How Structural Power and Social Inequalities Are Reinforced by Police

Abstract

The author illustrates how police reinforce structural power and social inequalities through specific cases from the Minneapolis police department and other police-civilian encounters that have been widely reported in social and mainstream media throughout the past decade (2012-2022). Several policing practices including the use of no-knock search warrants, inappropriate uses of force (e.g., a ‘chokehold' that obstructs a suspect's breathing), and asset forfeiture are often used disproportionately against minority groups. Law enforcement officers are often protected from legal prosecution for civil rights violations under qualified immunity. Qualified immunity coupled with political and media constructions of rising crime and the need to protect police officers from potentially dangerous individuals serve to reinforce existing police-civilian outcomes. These “frames of understanding” result in continued racial discrimination in policing outcomes.