The origins of policing in America | Perspective
Summary
TLDRThe video script delves into the historical roots of American policing, tracing its origins from colonial times to the modern era. It highlights the early role of policing in controlling enslaved Africans and maintaining social order, emphasizing that police departments were designed to protect the interests of the wealthy and powerful. The script challenges the notion that police are broken, suggesting instead that they are functioning as intended, and calls for a reimagining of public safety that moves beyond traditional law enforcement.
Takeaways
- 🕵️ Policing in America has deep historical roots, dating back to Colonial times with night watches, local sheriffs, and militias.
- 🔒 The institution of policing was initially designed to control enslaved Africans and enforce slave codes, which regulated their movements and rights.
- 📜 The 13th Amendment abolished slavery except as punishment for a crime, leading to the creation of 'Black Codes' that criminalized Black freedom and re-enslaved many.
- 💼 After the Civil War, the South exploited legal loopholes to continue controlling the Black population through laws and practices that resembled slavery.
- 👮♂️ Police departments in the North were also created to control labor and maintain the status quo for the wealthy and powerful.
- 🏭 Early police forces were often corrupt and served the interests of business owners, acting as enforcers against labor unions and political dissent.
- 🛠 The Pennsylvania State Police, for example, originated from private forces meant to suppress worker rights and unionization efforts.
- 🚔 The history of policing is intertwined with the maintenance of social order that favored the elite, often at the expense of minority and working-class rights.
- ✋ Activists argue for the defunding or abolishment of the police, pointing to a history that shows the institution was not designed to serve all Americans equally.
- 🏗️ The script challenges the notion that police are broken, suggesting instead that they are operating as intended, and calls for the creation of new institutions focused on public safety.
Q & A
When did modern police departments first emerge in Northern cities?
-Modern police departments first emerged in Northern cities such as Boston in the 19th century.
What was the original purpose of law enforcement in the United States?
-The original purpose of law enforcement in the United States was to track and control enslaved Africans.
What were the duties of the slave patrols in the South during the 1700s?
-The slave patrols were tasked with capturing, controlling, and brutalizing enslaved people.
How were slave patrols enforced and regulated?
-Slave patrols were required to serve a tour of duty, usually up to a year, and individuals were compensated for their time but penalized if they did not show up for their required service.
What were the 'slave codes' and how did they impact enslaved people?
-Slave codes were laws meant to prevent enslaved people from organizing or rebelling, restricting their movements, gatherings, education, and self-defense.
How did the 'Black Codes' exploit the 13th Amendment after the Civil War?
-The 'Black Codes' essentially criminalized all forms of Black freedom by adopting broad vagrancy laws that targeted African-Americans who could not prove employment or challenged unfair labor terms.
What was the practice of convict-leasing and how did it benefit states and companies?
-Convict-leasing involved lending out prisoners to work in industries like mining and railroads, generating revenue for states and huge profits for companies using the cheap prison labor.
How did the role of police change after the Civil War and the rise of 'Black Codes'?
-After the Civil War and the rise of 'Black Codes', the police took over the former duties of slave patrols, effectively re-enslaving those who had gained freedom and enforcing the new laws that criminalized Black freedom.
What was the role of early police departments in the North regarding labor control?
-Early police departments in the North aimed to control labor, maintain political power, and were often involved in enforcing the will of the political elites and affluent classes over the poor and working class.
How did the Pennsylvania State Police originate and what was their initial purpose?
-The Pennsylvania State Police originated from private police forces owned by those running cons, with the explicit job of controlling workers trying to unionize for rights.
What is the argument for decoupling the idea of public safety from the police?
-The argument is that public safety should not be solely dependent on police, as they were historically created to serve the interests of the wealthy and powerful, not necessarily to address social issues like crime, inequality, or poverty.
Outlines
🔍 Origins and Evolution of Policing in America
This paragraph delves into the historical roots of American policing, tracing its origins back to colonial times with night watches, local sheriffs, and militias. It highlights the establishment of modern police departments in the 19th century, particularly in Northern cities like Boston. The paragraph emphasizes the role of policing in the South during the 1700s, where slave patrols were tasked with capturing and controlling enslaved Africans. These patrols were an early form of law enforcement, with all white individuals, including children, expected to enforce slave codes that restricted the freedoms of enslaved people. After the Civil War, the South exploited a loophole in the 13th Amendment through 'Black Codes,' which criminalized various aspects of Black life, leading to a system of convict-leasing that effectively re-enslaved many. The paragraph concludes by discussing the role of police in maintaining the social order and the status quo, particularly in relation to race and labor.
🏭 Policing and Labor Control in the Industrial Era
The second paragraph explores the connection between policing and labor control during the period of mass European immigration and rapid industrialization. It discusses how early police departments in the North were created to manage labor and maintain order, often being corrupt and serving the interests of the wealthy and powerful. The Pennsylvania State Police is cited as an example, with its origins in private police forces aimed at controlling workers and preventing unionization. The paragraph argues that the history of policing in the United States has been about protecting a select few, rather than serving the broader public. It touches on the current calls from activists to defund or abolish the police, suggesting that public safety can be decoupled from the institution of policing. The paragraph concludes by questioning the effectiveness of police in addressing social issues like crime, inequality, and mental health, and proposes the need for alternative institutions to ensure public safety.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Policing
💡Slave Patrols
💡Black Codes
💡Convict-Leasing
💡Political Elites
💡Labor Control
💡Defunding the Police
💡Public Safety
💡Institutional Racism
💡Abolishment of Police
💡Social Control
Highlights
The concept of policing in America has deep historical roots, with origins in colonial times.
Early forms of law enforcement were primarily focused on controlling enslaved Africans.
The 19th century saw the establishment of modern police departments in Northern cities like Boston.
Slave patrols in the South were official, salaried groups tasked with capturing and brutalizing enslaved people.
All white individuals, including children, were expected to enforce slave codes that restricted the freedom of enslaved people.
The 13th Amendment's loophole allowed the South to pass 'Black Codes', further controlling the lives of freed slaves.
Convict-leasing became a profitable practice, effectively re-enslaving freed individuals and providing cheap labor.
The police were instrumental in maintaining the subservience of Black people to white domination post-Civil War.
Early Northern police departments were created to control labor and were known for their corruption.
Police often served the interests of the wealthy, enforcing political will and suppressing labor unrest.
The Pennsylvania State Police originated from private forces used to control workers and prevent unionization.
The history of policing is one of serving a select few, often at the expense of marginalized communities.
Activists call for defunding or abolishing the police, citing its history as a reason for its current failures.
The concept of public safety must be decoupled from the police to address social issues effectively.
The history of policing shows that it was never solely about crime prevention but also about social control.
The institution of policing was created to serve the interests of the wealthy and powerful, not the general public.
The role of police in society needs to be reimagined to truly serve public safety and address social inequalities.
Transcripts
-I think there's a lot of people who say,
"Yeah, I know the police are broken.
Let's just enact the reforms that will fix it."
But the question for me is,
if the police are broken, when did they break?
What year in American history did the police break?
-It seems really trite to say if you don't study history,
you're doomed to repeat it.
But nothing illustrates
that more than the history of policing.
-Policing in one form or another has existed since Colonial days.
In the form of night watches, local sheriffs, and militias.
But it wasn't until the 19th century that Northern cities
such as Boston created modern police departments
as we would recognize them today.
These Northern departments
were not the first example of a uniformed,
publicly funded law-enforcement institution in America.
-By the time the Northern colonies were were afoot
in the 17th century, the idea of keeping track
of the most valuable asset in the United States,
that is enslaved Africans, animated much
of what we recognize today as law enforcement.
-In the 1700s, the South saw the rise of official,
salaried slave patrols,
whose task was to capture control,
and brutalize enslaved people.
[hoofbeats]
-The initial acts that empowered slave patrols and militias
were acts that basically empowered all white people
to surveil and punish all black people.
-These slave patrols were required
to serve a tour of duty, usually up to a year.
Individuals were compensated for their time,
but they were also penalized
if they did not show up for their required service.
-All white people, including white children,
were expected to enforce so-called slave codes.
These laws were meant to prevent enslaved people
from organizing or rebelling.
It was against the law, for example,
for enslaved people to leave their plantations,
gather without a white person present, learn to read or write,
or even defend themselves if attacked by a white person.
After the Civil War,
the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery
except as a punishment for a crime.
-The South immediate moves to exploit this loophole
by passing a series of crime bills known as "Black Codes,"
which essentially criminalized all forms of Black freedom.
They criminalize unemployment
by adopting these very broad vagrancy laws
that essentially criminalize any Black person
who can't prove that they're working.
Any African-American who challenges the terms of work,
barters or brokers for a better deal,
turns down a terrible offer,
walks away from an abusive employer
or a relationship with a landowner
by definition becomes a vagrant,
and by definition becomes a criminal.
They could then be sold at sheriff's auction back
to the very person who had just claimed
that they were a criminal by virtue
of not accepting a fair-labor deal.
-This practice of convict-leasing earned revenues
for the states who lent out their prisoners,
and huge profits for the companies using
this prison labor in mining, railroads, and other industries.
The new laws effectively re-enslaved those who had
just gained their freedom and required new police
to take over the former duties of the slave patrols.
-When you have Black people serving in political offices
for the first time,
when you have Black landowners in abundance,
when you have Black professionals,
there are reconstructionary judges,
the stakes are even higher for this everyday performance
of Black subservience to white domination.
It is the police who will ultimately serve
that function of reminding
Black people, in many cases, their lower status in society.
-What we see is that that general way
of thinking about race
and thinking about disorderly people never really changes.
It's kind of woven into the DNA.
But it's not just because individual police officers
are racist.
It's because the institution was literally created
to make sure that wealthy and powerful people
could extract labor.
-Early police departments in the North had a similar goal
to control labor and were notoriously corrupt.
-The police functioned as an expression
of political elites and powerful,
affluent people who essentially wanted poor people to stay
in their segregated slum communities.
Police often functioned as enforcers of political machines,
functioned one step removed from gangs.
-Police often worked in the service of business owners,
who were faced with growing unrest among their labor
forces in the wake of mass European immigration
and rapid industrialization.
-One of the best examples of this
is the Pennsylvania State Police.
The institutions that precede the Pennsylvania State Police
are actually private police forces
which are owned by people who are running cons.
And their job is explicitly to control the workers
who are trying to unionize for rights.
-The story of policing in the United States
is the story of systems meant to protect
and serve only a fraction of Americans.
It is this history that many of today's activists point
to when calling for the defunding
or even the abolishment of police.
-The cops not protecting us! We got to protect us.
-The ability to police crime or inequality or poverty
or races or whatever was the social problem to be solved
by law enforcement
was always an act of political power and discretion.
And it just so happens that African-Americans
have stood in that position
for the longest of any other population.
-What the history does is it allows us
to decouple the idea of public safety
from the idea of police.
What actually protects women from rape
and from sexual assault, right?
What actually stops people in communities,
both Black and white, from killing each other?
What kinds of things actually help people
who are mentally ill?
Are those things police?
And I think very quickly once you reflect on that,
you realize the answer is no.
We have to stop saying police are broken.
We have to say police are working,
and we have to create another institution to do public safety.
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