Police have been serving communities since officially since only the 1800s. Today they are a staple in American society but the first full-time force wasn’t begun until 1838 in Boston. The city was motivated enough by the threats to their shipping yards that they convinced citizens it was in the greater interest to have full time police officers. And a police force was born.
The history of policing in the South, however, was much different. Policing began on the backdrop of slavery — a different economic motivation. The system that would transform into today’s policing began as slave patrols. These patrols were created to capture and return slaves in addition to instilling fear so that they would not attempt to escape. Policing was used as a means to control and instill fear. Unfortunately, we’re still experiencing a system founded on these two characteristics.
The involvement and influence of the Ku Klux Klan in law enforcement dates back to these early years and generational ideologies and generational families of law enforcement have allowed that mentality to continue to impact today’s police operations. The impact is evident in the lack of people of color on police forces when they began and the laws that supported police departments’ unspoken mission of fear and control. These included social laws and even laws on use and ownership of guns by non-whites. Find out about the FBI’s investigation into the infiltration of neo-nazi groups into law enforcement.
You can get further perspective from this Time article that inspired this blog post.
Links:
