Black Resistance to British Policing

Adam Elliott-Cooper

From Shelf: Reading List: Black History Month UK 2023: Saluting our Sisters.

Using a decade of activist research, this book offers a radical analysis of grassroots black resistance to policing in twenty-first-century Britain.

As police racism unsettles Britain's tolerant self-image, Black resistance to British policing details the activism that made movements like Black Lives Matter possible. Elliott-Cooper analyses racism beyond prejudice and the interpersonal - arguing that black resistance confronts a global system of racial classification, exploitation and violence.Imperial cultures and policies, as well as colonial war and policing highlight connections between these histories and contemporary racisms. But this is a book about resistance, considering black liberation movements in the 20th century while utilising a decade of activist research covering spontaneous rebellion, campaigns and protest in the 21st century. Drawing connections between histories of resistance and different kinds of black struggle against policing is vital, it is argued, if we are to challenge the cutting edge of police and prison power which harnesses new and dangerous forms of surveillance, violence and criminalisation.