Police, politics, and culture in a deeply divided society

A review of the academic literature in the field of police-minority relations in deeply divided societies reveals that tense relations between the minority and the police are a frequent phenomenon. One of the sources of this tension is the political and social marginality of the minority, which is most often accompanied by unbalanced and unfair policing (Brewer 1991; Brewer and Brewer 1994; Weitzer 1990, 1995). Researchers emphasize the centrality of the political variable in understanding police-minority interactions in deeply divided societies. In fact, often hovering above deeply divided democratic societies is the question of the legitimacy of the political regime in the eyes of the minority group.