Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A Tale of Three Cities

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Permission to Shoot?

  • 1358 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter discusses actual examples of police shootings in three big cities, New York, London, and Mumbai in order to draw out similarities and differences in the way the shootings were presented and perceived in these cities. High profile cases of shootings that generated controversy, a lot of media interest, and elicited a strong reaction from the public and the police organisation alike are discussed in some detail. The subtle nuances of the way the story is presented by the police, interpreted and disseminated by the media, and perceived by the public and the courts in the three cities highlight the universal nature of the problem of police shootings: that is the police are perceived as getting away with abuse of deadly force, not just in former colonies and dictatorial or military regimes, but in democracies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    “Fawda” (Hindi), literal meaning rake, was a nickname that referred to Javed’s protruding teeth.

  2. 2.

    Referring to Ivan Pavlov’s famous conditioning experiments in which he “trained” dogs to associate the ringing of a bell with receiving food, eventually “training” the dog to salivate on hearing the bell ring, even in the absence of food.

  3. 3.

    These were issued to families to enable them to purchase government subsidised essential commodities such as sugar, kerosene, oil, rice, etc. in the years after independence when such commodities were in short supply. In this case, the ration card presented to the court to establish Abu Sayama’s identity created more confusion as it claimed a different name for Javed’s father from that in the police records and the Missing Person report filed by his sister on August 28, 1997.

  4. 4.

    The Delhi encounter case which occurred in 1997 where ten officers were imprisoned for life in 2007 for mistakenly killing two businessmen. Several senior officers were arrested for murder in encounters in Gujarat, India, in 2007 and the case is pending trial.

  5. 5.

    See, for example The Guardian (2005), “Policemen Escape Charges Over Table Leg Killing”, October 20, 2005.

  6. 6.

    A political party that purports to promote interests of the Muslim community, but which does not have a very strong support base in the state of Maharashtra or in Mumbai.

  7. 7.

    “HC gives police clean chit in Javed Fawda shootout case”, The Times of India, Bombay edition, February 25, 1999.

References

  • Allen, N. (2004, November 2). Met in crisis and protesting officers lay down arms. The Independent. Retrieved August 24, 2009, from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/met-in-crisis-as-protesting-officers-lay-down-arms-531778.html.

  • Baker, A. (2009, April 25). One year after acquittal in Sean bell shooting, lives remain in limbo. The New York Times. Retrieved June 10, 2009, from http://www.lexisnexis.com.

  • Banks, R., Eberhardt, J., & Ross, L. (2006). Discrimination and implicit bias in a racially unequal society. California Law Review, 94(4), 1169–1190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beehr, T., Ivanitskaya, L., Glaser, K., Erofeev, D., & Canali, K. (2004). Working in a violent environment: The accuracy of police officers’ reports of shooting incidents. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 77, 217–235.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blumberg, M. (1989). Controlling police use of deadly force: Assessing two decades of progress. In R. Dunham & G. Alpert (Eds.), Critical issues in policing: Contemporary readings. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bode, N. (2009, April 25). Sean bell way plan stirs anger. Daily News (New York). Retrieved July 10, 2009, from http://www.lexisnexis.com.

  • Breuil, B., & Rozema, R. (2009). Fatal imaginations: Death squads in Davao City and Medellin compared. Crime, Law and Social Change, 52, 405–424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brunson, R. (2007). “Police don’t like black people” African-American young men’s accumulated police experiences. Criminology and Public Policy, 6(1), 71–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bumgarner, J., Lewinsky, W., Hudson, W., & Sapp, C. (2006). An examination of police officer mental chronometry. The Scene: Journal of the Association for Crime Scene Reconstruction, 12(3), 11–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Button, J. (2005, July 30). Collateral damage. The Sydney Morning Herald.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, S. (1972). Folk devils and moral panics. London: MacGibbon and Kee.

    Google Scholar 

  • Correll, J., Park, B., Judd, C., Wittenberg, B., Sadler, M., & Keesee, T. (2007). Across the thin blue line: Police officers and racial bias in the decision to shoot. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1006–1023.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cowan, R., Campbell, D., & Dodd, V. (2005, August 17), The death of Juan Charles de Menezes. The Guardian. Retrieved July 10, 2009, from http://www.lexisnexis.com.

  • Freedland, J. (2006, July 7). How London carried on, G2. The Guardian.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fyfe, J. (1980). Geographic correlates of police shooting: A microanalysis. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 17(1), 101–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gardiner, S. (2007, January 10). Suspects as usual. The Village Voice. Retrieved July 21, 2009, from http://www.lexisnexis.com.

  • Gardiner, S. (2008, June 3). After the Sean bell case, Bloomberg still starves the NYPD watchdog. The Village Voice (New York). Retrieved July 19, 2009, from http://www.lexisnexis.com.

  • Geller, W. (1982). Deadly force: What we know. Journal of Police Science and Administration, 10, 151–177.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geller, W., & Scott, M. (1992). Deadly force: What we know – a practitioner’s desk-reference on police-involved shootings. Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, J., & Pasquale-Styles, P. (2009). Firearm deaths by law enforcement. Journal of Forensic Science, 54(1), 185–188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gregg, A. (2006). Shoot-to-kill: How far is too far in protecting citizens? Penn State International Law Review, 25(1), 295–316.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haberman, C. (2008, April 29). Cleared as criminals, but forever on trial. The New York Times. Retrieved June 10, 2008, from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/nyregion/29nyc.html.

  • Harring, S. (2000). The diallo verdict: Another ‘tragic accident’ in New York’s war on street crime? Social Justice, 27(1), 9–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hernandez, D. (2003, February 5). Street where he lived and died now Amadou Diallo place. The New York Times. Retrieved July 10, 2009, from http://www.lexisnexis.com.

  • Home Affairs Select Committee. (2005). Counter-terrorism and community relations in the aftermath of the London bombings, uncorrected transcript of oral evidence taken on 13th September 2005. Retrieved August 21, 2009, from http://www.publications.parliament.uk.

  • Independent Police Complaints Commission. (2006a). Stockwell one: investigation into the shooting of Juan Charles de Menezes at Stockwell underground station on July 22, 2005. Retrieved July 30, 2009, from http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/08_11_07_stockwell1.pdf.

  • Independent Police Complaints Commission. (2006b). The death of Harry Stanley – ICPP Decision. Retrieved July 27, 2009, from http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/stanley_ipcc_decision_feb_06.pdf.

  • Independent Police Complaints Commission. (2007). Stockwell Two: An investigation into the complaints about the Metropolitan Police Service’s handling of public statements following the shooting of Juan Charles de Menezes on 22 July 2005. Retrieved July 10, 2009, from http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/ipcc_stockwell_2.pdf.

  • Jones-Brown, D. (2007). Forever the symbolic assailant: The More things change the more they remain the same. Criminology and Public Policy, 6(1), 103–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kane, R. (2007). Collect and release data on coercive police actions. Criminology and Public Policy, 6(4), 773–780.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kennison, P., & Loumansky, A. (2007). Shoot to kill: Understanding police use of force in combating suicide terrorism. Crime, Law and Social Change, 47, 157–168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kolker, T. (2008, February 24). A bad night at Club Kalua: In the Sean bell shooting, 50 bullets and many truths. The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved July 9, 2009, from http://www.nymag.com/news/features/44458.

  • Lawrence, R. (2000b). The politics of force: Media and the construction of police brutality. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewinsky, W. (2002, May–June). Stress reactions related to lethal force encounters. The Police Marksman, 23–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewinsky, W. & Hudson W. (2003a). Time to start shooting? Time to stop shooting. The Police Marksman. September–October, 26–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewinsky, W. & Hudson, W. (2003b, November–December), The impact of visual complexity, decision making and anticipation. The Police Marksman, 24–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liska, A. (1992). Social threat and social control. Albany: State University of New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liska, A., & Yu, J. (1992). Specifying and testing the threat hypothesis: Police use of deadly force. In A. Liska (Ed.), Social threat and social control (pp. 53–68). Albany: State University of New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Louis, E. (2009, February 1). He was shot down, we stood up. The Daily News (New York). Retrieved July 11, 2009, from http://www.lexisnexis.com.

  • Lueck, T. (2008, May 8). 216 Held in protests of police acquittals. The New York Times. Retrieved July 9, 2009, from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/nyregion/08bell.html.

  • Macdonald, J., Alpert, G., & Tennenbaum, A. (1999). Justifiable homicide by police and criminal homicide: A research note. Journal of Crime and Justice, 22, 153–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Driscoll, C. (2008). Fear and trust: The shooting of Juan Charles de Menezes and the war on terror. Millennium – Journal of International Studies, 36, 339–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Panorama. (2006). When cops kill? BBC productions. Retrieved August 23, 2009, from http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/6048250.stm.

  • Pedicelli, G. (1998). When police kill: Police use of force in Montreal and Toronto. Montreal: Vehicule.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, A. (2008, June 9). NYPD changes sought in wake of Sean Bell shooting. The New York Sun. Retrieved July 19, 2009, from http://www.lexisnexis.com.

  • Pineda, N. (2009, May 30). Calls for probe of police shootings. Eyewitness News. Retrieved July 9, 2009, from http://www.abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6839933.

  • Pugliese, J. (2006). Asymmetries of terror: Visual regimes of racial profiling and the shooting of Juan Charles de Menezes in the context of the war in Iraq, Borderlands Ejournal, 5(1). Retrieved August 10, 2009, from http://www.borderlands.net.au/vol5no1_2006/pugliese.htm.

  • Punch, M. (1985). Conduct unbecoming: The social construction of police deviance and control. London: Tavistock.

    Google Scholar 

  • Punch, M. (2000). Police corruption and its prevention. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 8(3), 301–324.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rattanani, L. (1997, November 3). No brakes for bullet train? Outlook.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rivera, G. (1999, March 17). New information about Amadou Diallo, the West African man shot 41 times by police, in Rivera Live. CNBC News Transcripts. Retrieved July 19, 2009, from http://www.lexisnexis.com.

  • Rostker, B., Hanser, L., Hix, W., Jensen, C., Morral, A., Ridgeway, G., et al. (2008). Evaluation of the New York City police department firearm training and firearm-discharge review process. Centre on Quality Policing: Rand Corporation. Retrieved July 23, 2008, from http://www.rc.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG717.pdf.

  • Sassen, S. (2000). The global city: Strategic site/new frontier. In E. Isin (Ed.), Democracy, citizenship and the global city. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherman, L., & Cohen, G. (1986). Citizens killed by big city police, 1970–1984. Washington, DC: Crime Control Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherman, L., & Langworthy, R. (1979). Measuring homicide by police officers. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 70, 546–560.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skolnick, J. (2007). Racial profiling: Then and now. Criminology and Public policy, 6(1), 65–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skolnick, J. (2008). Enduring issues of police culture and demographics. Policing and Society, 18(1), 35–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, B. (2004). Structural and organizational predictors of homicide by police. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, 27(4), 539–557.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sorenson, J., Marquart, J., & Brock, D. (1993). Factors related to killings of felons by police officers: A test of the community violence and conflict hypotheses. Justice Quarterly, 10, 417–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Srikrishna, B. (1998). Report of the Srikrishna commission, volumes 1 & 2. Mumbai: Government of Maharashtra.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sturcke, J. (2007, November 1). Met police guilty over de Menezes shooting. The Guardian.

    Google Scholar 

  • Surrey Police. (2005). The Fatal Shooting of Henry Bruce Stanley, Report to the independent police complaints commission. Retrieved July 24, 2009, from http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/stanley_report_to_ipcc_03.02.06_for_publication.pdf.

  • The Aguiar Commission Report: Police encounters in Bombay. Retrieved July 24, 2009, from http://www.altindia.net/augiarcommission/aguiar.html.

  • The Guardian. (2005, October 20). Policemen escape charges over table leg killing. Retrieved September 24, 2009, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/oct/20/ukcrime1.

  • The Indian Express. (1999, February 28). HC rejects ‘biased’ Aguiar report. Retrieved February 19, 2009, from http://www.indianexpress.com/ie/daily/19990226/ige26048p.html.

  • The New York Times. (2006, November 28). A fatal police shooting in queens. Retrieved July 9, 2009, from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/nyregion/20061129_SHOOTING_GRAPHIC.html?_r=1.

  • The Post Standard. (2008, May 2). Deadly force: Sean Bell case should prompt reforms in training, accountability. Retrieved August 28, 2009, from http://www.lexisnexis.com.

  • The Sun. (2005, July 29). Juan Charles de Menezes may have had forged stamp in his passport. Retrieved July 10, 2009, from http://www.lexisnexis.com.

  • Thompson, T. (2005, August 21). The Stockwell shooting: Baptism by fire. The Observer. Retrieved July 10, 2009, from http://www.lexisnexis.com.

  • Thompson, T. & Phillips, T. (2005, August 14). Policing on trial: Death in stockwell. The Observer. Retrieved July 10, 2009, from http://www.lexisnexis.com.

  • Uldricks, N., & van Mastrigt, H. (1991). Policing police violence. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaughan-Williams, N. (2007). The shooting of Juan Charles de Menezes: New border politics? Alternatives, 32, 177–195.

    Google Scholar 

  • Villejoubert, G., O’Keeffe, C., & Alison, L. (2006). Hindsight bias and shooting incidents. In S. Giles & M. Santarcangelo (Eds.), Psychological aspects of legal processes (pp. 17–24). London: IA-IP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waegel, W. (1984). How police justify use of deadly force. Social Problems, 32(2), 144–155.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zaidi, S.H. (1999, January 21). Cops back to trigger-happy ways. Indian Express (Bombay edition).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science, University College London, Torrington Place 2-16, WC1E 7HN, London, UK

    Jyoti Belur

Authors
  1. Jyoti Belur
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jyoti Belur .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Belur, J. (2010). A Tale of Three Cities. In: Permission to Shoot?. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0975-6_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation