The iron fist and the velvet glove : [electronic resource] an analysis of the U.S. police / [produced and published by the staff of the Center for Research on Criminal Justice].

Includes bibliographies.

I. Introduction -- II. Origins and development of the police. 1. The first police -- 2. Growth of police -- III. Professionalizing the police. 3. The police and the progressive movement -- 4. World War II to the 1960's -- 5. The Law Enforcement Assistance Administration -- 6. Police militancy -- IV. The iron fist. 7. The military-corporate model -- 8. Technology -- 9. SWAT -- 10. Political surveillance -- V. The velvet glove. 11. The pacification model -- 12. Women on patrol -- 13. Team policing -- VI. Expanding for business. 14. Rent-a-cop : the private security industry -- 15. Policing the empire -- VII. Conclusion. 16. Police in the 1970's -- 17. Summarizing experience -- 18. Implications for organizing -- VIII. Resources. 19. Bibliography -- 20. Research guide -- 21. Documents.

This book presents a concept of the role of police in society as basically repressive. The authors give a historical account of the rise of police from early slave patrols to the present to bolster their position that the police are a repressive force. Instances of police brutality and police control of demonstrators are examined. Technological advances and equipment to aid police departments are pointed to as examples in the police arsenal of repression. Police political surveillance is described, and private security police come under fire also for protecting corporate property and investments.