- According to Alexander the rhetoric of “law and order” was first mobilized in the late 1950’s with an attempt to “generate and mobilized white opposition to the Civil Rights Movement”. Civil right activists used “direct-action tactics in an effort to force reluctant Southern states to desegregate public facilities” . Alexander further states that “Southern governors and law enforcement officials often characterized these tactics as criminal and argued that the rise of the Civil Rights Movement was indicative of a breakdown of law and order”.
Alexander in her researched reveals the fact that “For more than a decade—from the mid-1950s until the late 1960s conservatives systematically and strategically linked opposition to civil rights legislation to calls for law and order, arguing that Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy of civil disobedience was a leading cause of crime. Civil rights protests were frequently depicted as criminal rather than political in nature, and federal courts were accused of excessive “lenience” toward lawlessness, thereby contributing to the spread of crime”. (p. 40-41)
Special advantages:
- Label people who engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience and protests as criminals and lawbreakers.
- Stop violators of segregation, who threatens the social order
- Crackdown on lawbreakers
2. No! In retrospect the past several decades in American politics has show:
- The demographic of the country is changing every year with a more racially diverse population.
- Police activities throughout the nation of outright brutalities toward mainly African American men such as George Floyd sparked nationwide protest of all background bringing awareness to many Americans and changing the minds of many.
- Most Americans are moderate to conservative on immigration and other concerning issues.
- In recent years the nation elected the very first African American President, not once but twice
- Election results and the leaders promoted to represent the people vacillate from one party to the next to assume power. For instance, the recent election saw the rise of the Democratic Party and demise of the Republicans; this may certainly change next time around.
