Summary
This is a reprint of the report of the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, set up by the Johnson Administration in 1968—following massive and often violent civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protests—to analyze violent protest and make recommendations on how to reduce it. The report examined antiwar, student, and black protest, and studied the responses of the law enforcement and judicial communities to violent protest. It had a significant influence on policymakers and law enforcers. It has now been reissued with a new introduction discussing the relevance of the report’s findings to an understanding of present day forms of protests, including anti-Iraq War demonstrations, face-offs between environmentalists and developers, and the continued spectre of street violence between cops and people of disadvantaged communities.