Policing, Power, and Protests: Landscapes of Surveillance in Private and Public Spaces in Lower Manhattan

In decades since 11 September 2001 (9/11), surveillance and policing within the United States have increased manifold and, with them, protests against the systemic racism and classism embedded in these practices. These practices go back beyond the 21st century—these modes of policing, power, and protests against them are not new. Due to urban spaces’ concentration of political, economic, and social power and the sheer density of people, they can quickly take on material and symbolic importance that can last for centuries. As public protests increase, so do countermeasures from those wielding power in the forms of both formal and informal policing and surveillance. These policing measures also leave material traces in the landscape, working to create a palimpsest of trauma across urban terrains. The lineage of a surveillance landscape as seen in policing, power, and protest in Lower Manhattan, will be explored through a documentary archaeological approach to examine the residual trauma left in public spaces.