Note
"September 2002"
“The protest demonstrations to be analyzed are the following: Demonstrations against the Australian International Defence Exhibition (AIDEX), Mitchell, Australia, 1991; Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) demonstrations at Queen’s Park, Toronto, 1996; demonstrations against public school closures in Saint0Sauveur and Saint-Simon, New Brunswick, 1997; demonstrations at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, Vancouver, 1997; demonstrations at APEC meetings (largely directed at the President of China), New Zealand, 1999; and demonstrations at the World Economic Forum, Melbourne, Australia, 2000.”--Page 39.
Thesis (M.A.)--University of Ottawa, 2002.
Résumé
"Public events such as protest demonstrations can lead to violent confrontations between protesters and police. This study attempts to identify factors that may lead to the excessive use of force by police at protest demonstrations. A review of the literature revealed nine factors that may influence police behaviour: the presence of aggressive and violent protesters, high levels of officer stress, high levels of officer aggression, a loss of professional self-control, the influence of personal problems and the attitudes of individual officers, the influence of peer relations and the police subculture, insufficient and inadequate supervision, inadequate training and equipment, and insufficient and inaccurate communication, information, and planning. An analysis was conducted of six investigative reports of alleged excessive use of force by police at protest demonstrations. The results indicate that the predominant factor that led to the excessive use of force was insufficient and inaccurate communication, information, and planning by police and security personnel. Limitations of this thesis include the small number of official inquiry reports available; the subjective nature of coding, scoring, and ranking of factors; and the possibility that not all the factors that were identified in this study were considered by investigators of each of the six events as having contributed to the excessive use of force. The general purpose of this study is to provide police with comprehensive information regarding elements of policing which affect their actions when in crowd control or protest situations."--Abstract.