49 The Capitol Insurrection and Asymmetrical Policing: David Cunningham (EF, JP)

Recall This Book

We first heard from the sociologist of American racism David Cunningham in Episode 36 Policing and White Power. Less than a week after the horrors of January 6th, he came back for an extended conversation about “asymmetrical policing” of the political right and left–and of White and Black Americans. His very first book (There’s Something Happening Here, 2004) studied the contrast between the FBI’s work in the 1960’s to wipe out left-wing and Black protests and its efforts to control and tame right-wing and white supremacist movements. That gives him a valuable perspective on the run-up to January 6th–and what may happen next.

“The FBI was seeking to eliminate left-wing threats….with the Klan…the overriding motive was to control…not to eliminate.”

Mentioned in the Episode

JUST PUBLISHED: Subsequent to this episode’s release, David Cunningham collaborated on this article about the “common pattern of underestimating the threat from right-wing extremists.”

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  Ulster Defence Association

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  Oklahoma City Bombing

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  2017 Charlottesville Rally

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  source: The New York Times, Jan 6, 2021

• Kathleen Belew, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America

• Ulster Defence Association

• Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing: FBI perspective and reported book

• Two of the “after-action” reports on Charlottesville that David discusses are:

“Independent Review of the 2017 Protest Events in Charlottesville, Virginia” (Hunton and Williams 2017)

“Virginia’s Response to the Unite the Right Rally: After-Action Review” (International Association of Chiefs of Police, December 2017)

• Lessons Charlottesville (should have) taught us: “Prohibiting Private Armies at Public Rallies” (Georgetown Law School, Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and protection, September 2020).

Listen and Read

49 Transcript: David Cunningham and asymmetric policing

Upcoming Episodes

First, another rapid responses to the Capitol attack of January 6th. Episode 50 is a discussion of the racially-inflected genealogy of the words that are used to describe uprisings, rebellions and riots. Joining us is Brandeis historian Greg Childs, expert on political mobilizations and revolutions in the Americas.

Next, we are delighted to pick up our pandemic-interrupted Recall This Buck series by speaking with the brilliant French economic historian Thomas Piketty, tackling questions of wealth inequality, the failures of capitalism as ideology, and the depressing rise of “Brahmin left” political parties. Adaner Usmani (you know him from episode 44 on mass incarceration) co-hosts with JP.