Kristian Williams

Two new articles this week:

The first is a wide-ranging essay about, among other things, John Constantine, Spider Jerusalem, The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Promethea, the Sandman, Tarot Cards, and William Blake.  You know, the usual.

The other is a pretty ambivalent review of Chris Dixon’s book Another Politics.  The book argues that there is an emerging anti-authoritarian current within the left, and examines its ideas and practices.  I suggest that Dixon’s right about the practices but wrong about the ideas.

As you might imagine I’ve been asked a lot the past few months about when Our Enemies in Blue will be available again. It is unfortunately out of print and out of stock. I’m glad to report, however, that I have just returned the manuscript, and the new edition — revised and updated — should be out this summer. You can pre-order copies from AK Press.

In the mean time, I have two other books out. One, Fire the Cops!, collects my writing on policing from 2004 to 2014 and covers some of the same issues as Our Enemies in Blue. It includes chapters on police violence, counterinsurgency, class conflict, and the tensions between police reform and abolition. The other, Witness to Betrayal, features a long interview I conducted with scott crow, providing a first-hand account of the career of infamous agent provocateur Brandon Darby. The interview is followed by my essay, “Profiles of Provocateurs,” which looks at several recent entrapment cases and considers their commonalities.

You can order both books from me, by sending a check to the address below.

Fire the Cops! sells for $20, and Witness to Betrayal sells for $10. If you order both directly from me, I’ll throw in my pamphlet Hurt: Notes on Torture in a Modern Democracy for free.

Kristian Williams

PO Box 11112

Portland OR 97211

I’m going to be on KBOO — 90.7fm for those in the Portland area, kboo.fm for the rest of the world — talking about the history of police unions.

The show is 6pm, Wednesday, February 4, and I understand I’ll be on toward the beginning.

Here’s the full description, from the KBOO website:

An in-depth look at the history, role and political influence of police unions.

A KBOO Special Forum on Police Unions and their role in perpetuating a culture of police violence. This will be an in-depth look into the history, role and politics of police unions in the light of the post-Ferguson nation-wide uprising against police killings, abuse and impunity.
Three panel discussions will expore this issue from a variety of angles. First will be an overview of the history and role of police unions, going back to the early part of the 20th Century. Guests will include Joseph Slater, Professor of Law and Values at the University of Toledo College of Law and Kristian Williams of Portland, author of Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America.
The second panel will discuss the status and role of police unions from a labor perspective. Guests will include Jonathan Tasini, long-time labor activist in New York; Jamie Partridge, local community activist with the Letter Carriers’ Union and Jobs with Justice; Ahjamu Umi, local activist with the All-African Peoples’ Revolutionary Party and union organizer.
The third panel will look at police accountability/reform/abolition, citzen review and oversight and alternatives to policing. Guests will include Flint Taylor, long-time people’s attorney with the People’s Law Office in Chicago; Ashlee Albies, attorney with the National Lawyers’ Guild and with the Albina Ministerial Alliance in their ongoing involvement with the Department of Justice Settlement Process stemming from their lawsuit against the Portland Police Bureau; Teressa Raiford of Don’t Shoot Portland; Ahjamu Umi.

This Thursday, January 15, the Northwest Film Center will be hosting the premier of the film, Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence.

The Film Center’s website offers this description:

“Media artists and social activists Jodi Darby, Julie Perini, and Erin Yanke’s film speaks to the history of police violence in our society, providing a framework for understanding the systems of social control in Portland and its history of exclusion laws, racial profiling, redlining, and gentrification practices. . . . [They] explore alternatives to current policing practices and consider strategies for community safety that do not employ constant surveillance and unneeded violence.”

I talked to the filmmakers about the history of the police, and about my work with Rose City Copwatch.    I’m excited to see the fished version.

Arresting Power

Thursday January 15th, 2015 7pm 

Northwest Film Center Whitsell Auditorium

1219 SW Park Avenue, Portland