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Surveillance, Media and Police Militarization at Protests

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Surveillance, Media and Police Militarization at Protests THE DOMESTIC WAR ON TERROR: SURVEILLANCE, MEDIA AND POLICE MILITARIZATION AT PROTESTS by COLLEEN CARROLL MIHAL B.A., Virginia Tech, 2001 M.A., Virginia Tech, 2004 A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy College of Media, Communications, and Information 2015 This dissertation entitled: The Domestic War on Terror: Surveillance, Media, and Police Militarization at Protests written by Colleen Carroll Mihal has been approved for the College of Media, Communications, and Information Dr. Andrew Calabrese Dr. Janice Peck Date The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we Find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards Of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. IRB protocol # 0708.22 Mihal, Colleen Carroll (Ph.D., College of Media, Communications, and Information) The Domestic War on Terror: Surveillance, Media, and Police Militarization at Protests Dissertation directed by Professor Andrew Calabrese President George W. Bush and his administration reacted to the attacks on September 11, 2001 by declaring a “war on terrorism” and enacting policies that expanded executive power, restricted civil liberties, violated civil rights, and increased surveillance powers. These processes can be described as a state of exception (Agamben, 2005; Ericson, 2007; Scheppele, 2004). During a state of exception, it is believed, or at least proclaimed, that the exceptional nature of the times defies the ability of the normal legal order to cope with the crisis, requiring exceptional and extra-legal measures. Despite the centrality and indispensability of communication to a state of exception, the role of communication has received little in-depth scholarly analysis. Communication is the process through which the state of exception gains hegemonic and ideological power and the symbolic means through which it is challenged. This dissertation explores the relationship between media and communications and a state of exception by investigating the police militarization at protests, one trend that was accelerated, funded, and justified by appeals to a national emergency and the so-called global war on terrorism. The case study of the Republican National Convention protests in St. Paul, Minnesota in 2008, a case par excellence of police militarization, shows how police and intelligence agencies used new surveillance laws and new communications technologies to create a narrative of anarchist threat and terrorism. It also describes how police militarization involved pre-emptive raids of media offices, intimidation of media workers, the arrest of journalists, and confiscation of communications and media iii equipment. A textual analysis of newspaper coverage of the 2008 RNC protests analyzes how media narratives coincided, questioned, and countered militarized policing and the police narrative, arguing that the mainstream news media, by covering the protests in the way that they did, worked to legitimize and, ultimately, normalize militarized modes of protest policing. This dissertation concludes by discussing the centrality of communication to the legal and political theory of the exception and how appeals to an emergency have functioned to normalize anti-democratic laws, policies, and practices during the war on terror. iv CONTENTS Chapter 1 With Us or Against Us: The American context after 9/11 ...................................... 1 Clash of Civilizations .......................................................................................................................................................... 9 Terrorism and Novelty .................................................................................................................................................. 12 Defining Terrorism..................................................................................................................................................... 14 Terrorism in historical context ............................................................................................................................. 15 The Post-attack Rally ...................................................................................................................................................... 21 Consuming patriotism ....................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Preemption and Unilateralism ................................................................................................................................... 17 The War at Home ................................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Discrimination against Muslims ........................................................................................................................... 30 The Patriot Act ................................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Dissent in the academy ............................................................................................................................................. 31 The right to protest .................................................................................................................................................... 32 Neoconservatism and neoliberalism ....................................................................................................................... 36 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................................... 38 Chapter 2 Exception, Communication & the ‘Global War on Terrorism’ ........................... 40 States of Exception .......................................................................................................................................................... 42 Carl Schmitt and The Exception ............................................................................................................................ 48 Counter-law ................................................................................................................................................................... 53 The new paradigm of global terrorism ................................................................................................................... 57 Exception, neoliberalism and neoconservatism ................................................................................................. 59 Questioning the exceptionality of the exception ................................................................................................. 61 v Communication and states of exception................................................................................................................. 65 Communication and surveillance ......................................................................................................................... 66 Media as legitimizing and normalizing force .................................................................................................. 69 Press and speech rights as a target ..................................................................................................................... 74 Sources of resistance ................................................................................................................................................. 78 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................................... 80 Chapter 3 The Militarization of Protest Policing ........................................................................... 82 Militarization ..................................................................................................................................................................... 84 The process of militarization ................................................................................................................................. 86 Police Militarization ................................................................................................................................................... 94 Protest policing: A short history ........................................................................................................................... 97 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................................ 102 Chapter 4 The Militarization of Protest Policing at the 2008 Republican National Convention: Impact on Media and Use of New Communication Technologies ........................................ 104 Method ............................................................................................................................................................................... 107 Case Study: 2008 RNC ................................................................................................................................................. 112 Preventing “Another Seattle” .............................................................................................................................. 113 Terrorism,
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