American Policing: From Slave Patrols to Derek Chauvin
The roots of policing have determined its evolution, and our current state of affairs.
Origin stories are important; they provide the conceptual framework that informs not just the basis for existence, but the possibility, or lack thereof, for change.
And what is the origin story of American policing?
The word “patrolmen” comes from the earliest forms of policing in the United States: slave patrols. The sole purpose of these groups, this policing, was to control movements of the enslaved — through violence, terror, and general presence. Once slavery ended, the system of enslavement, and policing, adapted through the introduction of Black codes. Black codes were reiterations of slave codes — they were policies, laws, and rules that regulated and criminalized Black people. Black codes in conjunction with the 13th amendment, which stated slavery was effectively abolished, except in cases of punishment, was legalized white supremacy — a means of continued subjugation under the guise of keeping the peace, or preventing crime, or as we now refer to it: law & order.
Black codes morphed into Jim Crow. Jim Crow codified discrimination; every part of life was regulated — housing, jobs, voting, opportunity. This level of intervention and control required social and cultural means…
