Quotessence
Home / Authors / Rosa Brooks

Rosa Brooks Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllPolicingInternational LawMilitaryWarAssassinBudgetsBureaucracyCivilianCode WordConfidentialCongressional FailureDemocracyDiplomacyDrone AttacksDrone ProgramDynamicsEmpire BuildingForeign PolicyForeign Policy Of The UsForeign Relations

Famous Rosa Brooks Quotes

“Over-policing is driven in part by the law of supply and demand—police go where people ask them to go. To put it a little differently: Police don’t operate in a vacuum. They are paid by taxpayer dollars; they respond to the directives and incentives created by national, state, and municipal laws, policies, and political pressures; and in a day-to-day sense, they respond to whatever calls happen to come in over the 911 lines, whether those calls involve complaints about armed robberies or about disorderly conduct.”

Policing
Book:Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City
Create image

“What if instead of telling officers they have a right to go home safe, police training focused on reminding officers that members of the public have a right to go home safe? What if we reminded officers that they are voluntarily taking a risky job, and that if someone dies because of a mistake, it’s better that it be a police officer who is trained and paid to take risks than a member of the public?”

Policing
Book:Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City
Create image

“policing is not a malevolent conspiracy; most police officers take seriously their role as public servants. The widely publicized incidents of police violence and abuse often lead us to forget that the vast majority of police officers spend the vast majority of their time helping people who ask for their help. Americans call 911 both in genuine emergencies and for trivial reasons, and police officers don’t get to choose whether to respond.”

Policing
Book:Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City
Create image

“When you have more crimes, you need more cops—and when you have more cops, you find more ways to use them. (In the US, for instance, we consider it normal to have armed police officers enforce compliance with traffic regulations, even though most traffic violations don’t constitute criminal offenses. It’s the equivalent of routinely sending armed police to enforce IRS regulations or municipal building code regulations. It makes little sense, and increases the number of police-citizen encounters with the potential to go badly wrong.)”

Policing
Book:Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City
Create image