“Activism by Cop”: Police Interventions as Protest Strategy

This article introduces the concept of “ Activism by cop” to describe situations in which protesters deliberately elicit police response to generate symbolic images, media attention, and leverage responses from authorities. We argue that in contemporary protest contexts, protesters do not merely anticipate police repression, but actively stage, elicit, and choreograph intervention as part of a mediatized and interactional performance. Elicited interventions become part of a coordinated performance and democratic dance wherein protesters and police co-produce moments of confrontation, shaping political narratives and propelling struggles over legitimacy into public and political arenas. We analyze how protesters incorporate police intervention into their action repertoire through a case study of a Dutch protest (2025) involving ethnography, (video elicitation) interviews, and (social) media analysis. Based on our analysis, we theorize activism by cop as an agentic tactic that integrates moral claim-making, civil disobedience, and state interaction. Our analysis builds on literature regarding activist tactical choices and narratives, the “new visibility” of policing, and protest policing. We also show how police struggle with elicited intervention, and they respond with institutional logics of legality, order, and public legitimacy. This article demonstrates that policing styles and repression are not merely structural constraints but become tactical resources that activists deliberately and agentically activate to create, manipulate, and reconfigure the political opportunity structure through interaction with the state. In doing so, they actively engage with—and seek to reconfigure—the repressive dimensions of the political opportunity structure itself.