Authoritarian Police In Democracy: Contested Security In Latin America

375 Pages·2021·2.413 MB·English

by  Yanilda María González

AuthoritarianPoliceinDemocracy
Incountriesaroundtheworld,fromtheUnitedStatestothePhilippines
to Chile, police forces are at the center of social unrest and debates
aboutdemocracyandruleoflaw.Thisbookexaminesthepersistenceof
authoritarianpolicinginLatinAmericatoexplainwhypoliceviolence
andmalfeasanceremainpervasivedecadesafterdemocratization.Italso
examines the conditions under which reform can occur. Drawing on
rich comparative analysis and evidence from Brazil, Argentina, and
Colombia,thebookopensupthe“blackbox”ofpolicebureaucracies
toshowhowpoliceforcesexertpowerandcultivaterelationshipswith
politicians,aswellashowsocialinequalityimpedeschange.González
showsthatauthoritarianpolicingpersistsnotinspiteofdemocracybut
in part because of democratic processes and public demand. When
societal preferences over the distribution of security and coercion are
fragmented along existing social cleavages, politicians possess few
incentivestoenactreform.
Yanilda María González is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at
Harvard Kennedy School. She holds a PhD in Politics and Social
PolicyfromPrincetonUniversityandwasapostdoctoralfellowatthe
Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard
KennedySchool.
CambridgeStudiesinComparativePolitics
GeneralEditors
KathleenThelen MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology
AssociateEditors
CatherineBoone LondonSchoolofEconomics
ThadDunning UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley
AnnaGrzymala-Busse StanfordUniversity
TorbenIversen HarvardUniversity
StathisKalyvas UniversityofOxford
MargaretLevi StanfordUniversity
MelanieManion DukeUniversity
HelenMilner PrincetonUniversity
FrancesRosenbluth YaleUniversity
SusanStokes YaleUniversity
TariqThachil UniversityofPennsylvania
ErikWibbels DukeUniversity
SeriesFounder
PeterLange DukeUniversity
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ContinuedaftertheIndex
Authoritarian Police in Democracy
Contested Security in Latin America
YANILDA MARÍA GONZÁLEZ
HarvardKennedySchool
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108830393
doi:10.1017/9781108907330
©YanildaMaríaGonzález2021
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noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
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Firstpublished2021
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
names:González,YanildaMariá,author.
title:AuthoritarianPoliceinDemocracy:contestedsecurityinLatinAmerica/
YanildaMariáGonzález.
description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,ny:CambridgeUniversity
Press,2021.|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
identifiers:lccn2020024237(print)|lccn2020024238(ebook)|isbn
9781108830393(hardback)|isbn9781108907330(ebook)
subjects:lcsh:Police–LatinAmerica.|Policemisconduct–LatinAmerica.|
Democracy–LatinAmerica.|Violentcrime–LatinAmerica.|Internalsecurity–Latin
America.|LatinAmerica–Politicsandgovernment.
classification:lcchv8160.5.a2G662021(print)|lcchv8160.5.a2(ebook)|
ddc363.2098–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020024237
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020024238
isbn978-1-108-83039-3Hardback
isbn978-1-108-82074-5Paperback
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Contents
ListofFigures pagevi
ListofTables vii
Acknowledgments ix
1 Police:AuthoritarianEnclavesinDemocraticStates 1
2 OrdinaryDemocraticPoliticsandtheChallengeofPolice
Reform 27
part i persistence
3 ThePersistenceof“thePolicethatKills”:Authoritarian
CoercioninSãoPauloState 75
4 TheEnduranceofthe“DamnedPolice”ofBuenosAires
Province 121
5 PolicinginHardTimes:DrugWar,InstitutionalDecay,
andthePersistenceofAuthoritarianCoercioninColombia 166
part ii reform
6 “NewPolice,”SameastheOldPolice:BarrierstoReform
inSãoPauloState 223
7 TheSocialandPoliticalDriversofReforminBuenos
AiresProvinceandColombia 254
8 Conclusion:InequalityandtheDissonanceofPolicing
andDemocracy 305
References 328
Index 344
v
Figures
1.1 Comparisonofthepercentageofrespondentsexpressing
theopinionthathighcrimeandhighunemploymentwould
justify“amilitarytakeoveroverthestate” page6
2.1 Determinantsofpoliticians’choicesbetweenpolice
continuityandreform 38
2.2 Hypothesizedshiftinsocietalpreferencesoverpolicing
underfragmentationandconvergence 43
3.1 HomicideratesinSãoPauloState(1981–2010) 85
3.2 CivilianskilledbyMilitaryPoliceandCivilPoliceinSão
PauloState(1981–2018) 88
3.3 Citizens’assessmentofpoliceviolenceinSãoPaulo
(1995–2013) 117
4.1 OpinionofthepoliceofBuenosAiresProvincebyeducation
level(1993) 162
II.A Causalsequenceimplicitinthebook’stheoretical
framework 216
II.B SequenceofeventsinBuenosAiresProvince 218
II.C SequenceofeventsintheColombiancase 218
6.1 ShiftsinsocietalopinionsofpoliceviolenceinSão
Paulo 245
7.1 LegislativeandgubernatorialelectionsresultsinBuenos
AiresProvince(1983–1999) 260
8.1 Dimensionsofdemocracyandthehypothesizedeffect
ofinequality 311
8.2 Voteintentionin2018presidentialrunoff 326
vi
Tables
1.1 Acontinuumofcoercion page15
2.1 IndexofDemocraticPoliceReforms(DPR) 35
2.2 Caseselection:most-similarandmost-differentdesigns 58
2.3 Overviewofcasesandvariation 59
3.1 ResultsofcomplaintsreceivedbytheOfficeofthePolice
Ombudsman(1998–2013) 95
3.2 PolicinginformationrequestsbySãoPauloStateLegislative
Assembly(2009–2019) 98
4.1 Pre-reformpolicekillingsandfatalitiesinBuenosAires
Province(conurbano) 136
4.2 LegislativeactiononpolicinginBuenosAiresProvince
Senate(1995–1996) 150
4.3 OpinionofthepoliceofBuenosAiresProvince(1991–1993) 160
4.4 TrustinthepoliceofBuenosAiresProvince(1994–1997) 161
5.1 Inspectorgeneral’sfinaldeterminationinhumanrights
violationsbyNationalPolice(1990–1991) 186
5.2 Humanrightscomplaintsagainstpoliceandmilitary,
byvictim’soccupation 203
5.3 LevelsoftrustintheColombianNationalPoliceand
military 208
6.1 Overviewofcasesaccordingtocausalsequence 226
6.2 ResultsofgubernatorialelectionsinSãoPauloState
(1982–1994) 240
vii
viii ListofTables
6.3 ResultsoflegislativeelectionsinSãoPauloState
(1982–1994) 241
7.1 Comparativesequentialanalysisofselectedpoliceviolence
cases 262
7.2 Colombianpoliticalpartystrength(1980s–1994) 279
Acknowledgments
Manyofuswhostudythepolicehavelikelycomeacrossaphrasewritten
byveteranpolicescholarDavidBayley:“Ascholarwhostudiesthepolice
must be willing to do extensive fieldwork in unprepossessing
surroundings, to brave bureaucratic intransigence, and to become
politically suspect and socially déclassé.” Over the course of two-and
-a-half years of field research for this project, I can attest to the
particular challenges of studying the police, from the discomfort of
officers candidly recounting their own abuses and of ordinary citizens
gleefullycelebratingtortureandpolicekillingstoconcernsforone’sown
safety. But this work has also shed light on the urgency of studying the
police in order to understand how police constitute the palpable gap
betweenformaldemocraticrightsandlivedexperience.
Thetensionsbetweenpolicinganddemocracyhavelongbeenevidentto
me. As an immigrant child growing up in New York City during the
1990s, my sisters and I watched the local news religiously (we didn’t
have cable), which seemed to be equally inundated with, on the one
hand, a racialized discourse of panic over out-of-control crime and, on
theother,storiesofsimilarlyracializedpoliceviolence,fromtheCentral
Park Five to Abner Louima, Nicholas Heyward Jr, and Amadou Diallo.
The9/11attacksandtheiraftermathweresimilarlyinstructive.Attheage
of nineteen I began working at the New York Civil Liberties Union on
a grassroots campaign focused on public education and mobilization
around the threat of post-9/11 anti-terrorism policies to civil rights and
civilliberties.ThroughthisworkIencounteredmanyNewYorkerswho
defended racial and religious profiling, surveillance, and detentions
without due process, insisting that the threat of terrorism necessitated
ix