2008 Woodie Awards
Getting Hassled by the Man
Nancy Ng
Issue date: 4/15/05 Section: News
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"We know everything about you. We know where you live. We know where you work. We know who your friends are."
Guillermina Seri, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida in Gainesville, heard these words during an interview with the police. From that, she got the name of her Monday lecture, "We Know Everything about You: Police Discretion, Narratives and Democracy."
Seri felt that this threatening message effectively represented the scope of police power.
Seri expressed that she was puzzled by how little attention political scientists have paid to the issue of police power, given that police power is such a large part of government.
Seri made the case that in encounters between civilians and the police, the encounter has many potential outcomes: the situation may be pleasant and nothing may happen, the officer may make an accusation and arrest or, in the worst case scenario, the officer may take the civilian's life.
She pointed out that the incident is open to a whole range of possibilities, but people only take notice when the outcome involves death or other obvious excessive uses of force.
"In civilian-police encounters, there is a moment when the law is suspended and an officer must make his or her own judgment given the situation," Seri said. "This kind of power that the officer exercises is a kind of sovereign judgment in the sense that the laws are there, but it's up to the police officer's discretion on how to apply them. This tremendous amount of power is scary."
Junior Brian Byrne agreed with Seri's views.
"I feel that she made an interesting point as to the need to have guidelines in police interactions with civilians, because of the potentially dangerous sovereignty of police power," Byrne said.
The way that most governments - especially democratic ones - have attempted to reconcile this sovereign power with the protection of civil liberties is to pass even more laws governing the behavior of the police. Seri points out that this is not a viable way to address the problematic issue.
Guillermina Seri, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida in Gainesville, heard these words during an interview with the police. From that, she got the name of her Monday lecture, "We Know Everything about You: Police Discretion, Narratives and Democracy."
Seri felt that this threatening message effectively represented the scope of police power.
Seri expressed that she was puzzled by how little attention political scientists have paid to the issue of police power, given that police power is such a large part of government.
Seri made the case that in encounters between civilians and the police, the encounter has many potential outcomes: the situation may be pleasant and nothing may happen, the officer may make an accusation and arrest or, in the worst case scenario, the officer may take the civilian's life.
She pointed out that the incident is open to a whole range of possibilities, but people only take notice when the outcome involves death or other obvious excessive uses of force.
"In civilian-police encounters, there is a moment when the law is suspended and an officer must make his or her own judgment given the situation," Seri said. "This kind of power that the officer exercises is a kind of sovereign judgment in the sense that the laws are there, but it's up to the police officer's discretion on how to apply them. This tremendous amount of power is scary."
Junior Brian Byrne agreed with Seri's views.
"I feel that she made an interesting point as to the need to have guidelines in police interactions with civilians, because of the potentially dangerous sovereignty of police power," Byrne said.
The way that most governments - especially democratic ones - have attempted to reconcile this sovereign power with the protection of civil liberties is to pass even more laws governing the behavior of the police. Seri points out that this is not a viable way to address the problematic issue.