The Politics of Safety: The Black Struggle for Police Accountability in La Guardia's New York

Officials in cities like New York, Chicago, and Baltimore criminalized uprisings to undermine complaints of police violence, particularly during the depression and wartime. This strategy led to increased support for police patrols in Black neighborhoods, but Blacks also received more punishment. Black activism for safety was a struggle against police brutality and crime, and the police withholding protection was a form of police violence and an abridgement of civil rights. Shannon King's book highlights how Black neighborhoods became occupied territories in La Guardia's New York.

Format: Hardback
Length: 376 pages
Publication date: 16 January 2024
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press

For much of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, public officials in cities like New York, Chicago, and Baltimore have criminalized uprisings, portraying Black thugs as the culprits responsible for rock throwing at police and looting private property. Liberal mayors like Fiorello H. La Guardia have been masterful practitioners of this strategy, particularly during the depression and wartime periods when youth crime surged. White New Yorkers' anxieties about crime, the influx of Black people into white neighborhoods, and the prevalence of Black hoodlums in the white media fueled their support for expanding police patrols, particularly in Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant. While Blacks also called for police protection and equitable municipal resources, they often faced harsher punishment. This set the stage for the Harlem uprising of 1943.

Shannon King's book delves into the historical context of Black activism for safety, revealing how the police's withholding of protection amounted to a form of police violence and a violation of their civil rights. By centering the narrative on Black activism against harm, King sheds light on how Black neighborhoods became occupied territories under La Guardia's rule in New York. This book offers a fresh perspective on the Black freedom struggle, challenging the conventional narratives of riots and highlighting the importance of Black communities' fight for safety and justice.

Weight: 272g
Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781469676166