◆ SpookStack

Oct. 73 Cleaning up the Act: The Politics of ye. “a i z , 74 4 i ; PL ontes ym ; Nb gt a TRS ther \ t the Nashpoint of dysfunction—the burning of Watts, in August, 1965—the government made the first’ i conunitment of federal resources to police ' + lowed directly the. racial rebellions and radical , insurgencies of the last decade. If form follows js: ‘ function in design, reform. follows malfunction | ' * in politics: the impetus to redesign social institu: | . tions flows from their failure. ..* . -_ part we America together again. Long after anti-poverty, welfurt, educational and integrationist programs have been cut, impounded or abandoned, the potice Industry continues ' reform: an Office of Law Enforcement Assis- + flourish. . of so. tance. Then came a succession of national and state pro- ~ Administration officials of both the Johnson and Nixot jy’ an grams, 2 Presidential Commission, foundation projects and —¢ras created and fed the Law Enforcement Assisian® [/ _fascis academic studies. - Administration (LEAA). with a budget of billions and # $2: eco-s: ' Ail this activity was marked by the persistent belief that cast of thousands. The career reformers in the crit : Testo. : ike police regulate the quotient of law and order in the justice set formed the President's Commission on L&¥ BA)! R. : world, The spectacle of Mayor Daley's police provoking riot _ Enforcement and the Administration of Justice (the Crime fae -Bré lL in Chicago; of the Ohio National Guard blazing away at © Commission). ‘They studicd “the problem” and then sprexé Bae be " ‘ Kent State; of focal potice mired in corruption, indolence, ; out‘to various public and private institutions formed to di if ‘Yon and inefficiency; of the FBI barking up one wrong tree- |. withy It on the. terms their study had set.\One of tho® ¥ Fd a \ ‘ after another while Panthers, Weatherpcople, Mafiosi and “private Institutions is the Police Foundation, & Ford Fovt 3 ie draft dodgers slip away into freedom: it all suggested that “ dation. spin-off with $30 million to play With for its chat rae vit, 7 “ the machine of social control had ceased to operate:in It" " tered life-span of five years. oa. F its ‘ 7 most crucial capacity. To be sure, the managerial responsé .~ +2! in; the ecology of law and order, federal progrems aff Ah‘: sit to the threat of insurrection, riot and criminality ‘(ihe three private “foundations are suppoit-systems- that. féed molt ca}. Poh : are inextricably connected) was as varied as the perceptions... - vigorous but unrooted activities. Those wera undertaken by “wha ’ of the managers. The only constant was the expansidn of: . the" Central. Intelligence Agency,’ which created: and eke & ay a pate police power and the concentration on police reform, re- panded. a Domestic. Operations sectlon; by “the Treasury york, > : organization and redefinition as the principal means to put ,: Departinent,, which, under John 41, Caulfield, politicized it: “ . . 7 ves we ane ~*s? tn ‘ * ‘Y wn pet wa | bay } ere ge AED Pi ae ' . “Meltay ; by Andrew Kopkind: °°) yur x >» gr HE Gteae So