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Historically, this is what police were in the Northeast US. (In the South, police trace their heritage to slave patrols. I'm sure they would argue that these pa

Historically, this is what police were in the Northeast US. (In the South, police trace their heritage to slave patrols. I'm sure they would argue that these patrols were also just defending property. Gross.) Landowners and merchants hired private police to watch over their holdings. Over time, they convinced locals that it would be in the public good if the guards they hired were paid for by everyone. In the 1850s, in Boston, they formalized this arrangement into the first police department in the country. (There's an interesting history here around the oppression and then incorporation of Boston's Irish population by the police force.) Edit: Curious about the downvotes -- this is a review of US history.

bsanr 6y ago
That history is - surprise, surprise - closely related to the region's race and class relations. Boston has always been the flashpoint for such issues, more so than New York City, in part because of its smaller size and more pointed and concentrated relationship with the slave trade. The two great waves of Irish immigration meant tensions among the working and lower-middle classes, which had previously been largely black - tensions which were gladly encouraged by New England's wealthy. Incorporating Irish into the police force was a direct (and highly successful) attempt to foment interracial clashes; this preempted the forming of interracial bonds within those lower classes, which would have allowed them to demand more rights and a better quality of life from the elites. This is the same thing that happened with labor unions; Irish and black fraternization is bad for business, so court the Irish and foment bigotry against their black neighbors (to the point where they don't even want to be neighbors anymore). The way that this dynamic extends into the busing crisis and the infamous racism of Boston sports fans should be obvious.
corebit 6y ago
It's become popular to regurgitate that bit about police and slave patrols but it has no real basis in reality. That isn't to say that there isn't some example of a slave patrol that was pressed into service as police, but Police are a concept that all of America inherited from the English roots of our governments.
- x86_64Ubuntu 6y ago
  Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's not true. Th US and the Caribbean have a slaver and white supremacists culture that didn't exist in the UK. https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/ https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/ https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/ajpol7&div=18&id=&page= https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/... https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=WLovR6DgNFEC&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dq=slave+patrols+police+journal&ots=6kL38wjp2F&sig=8OhCOCLLZO4kXcvzsAtYtSsBPjk#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=WLovR6DgNFEC&oi=... https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/brief-history-slavery-and-origins-american-policing https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/brief-history-slavery-a...
  - corebit 6y ago
    Your sources very accurately reflect the history that slavery was enforced by the legal system and peace officers upholding it. They don't lend any credence whatsoever to the notion that slave patrols morphed into modern police departments. The actual history is that police have slowly become more localized and detached from central authority (like the Kind or his officials - sheriffs, etc) over time as populations increase.
    - x86_64Ubuntu 6y ago
      >.... The actual history is that police have slowly become more localized and detached from central authority Policing has been a problem for the black community since before your "not racist" reason of detachment from central authority happened.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > but Police are a concept that all of America inherited from the English roots of our governments. No, they aren't. Because police weren't a thing in England when America split off from those roots.
  - corebit 6y ago
ixtli 6y ago
I missed this comment in response to mine and yes, I wonder about negative reactions to what is a relatively dispassionate recounting of historical events.

bsanr 6y ago

That history is - surprise, surprise - closely related to the region's race and class relations. Boston has always been the flashpoint for such issues, more so than New York City, in part because of its smaller size and more pointed and concentrated relationship with the slave trade. The two great waves of Irish immigration meant tensions among the working and lower-middle classes, which had previously been largely black - tensions which were gladly encouraged by New England's wealthy. Incorporating Irish into the police force was a direct (and highly successful) attempt to foment interracial clashes; this preempted the forming of interracial bonds within those lower classes, which would have allowed them to demand more rights and a better quality of life from the elites. This is the same thing that happened with labor unions; Irish and black fraternization is bad for business, so court the Irish and foment bigotry against their black neighbors (to the point where they don't even want to be neighbors anymore). The way that this dynamic extends into the busing crisis and the infamous racism of Boston sports fans should be obvious.

corebit 6y ago

It's become popular to regurgitate that bit about police and slave patrols but it has no real basis in reality. That isn't to say that there isn't some example of a slave patrol that was pressed into service as police, but Police are a concept that all of America inherited from the English roots of our governments.

x86_64Ubuntu 6y ago
Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's not true. Th US and the Caribbean have a slaver and white supremacists culture that didn't exist in the UK. https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/ https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/ https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/ajpol7&div=18&id=&page= https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/... https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=WLovR6DgNFEC&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dq=slave+patrols+police+journal&ots=6kL38wjp2F&sig=8OhCOCLLZO4kXcvzsAtYtSsBPjk#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=WLovR6DgNFEC&oi=... https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/brief-history-slavery-and-origins-american-policing https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/brief-history-slavery-a...
- corebit 6y ago
  Your sources very accurately reflect the history that slavery was enforced by the legal system and peace officers upholding it. They don't lend any credence whatsoever to the notion that slave patrols morphed into modern police departments. The actual history is that police have slowly become more localized and detached from central authority (like the Kind or his officials - sheriffs, etc) over time as populations increase.
  - x86_64Ubuntu 6y ago
    >.... The actual history is that police have slowly become more localized and detached from central authority Policing has been a problem for the black community since before your "not racist" reason of detachment from central authority happened.
dragonwriter 6y ago
> but Police are a concept that all of America inherited from the English roots of our governments. No, they aren't. Because police weren't a thing in England when America split off from those roots.
- corebit 6y ago

ixtli 6y ago

I missed this comment in response to mine and yes, I wonder about negative reactions to what is a relatively dispassionate recounting of historical events.