Essay on Racism in the 1950s

The concepts of ‘sacred’ and ‘profane’ are found in French sociologist Émile Durkheim’s work, ‘The Elementary Forms of Religious Life’. It is not questions of religious interpretation, rather ‘sacred’ being things ‘set apart, evoking powerful feelings with those symbols representing those of a greater power.’ When people worship such symbols, they unite as a moral community. Durkheim sees it as a question of moral agency, juxtaposing ‘profane’ as things with no special significance, being ordinary and mundane. The first step towards making an object sacred is setting it apart. Thus, the first question considered is whether police remain apart as a representative of the state or whether pluralization has moved policing towards the ‘profane’. A second point considered is whether policing remains a symbol of moral agency, symbolic of the state. This requires looking at the relationship between police, power, and social order. Barton (2002) saw sacred as being moral but simultaneously dangerous. Thus, it must be questioned whether the police have moved towards the profane due to corruption scandals, institutional racism, and loss of moral authority. Is it as Miliband (1978, pg. 21) said ‘due to insubordination’ of the public, that the police are no longer respected, losing their moral authority and becoming ‘profane’? Shils and Geertz, alternatively, argue that sacred is seen through power, raising the issue of whether police still hold this power. This essay explores these points from the period between the 1950s and 2020. The 1950s have commonly been named the ‘golden age’ of policing when harmonious relations between the public and the police were at a pinnacle. The ‘golden age’ will be compared to the subsequent period and whether there has been a move towards the ‘profane’.

Those who argue police have shifted from ‘sacred’ towards ‘profane’ cite pluralization – an increase of new non-police providers of policing services. Considering Durkheim’s definition of ‘sacred’ as being ‘subject of a prohibition that sets it radically apart’ from the ‘profane’, some argue the police has lost its iconic identity-bearing status due to far-reaching pluralization. Reiner (1992) argues the police have shifted from their ‘sacred’ image of peacekeeper, symbolic of the British way of life, to ‘profane’ – another public service that is ‘unreformed and under-modernized’ (Savage, 2010, pg. 10). The police and state no longer monopolize policing. Rather, since the 1960s, the police has now structured in a way that is widely offered by non-state institutions, notably by private companies on a commercialized basis and by communities on a volunteer basis (Bayley, 1984). Indeed, private security agents twice outnumber public police in Britain (Johnston, 1992). Private security in the 1950s was frowned upon by the public and police, often portrayed as ‘ill-trained bands of thugs, hired by private businesses to break strikes, suppress labor, and spy on another’ (Buuren, 2009, pg. 52). However, despite pluralization, police remain powerful, having no only the backing of laws, but still considered as iconic symbols of British culture, revered across Britain and worldwide. it can be argued that at the heart of policing are still the symbols of the state which remain powerful, having not only the backing of the laws behind them but also still considered today as iconic symbols of British culture that are revered across Britain and the world (Buuren, 2009). Non-police providers, rather than taking power from the police, aid them with their ever-expanding and ever-complicated role. Police can concentrate on more serious crimes such as terror threats. Moreover, community policing has changed the relationship with communities, transforming them from being passive consumers of police protection to actively ensuring public safety (Myhill, 2006). Overall, non-policing organizations have changed the policing structure. However, police remain idioms of the state and not just another public service. Further, the growth of these other bodies allowed police concentration on more dangerous policing aspects and, therefore remaining nearer ‘sacred’ than profane as defined by Durkheim and Barton.

The shift from ‘sacred’ to profane arguably results from problems with the police’s moral agency, particularly the legitimacy-eroding consequences of police corruption and malpractice, having sullied their reputation of ‘British fair play’ (Weight, 2002, pg. 571). Since the 1960s, they have been enmeshed in numerous controversies, with criticism about falling standards of integrity and discipline, accentuated through corruption scandals; abuse of power towards minority groups, and increasing coercive force favoring a ‘fire-brigade ’approach (Cluny, 1999). Newburn (2015, pg. 22), supports this, arguing the police’s reputation for neutrality has diminished since the 1960s, with the majority of the British public losing confidence in them and the police ceasing to be the ‘pantheon of Britishness’. For example, the police’s standing declined rapidly after the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six cases (Bihler, 2005). Corruption is still endemic, with 33% of people in 2012 thinking bribery or abuse of power is widespread (The European Commission, 2012). Indeed, in 2018, Scotland Yard faced its biggest police corruption inquiry in 40 years after 14 officers in the Met’s elite anti-corruption unit were investigated for malpractice by the IOPC, which found ‘serious corruption and malpractice’ (Harper, 2018, pg. 1). The late 1950’s Digital Revolution additionally led to everyday policing coming under ever-increasing scrutiny with universal access to technology rendering police activity more visible, adding as a source of the police’s loss of its ‘sacred’ character (Bradford, 2011). With the police being ‘demystified’, this has led to the institution being divested of its functions as a unifying symbol of national culture and has ‘fallen from its pedestal’ and in the process ‘has been transformed into a thoroughly profane institution’(Reiner, 1992, pg. 761). However, corruption has always characterized the police, with even the 1950s seeing two very high-profile scandals involving police misconduct, although being largely hidden from the public. Particularly, the 1958 Brighton Police corruption case damaged the force’s reputation, with Emsley (2005, pg. 31) describing them as being ‘punctured with examples of corruption and unprofessionalism’. Despite arguments that it’s a few ‘bad apples’, corruption has existed throughout police history and has damaged their moral agency. Thus, it’s arguable that recent corruption scandals are insufficient to shift the police materially from ‘sacred’ to ‘profane’. Rather, the police have never had full moral agency, with corruption existing even in the 1950s ‘golden age’. Debatably, these scandals have taken them closer to ‘profane’. However, if tackled and maintained public confidence by, if necessary public inquiries, policing will not fully reach ‘profane’.

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Again, moral agency has dissolved from ‘police brutality and racially biased enforcement of laws’ (Monaghan, 2017, pg. 218). Accordingly, public trust has disintegrated, particularly in BME communities, arguably leading to the desacralization of the police (Rowe, 2012). Although not a new phenomenon, the public’s reaction towards institutional racism has starkly changed in the post-modern era. The 1950s had an association between the remembered, locally embedded officer in white Britain with Englishness being far less convoluted (Loader, 2003). Indeed, a fundamental feature of the intensifying conflict between police and ethnic communities in the 1970s-80s, such as the Brixton or Bristol riots, was the police’s belief they had the backing of the white, middle-class ‘silent majority’ (Loader, 2003). Police portrayed themselves as ‘heroic defenders’ of the English way of life against threats of black rioters – protecting the ‘sacred’ policing institution from the ‘profane’ protesters (Reiner, 1980). Indeed, Hall (1978) argues this ‘silent majority’ even supported police attempts to combat ‘black crime’. However, racism was present in the 1950s, with over-policing occurring under the guise of the Vagrancy Act of 1824 which allowed stop and search and arrest for suspected loitering with intent to commit a criminal offense (Hermer, 2019). The period also saw a lack of BME cases being solved or reported, with only 6 of 127 complaints being sustained in 1959 (Whitfield, 2006). Since the 1970s huge shifts in public expectations towards racism have occurred. Largely, as a response to the Macpherson report after Stephen Lawrence’s murder, which revealed British policing as ‘institutionally racist’ (Cluny, 1999). To combat racism, legislation and reports were established to protect the BME community, such as the ERCI (2019) which publishes BME rights and gives police recommendations for combating racial discrimination. However, although significant improvements have occurred since the 1950s, the institution still suffers from racism, albeit in a different, more covert form. Namely, Macpherson identified stop and searches, with the BME community being 5 times more likely to be stopped despite legislation change (Green, 2000). Overall, although institutionally racist, the police were viewed by the 1950’s public as ‘sacred’ in stopping ‘profane’ ‘black crime’. Despite the Lawrence case, institutional racism remains, meaning the police continue down the route towards ‘profane’ until fully tackling this issue.

Other criminologists, such as Shils and Geertz, see sacredness and charisma as the power within police representations and practices, allegedly in society’s interests. For Shils (1975, pg. 127), sacredness is ‘imputed to person actions, roles, institutions, symbols, and material objects because of the presumed connection with “ultimate”, “fundamental”, “vital” order determining powers’. Charisma, and the ‘sacred’ thus involve interwoven dimensions of the police force influencing secular life (Smith, 1996). Thus, the police are emblematic forms articulating the governing power of the state- the police are the state in uniform. ‘Sacredness’ is produced through ritual manifestations of power generated through idioms and symbols (Garland, 1990). McLaughlin (2005, pg. 12), for example, highlights the influence of the fictional PC Dixon in The Blue Lamp and Dixon of Dock Green (1955-1976), in forging an ‘imagined England’ which shifted representation of British officers within the popular cultural imagination. By this, consensual policing was at the forefront, with the police upholding laws and being central to the community he served (Williams, 2011). He was respected, with even petty criminals cooperating when serious crimes were under investigation (McLaughlin, 2007). Policing in this period was an emblem of consensual society, with the public acclaiming a proficient force doing its best to implement legislation (Critchley, 1967). Sparks (1992, pg. 27) argues Dixon was ‘unique as a cultural phenomenon, historically and comparatively’. A standard patrol officer was eulogized as a British hero, the apotheosis of the idea of British Bobby– a representation of the state in uniform (Reiner, 1992). It encapsulated the symbolism of ’sacred and good police’ and ‘profane’ criminals. The police were portrayed as a ‘sacred’ institution ‘set apart and revered as a key part of a social imaginary’ (Pimlott, 2002, pg. 254). Although a sentimentalized image, there was a degree of truth (Emsley, 2009). However, since the Dixon era, the police have been portrayed differently with the phrase ‘the blue lamp’ changing to ‘the black and blue lamp’ in the 1980s (Rolinson, 2011). This shows the shift away from police being viewed as an idiom of goodness and sacredness into one mundane and ‘profane’, with the Black and Blue Lamp juxtaposing the idealized ‘bobby on the beat’ with a more cynical portrayal of society under threat from crime waves and breakdown of community relations (Rolinson, 2011). Even recently, the 2006 film ‘Life on Mars’ and the 2008-10 ‘Ashes to Ashes’, depict the ‘Black and Blue Lamps’ message, again representing the public perceptions of the police in an Ortanique light; highlighting real-life corruption scandals and a more violent approach to policing (Rolinson, 2011). These representations indicate a far less clear-cut line between a ‘sacred’ police officer and a ‘profane’ criminal. However, although these shows indicate a shift away from ‘sacred’, it must be remembered that since the 1950s, the police has expanded, and become more complex – no longer just ‘bobbies on the beat’, these TV shows involve police tackling more dangerous crime. Therefore, showing police embolising the states’ power to combat more serious crime.

In conclusion, it’s too simple to claim policing in British society has moved from ‘sacred’ to ‘profane’ at this time. Indeed, when looking at pluralisation, it can be argued that policing still holds its iconic status with the growth of these non-policing bodies allowing the police to focus on the more dangerous crime. Thus, under Durkheim and Barton’s definition, the police remain closer to ‘sacred’ rather than ‘profane’, being not just another public service. However, when looking at Durkheim’s theory of moral agency, arguably the police have been traveling towards ‘profane’ due to corruption and importantly, institutional racism which has undermined moral agency. In practice, the 1950s police were racist. However, this was not recognized by the public until Stephen Lawrence’s case which highlighted institutional racism against the police and the public alike. Today, although racism has arguably improved, it remains present and the public’s perception of it has become critical. This perception of the police’s action towards ethnic communities has shifted the police towards ‘profane’. The corruption issue has similarly affected moral agency. Similarly, it is arguable that the police never fully had moral agency due to corruption. However, due to the lack of technology in the 1950s, public knowledge of corruption was limited. In contrast, the police today are constantly under scrutiny due to technology, meaning, in the public's eyes the police have shifted more towards ‘profane.’ However, public trust still exists if the scandals are dealt with, therefore, stopping the full shift from ‘sacred’ to ‘profane’. More so, if Shil and Geertz’s definition of sacred is dominant, albeit the police are no longer embodied as ‘Bobbies on the beat’, they are still symbolic of the state’s power, particularly in solving serious crimes.