Volume 16, Issue 2, 2013
Critical Refusals, Part 2
Toorjo Ghose
Pages 559-574
Democracy by Day, Police State by Night
What the Eviction of Occupy Philadelphia Revealed about Policing in the United States
Examining the eviction of Occupy Philadelphia from city hall on November 30, 2011, this paper analyzes police tactics to address public protests in the United States. The results highlight three aspects of the police strategy deployed during the eviction: (1) a preconceived plan to manage protests, (2) the use of militarized tactics to implement this management plan, and (3) the imposition of a state of dissociative meditation triggered by the incarceration that followed the eviction. The strategy of management, militarization, and meditation (or the 3M strategy) demonstrates the Marcusean notion of repressive tolerance and characterizes the police response to public dissent.