Police, Picket-Lines and Fatalities

Police, Picket-lines and Fatalities explores public protests and their management by the police, focusing on the fatalities of strikers at the hands of police and outlining practices towards preventing such tragedies. Uniquely examining the only three worker fatalities in Australian industrial history due to police use of deadly force, this book analyses the frenzied policing involvement that led to the deaths; the lack of accountability of police leadership and individual actions; government and press partisanship; and the deficiencies in criminal justice administration. Baker ultimately questions: were the police merely performing their duty by enforcing the law or were they agents complicit in reckless violence and collusion? With analysis of the recent police shooting of 34 platinum miners at Marikana, South Africa in 2012, Baker looks at the lessons of these case-studies, both past and contemporary, to provide specific applications for developing best practice of police and union peace-keeping protocols during industrial protests and the wider issues pertinent to public order policing of demonstrations in general.

“This book is a valuable addition to the literature on labour history, industrial relations, and public order policing, especially for Australian readers. … Situated at the crossroads between these three subfields, it offers a very accessible introduction for undergraduate and postgraduate students, while extending to scholars an intriguing invitation to think more carefully about the conditions under which the police resort to violence against strikers and protesters.” (Raul A. Sanchez Urribarri, Labour History, Issue 111, November, 2016) 

David Baker is Head of Criminal Justice at Federation University Australia. After employment at the Victoria Police Academy, David worked at Monash University from 1991 to 2013 and is author of Batons and Blockades (2005).