INTRODUCTION Koshka Duff
The police are not the only agents of oppression, or the only perpetrators of violence. The purpose of the police, though, is neither to fight oppression nor to reduce violence, but to uphold ‘public order’ – which means the order of capital and private property, of white supremacy, of patriarchy. The category of ‘criminal’ exists for those who disrupt that order, and that category is expanding. Cops Off Campus1
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ecember 2013. Thousands of students march through the university campuses of central London, determined to make the area – if only for a brief, symbolic moment – a cop-free zone. They protect themselves from police truncheons with shields painted to look like the covers of books. As images of riot police raining down blows on George Orwell’s 1984 begin to circulate on social media (the BBC is more interested in reporting a burning bin), #copsoffcampus is picked up by groups around the country. It will not be the last time. 7
