America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s

The first chapter of America on Fire is titled “The Cycle,” referring to a major recurring theme throughout the book: how acts of repression by law enforcement instigate a violent response from the people, which then leads to more draconian police aggression, which then leads to more violent rebellion. Using dozens of examples from the 1960s to the present, Hinton demonstrates that throughout America’s history, any attempts from Black communities to improve their situation or demand greater equality have been met with violent repression by an increasingly militarized police force, resulting in an escalation of conflict rather than a return to peace and order.

Hinton argues that while violent rebellions often get blamed on Black Americans, the cycle of violence actually begins with the police, whose mere presence in Black neighborhoods is often seen as inherently invasive and oppressive. In her case studies, Hinton asserts that law enforcement in Black neighborhoods often acted more aggressively than they did in white neighborhoods, intervening even in innocent activities like football games and using disrespectful language with Black residents. When one Black protester was asked why he was throwing rocks and bottles at policemen, he responded, “Why do police hit people on the heads with their clubs?” (27). The hostility of Black communities toward police, in turn, increased the police’s paranoia and hostility toward Black people, making them more likely to violently overreact to conflicts. Stories of supposed Black snipers led law enforcement officers to fire on innocent civilians and, in some cases, possibly each other, which only fueled the conflicts further.

The cycle of repression and violence can be clearly seen in all of the incidents Hinton discusses in this book. In the example of the public schools, teenagers who had peacefully sought reforms in their schools were met with law enforcement officers willing to arrest them as soon as they “[stepped] out of line” (148). This overly aggressive response, rather than ending the conflict, only caused the students to resort to violent rebellion, and pushed the conflict out of the schools and into the streets of the city. These teenage rebels were then faced with military-grade violence from police. The Black teenage activist Claude Barnes recalled seeing “all these little high school kids, bloodied, reeking of tear gas […] confronted with police in full riot gear” (163), an image that shows the dramatic difference in power between the two sides, and highlights the aggression of the police’s response. Law enforcement’s overreaction to student protesters only made the problem worse, and in multiple cases resulted in the deaths of innocent people.

The historical accounts in America on Fire repeatedly suggest that this cycle of repression and violence can only be broken through social and political reforms, not through an increase in police presence and aggression. Otherwise, Hinton suggests, the cycle will inevitably continue to wreak destruction in Black communities.