The Violence of Fear: Racist Ideologies, Police Perceptions of Threat, and Inequality in Policing

Sherina Feliciano-Santos, University Of South Carolina (Linguistic Anthropology) The escalation of violence by police is often justified as being based on split-second decisions where a law enforcement official’s perception of threat is posited as sufficient warrant for their behavior. While such justifications are posed as rational and equitable, recent events have made explicit a pattern of bias