A Brief History of Slavery and the Origins of American Policing
Written by Victor E. Kappeler, Ph.D.
The birth and development of the American police can be traced to a multitude of historical, legal and political-economic conditions. The institution of slavery and the control of minorities, however, were two of the more formidable historic features of American society shaping early policing. Slave patrols and Night Watches, which later became modern police departments, were both designed to control the behaviors of minorities. For example, New England settlers appointed Indian Constables to police Native Americans (National Constable Association, 1995), the St. Louis police were founded to protect residents from Native Americans in that frontier city, and many southern police departments began as slave patrols. In 1704, the colony of Carolina developed the nation's first slave patrol. Slave patrols helped to maintain the economic order and to assist the wealthy landowners in recovering and punishing slaves who essentially were considered property.
Policing was not the only social institution enmeshed in slavery. Slavery was fully institutionalized in the American economic and legal order with laws being enacted at both the state and national divisions of government. Virginia, for example, enacted more than 130 slave statutes between 1689 and 1865. Slavery and the abuse of people of color, however, was not merely a southern affair as many have been taught to believe. Connecticut, New York and other colonies enacted laws to criminalize and control slaves. Congress also passed fugitive Slave Laws, laws allowing the detention and return of escaped slaves, in 1793 and 1850. As Turner, Giacopassi and Vandiver (2006:186) remark, “the literature clearly establishes that a legally sanctioned law enforcement system existed in America before the Civil War for the express purpose of controlling the slave population and protecting the interests of slave owners. 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.”
The legacy of slavery and racism did not end after the Civil War. In fact it can be argued that extreme violence against people of color became even worse with the rise of vigilante groups who resisted Reconstruction. Read More at: http://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/brief-history-slavery-and-origins-american-policing
- EKU Online: Police Studies
- Eastern Kentucky University
- 521 Lancaster Ave.,125 Stratton Building
- Richmond, KY 40475
- Phone: (859) 622-7568
- allison.smock@eku.edu
The police brutality has hit home and i too am in shock and wondering what type of people take an oath to serve and protect, yet totally disregards all lives as humans that matter. How did the us against them mentality become our reality. i learned from retired Philadelphia police Capt. Ray Lewis, "One of the aspects of a personality is a degree of sensitivity and compassion," he said. "Unfortunately, they do not hire those people that score high on sensitivity. They reject them believing those people will quit because they can't handle the blood and guts on the street. They view that as wasted training money. "What they don't realize is that hiring the insensitive individual is going to result in brutality cases, and when those cases go to court, that's where they lose millions," Lewis said. "It's pennywise and pound foolish."http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Ex-
Urban cities like Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore to name a few are under federal investigation for human rights violations caused by policing. You can read the 91 points recommendation for Philadelphia here http://ric-zai-inc.com/Publications/cops-w0753-pub.pdf
Police who are paid with our tax's dollars are upset that we the people are demanding transparency and accountability for our tax dollar supported service and protection. So how the police have totally separated themselves from the rest of society and have become outsiders is the most damaging move away from safe environments.
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/blue-privilege-prevalent-day/#jixKSWJVxhUUEDb9.99
Police who are paid with our tax's dollars are upset that we the people are demanding transparency and accountability for our tax dollar supported service and protection. So how the police have totally separated themselves from the rest of society and have become outsiders is the most damaging move away from safe environments.
As state legislatures convene across the country, police unions and their lobbyists have begun a nation-wide campaign to preserve – and, where possible, expand – “Blue Privilege” in its various guises, from efforts to criminalize video-recording police to the preservation of the officially sanctioned larceny called “civil asset forfeiture.”
Police unions in Maryland are pressuring the state legislature not to override last year’s gubernatorial veto of a package of bills that would decriminalize possession of marijuana paraphernalia and place restrictions on the practice of asset forfeiture. Senate Bill 528 would establish a $300 threshold for cash seizures, redefine “presumptions and … certain burdens related to forfeiture of money” (which is to say, it would place the burden on the state, not the property owner), and prohibit the transfer of confiscated property to federal control “unless there is a federal criminal charge or the owner consents.” That last provision would impede the pernicious practice of “equitable sharing,” in which seized property or cash is handed over to the Feds as a way to prevent victims from seeking redress through state courts; the Feds then keep a small portion and kick back the rest to the state or local agencies that confiscated it.
In his veto message last May, Republican Governor Larry Hogan explained that he opposed the measure because “the Maryland State’s Attorney’s Association, the Maryland Chiefs of Police Association, and the Maryland Sheriff’s Association have requested a veto” of the reform measure – and who is the governor that he should resist the will of those who stand to profit from drug war plunder?
When faced with public criticism over the abuses associated with narcotics prohibition – of which asset forfeiture is the outstanding, but hardly the only, example – police unions and the professional associations they control, plead helplessness: They only enforce the laws, rather than writing them, their spokesmen tell the public. Yet in Maryland, as elsewhere in the country, law enforcement lobbyists are actively intervening to prevent reforms that would rein in those abuses.
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/blue-privilege-prevalent-day/#jixKSWJVxhUUEDb9.99
Will make it illegal for police departments to release the names of police officers involved in shootings or in incidents of excessive “use of force” until they are charged with a crime. If an officer is not charged with a crime, victims, family members and the general public will not be able to find out the name(s) of the questioned officer(s) until an investigation is completed, and they will then have to go through the “Right to Know” process which takes additional time. An officer’s name can still be withheld.
"This controversial piece of legislation encompasses everything that is bad governing. The legislation is supported by special interests groups in the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, the Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police and the State Troopers Association. There were no hearings or time dedicated for public input. The bill remained dormant in the House Judiciary Committee until November 10, where it was sent to the floor with a unanimous 25-0 vote, and then cruised through the House with a 162-38 vote."
We, the people have been excluded and our voices are not even a consideration. This is NOT Due Process. We, the people and the undersigned demand this "legislation" be REPEALED IMMEDIATELY! We also demand a statement from Pa Governor, Tom Wolf as to why this "secretive" bit of legislation is pending and may be PA State Law. Repeal Pennsylvania House Bill 1538
Contact these Representatives and let them know how you feel!!
State Representative Russ Diamond
State Representative Patty Kim
State Representative Jason Dawkins
State Representative Joanna McClinton
State Senator Rob Teplitz
State Senator Judith Schwank
State Representative Brian Sims
The tensions running through our nation is deeply rooted in quite kept derogatory racist practice. The Fraternal Order of Police was supposed to be organized to serve and protect us taxpayers not judge and kill us. Racism is such an ugly practice and detrimental when that practice becomes the fuel that creates self centered laws. Racism creates the us and them mentality. There are good people and bad people, good police officers and bad police officers.
Black New York City Police officers often think that they are being racially profiled by their white colleagues, according to a shocking new report by Reuters.
Black New York City Police officers often think that they are being racially profiled by their white colleagues, according to a shocking new report by Reuters.
The wire service interviewed 25 black male officers, ten current cops and 15 retired. With just one exception, they said that they have been victims of racial profiling by police, both when wearing the uniform and while off duty. For its article, Reuters identified racial profiling as “using race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed a crime.”
In the article, Reuters equates what they experience as the same type of racial profiling that cost Eric Garner his life after he was swarmed by police officers and one applied a choke hold to him.
The black police officers said their experiences included being pulled over by police for no reason (multiple times for most), being stopped and frisked, thrown into prison vans, and being physically assaulted and threatened. Black cops say that they’ve had their heads slammed against vehicles and guns brandished in their faces.
“The black officers interviewed said they had been racially profiled by white officers exclusively, and about one third said they made some form of complaint to a supervisor.”
“All but one said their supervisors either dismissed the complaints or retaliated against them by denying them overtime, choice assignments, or promotions. The remaining officers who made no complaints said they refrained from doing so either because they feared retribution or because they saw racial profiling as part of the system.”
http://www.salon.com/2014/12/27/black_cops_fear_other_cops_partner/
How can we make policing work for the safety of all and end the racial profiling? We can learn and implement the strategies of the closely knit Shomrim communities. Shomrim (Hebrew: שומרים), or Shmira (Hebrew: שמירה), (lit. "watchers", "guards", "protection") are organizations of proactive volunteer Jewishcivilian patrols which have been set up in Haredi communities in neighborhoods across the United States and Britain (and in many other countries) to combat burglary, vandalism, mugging, assault, domestic violence, nuisance crimes, antisemitic attacks, and to help and supportvictims of crime. They also help locate missing people.
How can we make policing work for the safety of all and end the racial profiling? We can learn and implement the strategies of the closely knit Shomrim communities. Shomrim (Hebrew: שומרים), or Shmira (Hebrew: שמירה), (lit. "watchers", "guards", "protection") are organizations of proactive volunteer Jewishcivilian patrols which have been set up in Haredi communities in neighborhoods across the United States and Britain (and in many other countries) to combat burglary, vandalism, mugging, assault, domestic violence, nuisance crimes, antisemitic attacks, and to help and supportvictims of crime. They also help locate missing people.
Shomrim volunteers are unarmed and do not have the authority to make arrests, other than citizen's arrest. They are effective in tracking and detaining suspects until police arrive.[1][2] Occasionally some Shomrim members in the USA have been cited for using excessive force against suspects, particularly those from outside their community.[3][4][5]
In Brooklyn,[6] Baltimore,[7] and London [8][9] many residents call Shomrim prior to the police due to the former's faster response time.[10]However, the volunteer patrol in New York has been criticized by the New York City Police Department for not always notifying police when a call comes in.[3] In London however, the Hackney Police Borough Commander Chief Superintendent Matthew Horne complimented Shomrim on this point, saying that "they will generally know when is the time to call us. They don't tend to waste our time and they don't let people go".[11]Additionally, Brooklyn Shomrim organizers have been accused of withholding information on suspected child molesters and other Jewish criminals, in keeping with an interpretation of the Torah prohibition against mesirah (informing on a fellow Jew to the non-Jewish authorities).[12][13][14]
Shomrim have on many occasions received awards and commendations from the police for their work.[15][16][17][18]
Many Shomrim organizations organise an annual Community Engagement Event, with advice on crime prevention and bike registration.[19][20][21][22][23][24][25]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shomrim_(neighborhood_watch_group)
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