| Abstract: | #BlackLivesMatter protests exemplify the militarization of policing and the antagonistic relationship between police departments and the communities they are meant to serve. This study bridges systemic racism literature, intersectionality theory, and movement repression literature to contribute new methods and concepts to document racialized state repression. This study examines protests in Ferguson, Missouri. On August 9, 2014, Officer Darren Wilson, a white police officer, shot Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old African American teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. To obtain a multilayered and nuanced account I utilize qualitative methods and triangulated data. My case study includes police reports, nonprofit reports, news media coverage, and 13,280 tweets between August 9 and August 31, 2014. This study finds there are significant discrepancies in documentation of use of force, use of military equipment, and framing of protests between constituencies. Government report documents lack of crowd-control training, unfamiliarity with national policies, and inconsistencies between incident command and police officer⁰́₉s accounts of the protests. Furthermore, police officer and leadership⁰́₉s framing on the use of military equipment and protests illustrate a commitment to protect residents and protesters. News media coverage and tweets document injuries and threat of or use of force that differ from police accounts. The framing in government documents and in news media coverage justifies use of force against protesters and delegitimizes protesters. These findings expand upon combinatorial models of police tactics documenting the growth of the militarization of policing by elite whites. These findings raise fundamental questions on the transparency of law enforcement agencies and thus the ability of protesters and reporters to exercise their First-Amendment rights. The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible from https://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/198070 |
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