Policing Life and Death : Race, Violence, and Resistance in Puerto Rico

In her exciting new book, Marisol LeBrón traces the rise of punitive governance in Puerto Rico over the course of the twentieth century and up to the present. Punitive governance emerged as a way for the Puerto Rican state to manage the deep and ongoing crises stemming from the archipelago’s incorporation into the United States as a colonial territory. A structuring component of everyday life for many Puerto Ricans, police power has reinforced social inequality and worsened conditions of vulnerability in marginalized communities. This book provides powerful examples of how Puerto Ricans negotiate and resist their subjection to increased levels of segregation, criminalization, discrimination, and harm. __Policing Life and Death__ shows how Puerto Ricans are actively rejecting punitive solutions and working toward alternative understandings of safety and a more just future. "Policing Life and Death : Race, Violence, and Resistance in Puerto Rico examines how policing reinforces social inequality along lines of race, class, gender, and sexuality and analyzes the ways that marginalized populations push against logics and practices of criminalization. Marisol LeBrón traces the rise of punitive governance in Puerto Rico over the course of the twentieth century to the present moment. She argues that Puerto Rican elites and policy makers have turned to policing as a way of reorganizing and strengthening the state in response to deep and ongoing structural crises stemming from the island's incorporation into the United States as a colonial territory. At the same time, LeBrón provides powerful examples of how Puerto Ricans negotiate and resist their subjection to increased levels of segregation, criminalization, discrimination, and violence. Puerto Ricans are actively rejecting punitive solutions and working toward alternative understandings of justice, safety, and accountability" ... Provided by publisher In her exciting new book, Marisol LeBrón traces the rise of punitive governance in Puerto Rico over the course of the twentieth century and up to the present. Punitive governance emerged as a way for the Puerto Rican state to manage the deep and ongoing crises stemming from the archipelago’s incorporation into the United States as a colonial territory. A structuring component of everyday life for many Puerto Ricans, police power has reinforced social inequality and worsened conditions of vulnerability in marginalized communities.
 
This book provides powerful examples of how Puerto Ricans negotiate and resist their subjection to increased levels of segregation, criminalization, discrimination, and harm. Policing Life and Death shows how Puerto Ricans are actively rejecting punitive solutions and working toward alternative understandings of safety and a more just future. List of Tables Acknowledgments Introduction: They Don’t Care If We Die 1 • A War against the Victims 2 • Colonial Projects 3 • Underground 4 • The Continued Promise of Punishment 5 • Policing Solidarity 6 • #ImperfectVictims 7 • Security from Below Postscript: Broken Windows and Future Horizons after the Storm Notes Bibliography Index