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The history of the US police is firmly rooted in slave patrols, so your suspicion is pretty much spot on.

gamblor956 6y ago
That is wrong. Police forces originated in North, where slavery was outlawed. Slave patrols were not formed until nearly 70 years later. https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united-states-part-1 https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united...
- groby_b 6y ago
  Did you bother to actually, you know, READ the article you shared? "It was not until the 1830s that the idea of a centralized municipal police department first emerged in the United States" vs. ". The first formal slave patrol was created in the Carolina colonies in 1704" Slave patrols predate municipal police departments by 100+ years. And for additional clarity, let's draw the link: " Following the Civil War, these vigilante-style organizations evolved in modern Southern police departments primarily as a means of controlling freed slaves who were now laborers working in an agricultural caste system, and enforcing "Jim Crow" segregation laws, designed to deny freed slaves equal rights and access to the political system." You're right in that northern police forces were more interested in protecting mercantile interests. And that's where we get the core functions of our police system: Protect the interests of the moneyed class (north) and suppress minorities (south) But citing this article as evidence that US police isn't rooted in slave patrols is... bold choice, Cotton.
  - gamblor956 6y ago
    Yes, especially the part where it states that private police organizations were formed in multiple Northeastern colonies in the 1630s...or more than 70 years before the first slave patrols. (See also https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/ https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/ which does a better job with its terminology.) Unlike slave patrols, the Northeastern police organizations were the model for the formal police organizations formed in the 1800s. If you're going to make an argument about timing, you need to get a better grasp on how time flows. (Hint: 1704 is a bigger number than 1630, so it comes later in the progression of time.)
- wpietri 6y ago
  If you think the North's lack of slavery means a lack of officially supported anti-black violence, you should think again. Loewen's Sundown Towns documents widespread ethnic cleansing across the US in the 1890-1920 period. Prominent examples include the Tulsa Race Massacre, but in smaller places than Tulsa they had an easier time of it. Then as white flight took hold in the 1950s, there are plenty of examples of anti-black state violence. Especially when newly-created all-white suburbs and towns were eager to kick out any black people who might want to move in.
  - gamblor956 6y ago
    Way to create a strawman there pal. My point was that informal police organizations were the basis for the formal police organizations that followed, not the slave patrols. The North also had slave patrols for several decades and was almost as racist as the South during the post-Civil War era. They just did a better job of hiding it. (By the way, Oklahoma was below the Mason-Dixon line and would have been considered a slave state if it had been a state at the start of the Civil War. As it was, Oklahoma was then known as the Indian Territory and most of the tribes owned slaves and fought on behalf of the Confederacy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Territory_in_the_American_Civil_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Territory_in_the_Americ...)
dragonwriter 6y ago
> The history of the US police is firmly rooted in slave patrols, American professional police forces actually have their more direct origins in ethnic gangs given state sanction to control other ethnic gangs in the urban north, as that's what the first official local police forces were, though southern slave patrols were around earlier, evolved into police forces in the south, and played a significant role in the further development of national policing norms. Of course, both the northern and southern influences contribute to why both racism and warrior (as opposed to guardian) mindset are deeply entrenched in American policing.

That is wrong. Police forces originated in North, where slavery was outlawed. Slave patrols were not formed until nearly 70 years later. https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united-states-part-1 https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united...

groby_b 6y ago
Did you bother to actually, you know, READ the article you shared? "It was not until the 1830s that the idea of a centralized municipal police department first emerged in the United States" vs. ". The first formal slave patrol was created in the Carolina colonies in 1704" Slave patrols predate municipal police departments by 100+ years. And for additional clarity, let's draw the link: " Following the Civil War, these vigilante-style organizations evolved in modern Southern police departments primarily as a means of controlling freed slaves who were now laborers working in an agricultural caste system, and enforcing "Jim Crow" segregation laws, designed to deny freed slaves equal rights and access to the political system." You're right in that northern police forces were more interested in protecting mercantile interests. And that's where we get the core functions of our police system: Protect the interests of the moneyed class (north) and suppress minorities (south) But citing this article as evidence that US police isn't rooted in slave patrols is... bold choice, Cotton.
- gamblor956 6y ago
  Yes, especially the part where it states that private police organizations were formed in multiple Northeastern colonies in the 1630s...or more than 70 years before the first slave patrols. (See also https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/ https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/ which does a better job with its terminology.) Unlike slave patrols, the Northeastern police organizations were the model for the formal police organizations formed in the 1800s. If you're going to make an argument about timing, you need to get a better grasp on how time flows. (Hint: 1704 is a bigger number than 1630, so it comes later in the progression of time.)
wpietri 6y ago
If you think the North's lack of slavery means a lack of officially supported anti-black violence, you should think again. Loewen's Sundown Towns documents widespread ethnic cleansing across the US in the 1890-1920 period. Prominent examples include the Tulsa Race Massacre, but in smaller places than Tulsa they had an easier time of it. Then as white flight took hold in the 1950s, there are plenty of examples of anti-black state violence. Especially when newly-created all-white suburbs and towns were eager to kick out any black people who might want to move in.
- gamblor956 6y ago
  Way to create a strawman there pal. My point was that informal police organizations were the basis for the formal police organizations that followed, not the slave patrols. The North also had slave patrols for several decades and was almost as racist as the South during the post-Civil War era. They just did a better job of hiding it. (By the way, Oklahoma was below the Mason-Dixon line and would have been considered a slave state if it had been a state at the start of the Civil War. As it was, Oklahoma was then known as the Indian Territory and most of the tribes owned slaves and fought on behalf of the Confederacy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Territory_in_the_American_Civil_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Territory_in_the_Americ...)

dragonwriter 6y ago

> The history of the US police is firmly rooted in slave patrols, American professional police forces actually have their more direct origins in ethnic gangs given state sanction to control other ethnic gangs in the urban north, as that's what the first official local police forces were, though southern slave patrols were around earlier, evolved into police forces in the south, and played a significant role in the further development of national policing norms. Of course, both the northern and southern influences contribute to why both racism and warrior (as opposed to guardian) mindset are deeply entrenched in American policing.