Flailing Her Puerto Rican Ponytail

But repression does not always come dressed up in riot gear, or breaking into
offices in the middle of the night. It also comes in the form of the friendly
“neighborhood liaison” officer, the advisory boards to local police departments, and
the social scientist hired on as a consultant. Repression is, first and foremost, a
matter of politics: it is the means the state uses to protect itself from political
challenges, the methods it employs to preserve its authority and continue its rule.

—

Williams, Counterinsurgency and community policing

Interface: a journal for and about social movements

Volume 3 (1): 81 - 117 (May 2011)