The policing response to rising protest action in the country has received increased attention in the last decade. This is particularly owing to concerns over confrontations during which protesters have been arrested, injured and in some instances killed by the police. Despite the criticism voiced by various stakeholders about the manner in which the police manage crowd gatherings, relatively little is known about the views of South African adults on the policing of protest action and the factors that shape such attitudes. To provide some insight, this article draws on data from a specialised module on protest-related attitudes and behaviour that was fielded as part of the 2016 round of the Human Sciences Research Council’s South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS) series. This nationally representative survey included specific questions probing the public’s overall evaluation of the performance of the police in dealing with protests, and the justifiability of the use of force in policing protest action. The article will present a national picture of people’s views on the policing of protest, based on these measures, and then determine the extent to which there are distinct underlying socio-demographic cleavages in these data. A combination of bivariate and multivariate analysis is undertaken in order to understand how perceptions of effectiveness, acceptability and reported participation in protest (especially disruptive and violent actions) shape people’s views regarding policing of protest. The article concludes with a discussion that reflects on the implications of the research for the policing of protest action in future, given the appreciable rise in the incidence of protest since the mid-2000s and the mounting tensions between state institutions and communities over the political, moral and constitutional arguments for and against such actions.

中文翻译：

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抗议布鲁斯：关于南非抗议活动维持治安的舆论

在过去的十年中，对该国不断上升的抗议行动的警务响应引起了越来越多的关注。尤其是由于担心冲突，抗议者被警察逮捕，受伤，有时甚至被杀害。尽管各利益相关者对警察管理人群聚会的方式提出了批评，但对于南非成年人对维持抗议行动的态度以及影响这种态度的因素知之甚少。为了提供一些见解，本文借鉴了与抗议相关的态度和行为的专业模块中的数据，该模块是人类科学研究委员会2016年南非社会态度调查（SASAS）系列中的一部分。这项具有全国代表性的调查包括一些具体问题，这些问题探讨了公众对警察在处理抗议活动中的表现的总体评估，以及在抗议活动维持治安中使用武力的合理性。本文将基于这些措施来展示人们对抗议维持治安的看法的全国情况，然后确定这些数据中存在明显的潜在社会人口统计学裂变的程度。进行了双变量和多变量分析相结合，以了解有效性，可接受性和所报道的抗议活动（尤其是破坏性和暴力行为）的看法如何影响人们对抗议活动的看法。