3 ms·
They do a good job protecting the property of the wealthy by harassing the "undesirables" to move to designated areas, and that's why certain parts of town are
by pope_meat 5y ago
They do a good job protecting the property of the wealthy by harassing the "undesirables" to move to designated areas, and that's why certain parts of town are "ghetto". It's a bit of an unspoken rule that as long as the dirty peasants stay in the ghetto they'll be less likely to be harassed. You generally won't be asked where you're going or why in the sketchy part of town, but looking the wrong way and straying in to a nicer part of town... you'll have 3 cruisers on you in 5 minutes.
As long as the police have the support of the upper class, it doesn't matter that the majority of us have lost all faith in the police.
- wpietri 5y agoYou might be interested to read the book Sundown Towns: https://thenewpress.com/books/sundown-towns https://thenewpress.com/books/sundown-towns The author shows via census data and historical research that there were towns all over America where Black people weren't allowed after sundown. This happened from the end of Reconstruction up to the civil rights era. A large amount of that was never documented, so we don't know the mechanisms. But for the places where it was, this ethnic cleansing was often directly enforced by the police or tacitly supported by them when they ignored white intimidation and violence. Growing up in western Michigan, I had never heard of this. But it turns out many towns I was familiar with were examples of it.
- pope_meat 5y agoIt ain't quite history yet. https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/08/26/sundown-towns-black-travel https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/08/26/sundown-towns-bla...
- wpietri 5y agoOoh, thanks. I have a copy of a Green Book and it's very sobering to try to plan a road trip with it. I'm excited to check out her book.