ABSTRACT
The above cases, a century and an ocean apart, nevertheless share a number of themes of interest in this chapter. Historically, policing has played the role of last resort, when all appeals to morality, common sense, religion etc. fail. In the case of whiteness, policing has not been just about the defence of material privileges built around property laws, etc., but also about the defence of a more symbolic order, one to do with identities (both masculine and feminine), values and borders. The perceived threats to both material and symbolic orders have been simultaneously racialised and underpinned by sexual fears, as illustrated by the Ripper and O.J. cases. Hence the murdered prostitutes stood for a wayward white femininity in the Ripper story whilst Nicole Brown Simpson embodied the risks associated with interracial sexual relations.
