in state legislatures and Washington, DC, police lobbyists and union leaders zealously uphold a bipartisan consensus against even mild reform. Yet as recently as fifty years ago, police still served at the pleasure of democratically elected politicians, not the other way around. In Blue Power, Stuart Schrader narrates the rise of a bottom-up movement of rank-and-file officers who lifted policing above the law.

Organizers launched their campaign in the 1960s, courting a public backlash to urban uprisings and civil rights. City by city, county by county, they formed unions and other organizations and won control over working conditions, impunity from oversight, and insulation from lean budgets. By the 2000s, this movement had triumphed nationally, shoring up the power of the police to overrule the public interest in the name of law and order. Through deep archival detective work, Blue Power reveals how police forced American democracy to back the blue.

Review Quotes

"Every thin blue line flag should come with a copy of this book. For half a century police have worked the beat that matters most to them--not the anti-crime beat but the pro-police beat, where they have lobbied and campaigned, rioted and lied, to secure their funding, build their ranks, and insulate themselves from every tedious intrusion of oversight and democratic process. By exploiting the bipartisan law-and-order consensus, police have put themselves beyond the reach of even the most powerful elites. Politicians flog and ridicule chants to 'defund the police, ' but this book helps us to hear those chants anew as an essential first stand--no fascism, no fascism, no fascism."--Naomi Murakawa, author of The First Civil Right

"In Blue Power, Stuart Schrader tells the story of how local, state, and federal governance in the United States was diverted to the purpose of protecting and serving the police rather than the people. This is an urgent book--deeply researched and boldly argued."
--Walter Johnson, author of The Broken Heart of America

"Blue Power is a tour de force. Beautifully researched and written, this book shows how police officers transformed whining about respect into wielding political clout. Schrader tells a big, lively, harrowing story. And as the best big stories always do, the book doesn't exhaust what can and should be known. Rather, it offers readers and strategists tools to make sense of the forces of organized violence on the make. Read it now."--Ruth Wilson Gilmore, author of Abolition Geography

"Stuart Schrader's sweeping history of the political mobilization of the police makes clear just how historically distinctive the role of the police in our society is today. Blue Power chronicles the rise of the police as a political force, and the lobbying strategies, rhetorical campaigns, and legal gambits police unions and associations have deployed to protect the power and autonomy of their members. This has indelibly shaped not only American cities and criminal justice policies, but our society and politics as a whole. The book is a remarkable achievement."--Kim Phillips-Fein, author of Fear City

About the Author

Stuart Schrader is associate professor of history at Johns Hopkins University, where he is the founding director of the Chloe Center for the Critical Study of Racism, Immigration, and Colonialism. He is also the author of Badges Without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed American Policing. He lives in Brooklyn.