Adam Elliott-Cooper /// Black Resistance to British Policing

This conversation with Adam Elliott-Cooper revolves around his book, Black Resistance to British Policing (2021). We talk about the colonial genealogy of British policing (in Ireland, Trinidad, Malaya, and Kenya in particular) and the construction of the figure (collective or individual) of the suspect as a legitimization of this policing. We also talk about Black resistance to it, the crucial role of women activists, the paradigm embodied by the 2011 police murder of Mark Duggan and the massive revolts that followed, as well as the possibilities of solidarity.

Adam Elliott-Cooper is a lecturer in social and public policy, Queen Mary University of London. He is author of Black Resistance to British Policing (Manchester University Press 2021) He is also co-author of Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State (Pluto Press, 2021). Adam sits on the board of The Monitoring Group, an anti-racist organisation challenging state racisms and racial violence.