Jerome H. Skolnick

The escalation of violence between police and dissenters is a cause of alarm and concern to all Americans. From the quiet "teach-ins" to protest the war in Vietnam to the fullscale conflict between angry police and jeering demonstrators in Chicago, the hatred and ugliness on both sides has grown. This factual report, prepared for the national Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence by a staff of leading social scientists and scholars, deals with political violence in American history, student activism in the '60s, the direction of black militancy, white racism, and the dangerous use of the police as a rpressive force against social change. Most importantly, it relates the outbreaks of violence to the current crises in American institutions and asserts that official violence on the part of law enformcement officers is a major cause of escalated conflict for which the authorities themslves must take responsibility.… (meer)