American Prestige Re-Post - The Global Turn of American Policing w/ Stuart Schrader
11 snips
Jan 8, 2026 
In this insightful discussion, historian Stuart Schrader, an expert on policing and author of "Badges Without Borders," explores the global roots of American policing. He highlights how Cold War-era police training shaped contemporary practices and led to an intertwining of domestic and foreign repression. Topics include the historical resistance to oversight, the rise of aggressive policing tactics, and the implications of U.S. policies like the formation of ICE. Schrader also emphasizes the ongoing local resistance to these trends, particularly in Los Angeles.
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Broken Windows Has Counterinsurgency Roots
- Proactive policing models and 'broken windows' ideas trace to counterinsurgency debates and security think tanks.
- Patrol routines, stop-and-search, and quality-of-life enforcement grew from those intellectual currents.
Drug Policing Expanded Before The ’80s
- Narcotics enforcement rose sharply in the 1970s, creating many more daily street encounters with police.
- These increases disproportionately targeted Black and poor neighborhoods and set the stage for mass incarceration.
Incarceration Rose Through Panic And Policy
- Mass incarceration escalated from the 1980s into the 1990s with dramatically longer sentences and dismantled rehabilitation.
- Media panics, politics, and policing experts together drove prison expansion rather than a single causal factor.
