Popular uprisings in Turkey: Police culpability and constraints on dialogue-oriented policing in Gezi Park and beyond

Abstract

The policing of riots and uprisings poses severe challenges to the police. Yet the police are often culpable in the disturbances touched off by a precipitating incident of police violence or a crackdown on a peaceful protest. The Gezi Park uprisings in Turkey also broke out shortly after excessive force by the Istanbul police against a handful of peaceful activists in Taksim Square. In the aftermath of the mobilizations, however, a drift towards a ‘zero-tolerance’ approach has prevailed over protest control strategies. Drawing on field notes, interviews with activists, excerpts from the news media, protest event analysis and secondary literature, we argue that the chances of dialogue-oriented policing are hampered by two major predicaments in Turkey. The first pertains to the negative biases in police perceptions about protests and protesters that serve to justify and perpetuate a conflict-driven understanding of policing. The second is rooted in the institutional and policy realm and stems from the prevalence of a law-and-order approach to crowd control and public order.