Brown and Blue

Mexican Americans, Law Enforcement, and Civil Rights in the Southwest, 1935-2025

By: Brian D. Behnken

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Paperback | 18 November 2025

At a Glance

Paperback
336 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
15.5 x 23.4 x 2.4

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$89.75

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This sweeping history tells a story of fits and starts of Mexican Americans' interactions with law enforcement and the criminal justice system in the US Southwest. Looking at primarily Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas, it tells a complex story: that violent, often racist acts committed by police against Mexican American people sparked protests demanding reform, and criminal justice authorities frequently responded positively to these protests with reforms such as recruiting Mexican Americans into local police forces or altering training procedures at police academies. Brian D. Behnken demonstrates the central role that the struggle for police reform played in the twentieth-century Chicano movement, whose relevance continues today. By linking social activism and law enforcement, Behnken illuminates how the policing issues of today developed and what reform remains to be done.

Industry Reviews

"In today's highly charged political atmosphere, Brown and Blue is a timely, powerful, provoking, and much-needed first-class education in the dynamics of 'ethnic control' that reveals the troubling realities of (in)justice in the US Southwest and helps us to better understand the American experience while advancing police reform, justice, and human dignity." --Martin Guevara Urbina, coauthor of Latino Police Officers in the United States: Practice, Policy, and Leadership "A tour de force account of police brutality against Mexican and Mexican American people in the US Southwest. This important book places police brutality against Mexican and Mexican American people at the very center of carceral histories."--Robert T. Chase, author of We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners' Rights in Postwar America "A vitally needed study of the relationship between law enforcement, violence, and Chicano civil rights activism across the Southwest."--Max Felker-Kantor, author of DARE to Say No: Policing and the War on Drugs in Schools

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