Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume 58 | Issue 3 Article 12 1968 Nonviolent Civil Disobedience and Police Enforcement Policy J. L. LeGrande Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons Recommended Citation J. L. LeGrande, Nonviolent Civil Disobedience and Police Enforcement Policy, 58 J. Crim. L. Criminology & Police Sci. 393 (1967) This Criminology is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. THE JOURNAL OF CRIINn'AL LAw, CRIMINOLOGY AND POLICE SCIENCE Vol. 58, No. 3 Copyright C 1067 by Northwestern University School of Law Printed in U.S.A. POLICE SCIENCE NONVIOLENT CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND POLICE ENFORCEMENT POLICY J. L. LeGRANDE J. L. LeGrande is Assistant Professor, School of Police Administration and Public Safety, Michi- gan State University, East Lansing, Michigan. Prior to his joining the university faculty in 1963 he had served as a Research Associate in the Office of Planning and Research of the St. Louis Police Department. For three years he served in the Oklahoma City Police Department and upon receiving his law degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1961 served for one year as a County Attorney in Oklahoma. Professor LeGrande has published several articles in other professional journals and is a member of the American Bar Association among other professional organizations.-EDIToR. The concepts of civil disobedience as a re- form of distinction or definition, they denounce ligious, political, and philosophical doctrine are such actions as "disrespect for law and order." virtually ageless. Authorities have traced them Such conclusions, without at least elementary back as far as the sixth century B.C. Elements of analysis of the philosophies involved, tend to these concepts are contained in the Christian cloud and thoroughly distort the true issues. teachings of our modem churches. In the process For the purposes of police policy formulation, of establishing the United States as a new nation, civil disobedience can perhaps be best defined as a its founders relied, in part, on the basic ideas of course of illegal conduct undertaken by relatively civil disobedience. Mahatma Gandhi made ex- homogeneous or like-minded groups for the tensive use of the technique in India in the early purpose of obtaining redress of alleged grievances. part of this century. Martin Luther King, Jr., It is activity conducted outside the framework of and others have, in this decade, adapted and rules provided by the established governmental perfected civil disobedience to the point of de- structure. The illegal activity is conducted pub- veloping a highly effective means of coercive licly in the form of a demonstration whose intent pressure for social change. is to illicit sympathetic public support. However, it When examining "civil disobedience," one must is important that a dear-cut distinction between immediately recognize that the formulation of a civil disobedience and other forms of demon- single all-encompassing definition of the term is strations be recognized. extremely difficult, if not impossible. In reviewing Public demonstrations can be divided into the voluminous literature on the subject, the three distinct categories. The first category is the student of civil disobedience rapidly finds himself lawful protest denwnstration,, wherein the partici- surrounded by a maze of semantical problems and pants have peacefully joined together and are grammatical niceties. Like Alice in Wonderland, publicly protesting an alleged injustice by utilizing he often finds that specific terminology has no their constitutionally provided rights of speech, more (or no less) meaning than the individual assembly, and petition. orator intends it to have.' To add further to this The second category of demonstration is general confusion, a number of articles, pur- nonviolent civil disobedience. The participant in porting to examine civil disobedience, have this form of demonstration may deliberately recently been published in popular police journals. refuse to comply with laws he or his group considers These articles have tended to combine all protest unjust. He goes beyond his constitutional rights methods into this category, and without any in dramatizing the injustice, but he does not use In an excellent book, MRnEa, NoN-VIOLENCE, A any form of physical violence. For the purposes CHRisTIAN L\ERPRETATION (1966), the author devotes 127 pages to defining the concept and delineating its of formulating police policy, noncooperation, range of application. nonresistance, nonviolence, passive resistance, J. L. LeGRANDE [Vol. 58 positive action, nonviolent direct action, and in number and in the number of participants similar varieties of nonviolent philosophies may involved.2 There can be little doubt, on the basis of be included in this classification. existing trends, that this prophesy will be correct. The third category is violent civil disobedience, wherein physical force is utilized indiscriminately THE POLICE DILEMMA and in violation of law to accomplish the partici- As a result of these activities local police pants' goal. The ultimate form of this category administrators have found themselves placed in is riot. Violent civil disobedience will not be extremely sensitive positions. They are faced with examined in this paper. decisions that involve the intricate and delicate balance of public order and safety on one hand and PUBLIC PROTEST: A METHOD OF SOCIAL REFORM individual freedoms on the other. Most adminis- With the full-scale implementation of the trators recognize that absolute freedom will result civil rights movement in the 1950's, an old method in anarchy, but that absolute control will foster of social reform was given new life in the United tyranny. A new dimension is added to this dilemma by States. Since that time this nation has seen mass the practice of civil disobedience-the philos- demonstrations and public protests of a magnitude ophy that "unjust" laws should not be obeyed. heretofore unknown. The freedoms to speak, Professor Fred Inbau, Northwestern University assemble, and petition have been utilized in an Law School, views this problem in even stronger elaborate fashion-probably well beyond the terms: imagination of the framers of the First Amend- "With each passing summer it becomes more ment to the Federal Constitution. and more difficult to distinguish between These methods of voicing dissent were utilized legitimate social protest and flagrant violation in the 1950's primarily by racial groups to call of laws designed to protect persons and property. public attention to alleged discriminatory practices Puzzling and unpleasant though this choice may and to demand their correction. As time progressed, be for us all, for the police, who are professionally the significant political coercive force of these responsible for the maintenance of law and order, dilemma." 3 means became recognized by other groups and it is a cruel organizations with causes. These groups, formal The police administrator has very few specific or informal, began adapting the tactics of the guidelines to utilize in his decision-making process. civil rights organizations to meet their individual Very little literature which directly relates to the purposes and needs. In recent months, in addition philosophy of civil disobedience and the devel- to protest against discriminatory racial practices, opment of police enforcement policy exists. Con- the public has seen organized mothers groups cerning this dearth of material, George Eastman, demanding pedestrian lights at school crossings a former Director of the National Institute on and marching in "baby buggy brigades" against Police-Community Relations, commented: "Effec- highway commissions; prospective draftees de- tive police handling of singular crisis incidents nouncing military conscription and United States are numerous but isolated and unrecorded and foreign policy and picketing governmental agen- there has been little pooling of experiences, good cies; deer hunters challenging the conservation or bad, which would allow the development of practices." 4 commissions' directive allowing the killing of sound police doe and carrying placards on the state house It is the writer's intent to examine the various lawns; students demanding more academic ramifications of nonviolent civil disobedience and freedom and less restrictive rules of conduct to develop insights and guidelines for theuse of the from universities; and a host of other diversified police administrator faced with such a confron- campaigns. We can no longer doubt that virtually tation. He does not intend to establish that civil any group of individuals advocating any change disobedience should be acclaimed or denounced can adapt the technique of mass assembly and 2 BROwN, THE POLICE AND COMMUNITY CONFLICT 11 expect some degree of effective publicity and (New York: National Conference of Christians and Jews, n.d.). success. Thus, in little more than a decade the 3 INBAU, THE THIN BLUE LINE: THE PoUICE/TniE public protest has become the fashionable effective PunLIc 3-4 (Chicago: Kemper Insurance Company, tool to which the public responds. Some authorities 1966). 4 Foreword