The Racist Roots of American Law Enforcement

The police have killed another innocent black American in the US. His name is George Floyd. His name is another added to the long list of black Americans killed by the hands of the police. Only a few weeks ago we saw the public execution of Ahmaud Aubrey, via a video that leaked on May 5 showing his brutal murder that happened on February 23. In March, we saw the execution of Breonna Taylor at her home, where police shot over 20 rounds into her apartment, leaving her to die, being shot 8 times. The murder of black Americans is due to the cultural and institutional racism that’s rampant in America, the criminalising of black skin, which more often than not, does not even lead to the people committing these crimes being put behind bars, but rather receive a slap on the wrist; implying that black American lives are disposable. To put it into perspective, the cultural and institutional racism that plagues America, we need only look at a report by Al Jazeera, where they found that the number of killings by the police disproportionately affects black Americans. Despite making up just 13% of the US population, black Americans are two-and-a-half times more likely to be killed by the police, compared to their white counterparts (Haddad, Aljazeera, 2019). But why?

The answer lies within the history of American policing. The origins of which stem from the slave patrols and squadrons of white volunteers, who enforced laws related to slavery; “The similarities between the slave patrols and modern American policing are too salient to dismiss or ignore. Hence, the slave patrol should be considered a forerunner of modern American law enforcement.” (Turner, Giacopassi, Vandiver, Ignoring the Past: Coverage of Slavery and Slave Patrols in Criminal Justice Texts, 2006, p. 186). The slave patrols duties consisted of breaking up slave rebellions, returning runaway slaves to plantation owners, and searching the lodgings of slaves; they were known for their brutality and ruthlessness. These patrols first arose in the southern slaveholding states, emerging in the early 18th century. The patrols have also been identified as the first publicly funded police agencies in the American South. By the end of the 18th century, every state that had not abolished slavery had slave patrols, according to professor Michael A. Robinson, of the University of Georgia. These patrols remained during and after the Civil War and were not wholly disbanded until after slavery, after which there was an emergence of groups which sought control over black Americans, replacing the former slave patrols (one of which was the Klu Klux Klan).

The newly established police departments in America throughout the 19th century operated in the same manner as the slave patrols. For instance, academics David and Melissa Barlow have noted that by 1837 the police department in Charleston had around 100 officers whose primary function was to regulate the movements of slaves and free blacks, enforcing Slave Codes, preventing slave revolts, and acting as a state-sponsored slave patrol. Various scholars and historians have stated that throughout the South, countless slave patrols seamlessly transitioned into publicly funded police agencies.

The origins of the modern police force, emerging from slave patrols reveal the institutional and cultural racism that founded many modern police departments. The slave patrol attitudes of the police continued after they were apparently ‘dispanded’ as black Americans became subjected to racist government policy via the Black codes and later with the initiating of the Jim Crow Laws.

The Black Codes were introduced after the Civil War — but these types of laws existed prior to the Civil War and were known as Slave Codes — as a way to control the black population, restricting their freedom politically, economically, and socially, ensuring the dominance of white Americans. Many Northern states, including Michigan and New York, implemented Black Codes as a way to prevent migration of black Americans to their states. These Black Codes were also based on the former Slave Codes and had broad vagrancy laws, allowing black Americans to be arrested for minor infractions and subjected to involuntary labour, which writer Douglas A. Blackmon, has regarded as “slavery by another name” (Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, 2008). This system of imprisonment and limiting of freedoms remains prevalent to this day, seeing black Americans make up most of the prison population by 33%, despite black Americans only making up 12% of the overall US population, from a census done in 2017 (Pew Research Center, 2019). The culture of criminalising black Americans has been written into the laws of the US since its foundation. A culture that has not changed much considering the disproportionate imprisonment of black Americans to their white counterparts; resembling the Black Codes of the 19th century seeing the incarceration of black Americans for minor infractions, as is commonly seen today in the 21st century.

A few decades after the Black Codes were enacted the Jim Crow Laws were introduced, lasting around 80 years, but never truly ended as Michelle Alexander has suggested in her book The New Jim Crow, but rather reconstructed. These law’s primary motive was the subjugation of black Americans and the removal of their civil rights and were enforced by the police violently. White Americans also took it upon themselves to subjugate black Americans by forming murderous mobs — resembling the former slave patrols — that killed black Americans indiscriminately; seeing these bloodthirsty mobs unpunished by the police nor held accountable, but somewhat encouraged, as the police would not intervene when black Americans were being executed by racist mobs. The racist police culture has not changed much, which as Michelle Alexander has stated allows the police “to rely on race as a factor in selecting whom to stop and search (even though people of color are no more likely to be guilty of drug crimes than whites) — effectively guaranteeing that those swept into the system are primarily black and brown.” (Alexander, The New Jim Crow, p. 185).

The legacy of slave patrols and squadrons which laid the foundations for many modern police departments has evidently not rid itself of its racist culture, due to the continued execution of black Americans by the police; which the Washington Post has revealed is disproportionately high compared to the overall population. A total of 229 (23%) black Americans were killed by police out of a total 992, in 2018, despite now only making up 13% of the overall population (Washington Post, 2018). To add, the criminalising of black skin is forever present as a study by Standford University indicates. A research team collected data from 2011 to 2017 from around 100 million traffic stops, in search of racial profiling, the team found that black Americans were far more likely to be stopped compared to white Americans (Pierson, Simoiu, Overgoor, et al., A large-scale analysis of racial disparities in police stops across the United States, 2020). Indicating that in the eyes of law enforcement it’s a crime to be black.

The racist roots of American law enforcement remain racist to this very day, clearly displayed by the protests throughout the US against police brutality and the murder of black Americans — culminating in the largest protests seen in decades. The actions of the police have shown their disregard for black lives, as is seen by the murder of another black American, David Mcatee, during the present protests. They would rather respond to protestors with a militarised police force, seeing the killing and injuring of demonstrators, than to deal with the problem at hand — the deep, institutional racism which exists within the American police force and America as a whole.

Rest in power to all those who have lost their lives at the hands of the racist police force.

Donation & petition links:

George Floyd Memorial Fund —

https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd

Ahmaud Aubrey Fund — https://www.gofundme.com/f/i-run-with-maud

Breonna Taylor petition — https://www.change.org/p/andy-beshear-justice-for-breonna-taylor

David Mcatee Fund — https://www.gofundme.com/f/justicefordavidmcatee