Neighborhood Watch: Policing White Spaces in America

Private citizens, including White Americans, are taking matters into their own hands to exclude Black Americans from schools, neighborhoods, and positions of power, often resulting in harassment, arrest, injury, or death. This is promoted and encouraged by legislatures, the police system, and the Supreme Court. Neighborhood Watch offers preliminary recommendations for reform to combat these realities, such as changes to the maximum policing state, increased accountability for civilians who abuse emergency response systems, and proposals to demilitarize the color line.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 250 pages
Publication date: 09 June 2022
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Since the nation's colonial beginnings, racism has plagued the American justice system. However, private White Americans are taking matters into their own hands, with concerted efforts to exclude Black Americans from schools, neighborhoods, and positions of power. This includes racist 911 calls, hoaxes, grassroots voter suppression, and vigilante self-defense. Neighborhood Watch examines the specific ways people police America's color line to protect White spaces. The book charts how these actions often result in harassment, arrest, injury, or death, yet typically go unchecked. Instead, they are promoted and encouraged by legislatures looking to expand racially discriminatory laws, a police system designed to respond with force to any frivolous report of Black mischief, and a Supreme Court that has abdicated its role in rejecting police abuse.

To combat these realities, Neighborhood Watch offers preliminary recommendations for reform, including changes to the maximum policing state, increased accountability for civilians who abuse emergency response systems, and proposals to demilitarize the color line. This is an important book that sheds light on the ongoing struggle against racism in America and provides a roadmap for reform.

ISBN-13: 9781108793506