Book Review: Police Power and Race Riots: Urban Unrest in Paris and New York

Abstract

Reviews the book, Police power and race riots: Urban unrest in Paris and New York by C. Schneider (2014). This book takes a sociological perspective to examine the role of police behaviour in race riots. The author asks three critical questions. First, why did different police forces in different parts of the world interact with minority communities in similar ways? Second, why did these interactions lead to riots across the USA and Paris during these periods? Finally, why have riots become so rare in New York since the 1970s, whilst police brutality and racial profiling has grown? The book, set out over five chapters and 304 pages, is well-written and rarely stumbles, as its logical structure takes the reader painstakingly through each argument. The book concludes with a somewhat pessimistic picture pointing to increased prejudice towards immigrant communities and highlighting growing inequality that continues to propagate racial boundaries. In summary, what Schneider presents is a book that clearly sets out and provides evidence to support its central hypothesis, that police power has been central to urban unrest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)