Sheriffs, Shills, or Just Paying the Bills?: Rethinking the Merits of Compelling Merchant Cooperation with Third-Party Policing in the Aftermath of George Floyd's Death

This Article frames the killing of George Floyd as the result of flawed business regulation. More specifically, it captures the expansion of third-party policing paradigms throughout local nuisance abatement regulations over a period of time that coincided with the militarization of policing culture...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inWashington and Lee law review Vol. 79; no. 5; pp. 1657 - 1714
Main Author Wilks, Stephen
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Lexington Washington & Lee University, School of Law 01.01.2023
Subjects
African Americans
Black people
Cooperation
Education
Floyd, George
Grocery stores
Highway construction
Law enforcement
Militarism
Participation
Pharmacy
Quality of life
Race
Racism
Regulation
Scholarships & fellowships
Segregation
Social control
Surveillance
Third party
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Summary:This Article frames the killing of George Floyd as the result of flawed business regulation. More specifically, it captures the expansion of third-party policing paradigms throughout local nuisance abatement regulations over a period of time that coincided with the militarization of policing culture across the United States. Premised on the notion that law enforcement alone cannot succeed in reducing crime and disorder, such regulations transform grocery stores, pharmacies, bars, and other retail spaces into surveillance hubs by prescribing situations that obligate businesses to contact the police. This regulatory framework, however, sustains the larger historical project of rationalizing enhanced scrutiny of the public and private spaces that Black people occupy; supplies the imprimatur for wider societal involvement in the scrutiny of Black bodies-particularly by constituencies outside the ranks of traditional policing; and complicates psychological relationships Black people have with the settings they enter, while fueling the continued disregard for their bodily dominion.
ISSN:0043-0463
1942-6658