The History of Police Oppression in America

Depending on what section of the country you lived in, Police forces had completely different origins. In the North, it was all about the protection of property, and tamping down on prostitution and gambling. Private companies started hiring part-time night watchmen, then economies of scale made it possible to have full-time constables who oversaw the watchmen. Boston had the first full-time policemen in 1838 and changed its name to the Boston Police Department in 1854. Boston was a huge shipping center and much of its focus was on protecting the port. New York followed in 1844 and Philadelphia in 1854.

In the South, police forces had a quite different focus. The job consisted of chasing down runaway slaves and preventing slave revolts. Any Black person on a road was subject to be stopped and asked for their papers allowing them to travel. Congregation of groups was not permitted. The first formal police forces in the South, formed in the Carolinas in 1704, were the slave patrols, which later expanded to all 13 colonies.

America expanded westward faster than police forces and slave patrols could catch up. Towns typically elected a Sheriff who had no jurisdiction outside the city limits. There were also government-appointed Marshalls with wider jurisdiction and circuit judges who scheduled visits along their route to hold trials. Often there was no wait for a trial. Vigilantes often took justice in their own hands, hanging or shooting those deemed guilty without the benefit of a trial. The slave patrols in the South were also authorized to administer summary justice, beating, and killing when they deemed it needed. No better in the North where little explanation was required when a suspect ended up dead.

In the North, immigration became an issue for police forces. Many of the newer immigrants liked drinking in taverns instead of at home. There were vicious gangs and the crime and murder rate was rising. The part-time night watch model had long ago proven ineffective, many of them drank or slept on the job, accepted bribes, and were notoriously late or absent. Police forces grew though they initially wanted no part of the growing immigrant population within their ranks. As the Irish population gained voting strength, politicians found the need to start doing them favors and began hiring Irish policemen, though they still had problems with Irish gangs. Through nepotism and social networks, Irish policemen became the backbone of police departments in several cities. They sometimes joined forces with the Irish gangs in their cities to handle Italians, Jews, and Black people in riot situations. Proactive policing involved beatings of people that looked like trouble were suspected of a crime, or in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In the South, slave patrols were given wide latitude to do their jobs. Unlike in the North, where the first policemen were lower class and the job was unwanted. Even the rich did a stint on slave patrol, a term of service was mandatory in some locations. Slaveowners and their families were often greatly outnumbered by slaves and there was always the fear of revolt. There was the actual revolt of Nathaniel Bacon in 1676–77 which included Black indentured servants and slaves. The Haitian Revolution from 1791–1804 saw Black people use military force to win their freedom from France. Napoleon was so concerned about slave revolt he sold the United States a large section of territory, the Louisiana Purchase, in 1803. In 1831, Nat Turner led a slave revolt which saw at least 51 white people killed. While it was mostly quashed within a few days, Turner himself remained in hiding for two months leaving plantation owners fearful he might show up anywhere and inspire their slaves to revolt. For over a century and a half in the South, there was a lingering fear of what slaves could/would do if given the chance. Slave patrols had the mandate to keep revolt from happening. Their badges look remarkably similar to those in use by the police today’

The Civil War changed the entire landscape of policing. In the North, the Civil War Military Draft Act of 1863 called for registration of all males between the ages of 20–45. If you were wealthy enough you could buy your way out of the draft, paying someone else to take your place. The draft disproportionately affected the poor but also diluted gang memberships and reduced violent crime. The Union Army, therefore, had a large number of gang members in its ranks, who often acted out (rape, theft, and murder) as they pillaged Southern farms, plantations, and towns.

The Confederate Army had conscription acts. They initially compelled white males from 18–35 to serve a three-year term. Like their northern counterparts, the rich could pay someone to take their place though that later changed after the war started going badly. Eventually, draft-age expanded to between 17–50 for an indefinite time. There was an exception that allowed one white male to be exempt for every twenty Black people they owned. This was in reaction to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and the fear that unattended slaves would escape and/or revolt. The role of the slave patrol changed. They could no longer bring slaves back that had escaped to the North due to Contraband laws and the end of fugitive slave laws. Many that would have served in the patrols had now been drafted into the Confederate Army, leaving the underaged, overaged, or those with medical exemptions to make up the patrols. Their primary function was to prevent slave escapes and quash rebellions.

Once the Civil War ended, the North returned to more or less normal. Their cities had for the most part not been pillaged and burned. Factories were productive and the economy was good. Police forces were still busy though. Juvenile delinquency was high, partially due to the large number of absentee fathers who’d been off fighting the war. The gangs still existed and had only gotten more violent. Many of those fathers that had gone to war and survived, didn’t immediately return home but stayed in the South to keep the peace.

In the South, the remaining Federal troops were for all practical purposes now the police. They more or less kept order and kept the former slaves from facing physical retribution from their former owners. Not easily undone, Southern states enacted Black Codes (that also existed in the North) that restricted movement of Black people, often compelled them to work for their former masters, prevented them from voting, caused mass incarceration (which led to involuntary convict labor) and basically tried to recreate slavery as best they could.

Federal troops, away from home and some of them not long ago gang members, often exploited the ex-slaves themselves, requiring favors like sex for protection, sometimes taking what they wanted at will. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed over a few years which prevented many of the practices of the Black Codes unless you were a convict and could still be forced into involuntary service. This led to the era of Reconstruction, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, who were often integrated with the local Sheriff’s offices and the police in larger cities.

In 1877, a contested Presidential Election led to a compromise that saw all the Federal troops removed from the South. That was the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of the Jim Crow era. Consider Jim Crow to be a slightly diluted form of the Black Codes. Black people still had the right to vote but the Klan and the police (sometimes one and the same) often prevented it. The role of police in the South mostly consisted of protecting the property of wealthy landowners and maintaining order, especially controlling the freedmen. In the North, policemen protected the property of wealthy factory owners and controlled the immigrants and Black people. Housing laws and for lack of better words, municipal planning, created segregated cities and schools little different than the South.

World War I was another turning point in policing. The US attempted to have an all-volunteer Army. Black people at the time made up 10% of the population, they comprised 13% of those that responded to the call for volunteers. The Army, the most progressive of the armed services, stopped accepting Black men because they reached their Black quota. Because they didn’t reach their overall goal, another draft occurred to get the needed amount of soldiers. Black men were drafted at a higher percentage than white men and initially entered segregated units under white commanders. Pressure from African American leaders led to the formation of two all-black combat units; the 92nd and 93rd Divisions. An agreement was reached to train 1,200 Black officers at a special camp in Des Moines, IA. Eventually, 1350 Black officers were commissioned during the war. The 92nd Division got caught up in racial politics and served in a mostly limited role. The 93rd Division was placed under French command and thrived in battle, becoming known as the “Harlem Hellfighters.” The famous “Buffalo Soldiers” that had served valiantly in the West after the Civil War, spent most of World War I guarding the Mexican border.

Black soldiers weren’t getting any respect at home. They were harassed during training and got worse when they went into town, especially from the police. There were multiple incidents involving the 24th Infantry in Houston at Camp Logan. On August 23, 1917, two white police officers broke up a craps game by firing warning shots. In their search for the fleeing suspects, they entered the home of a Black woman, Sara Travers. They beat her and dragged her into the street in her nightgown. A Black private approached the officers and offered to take custody of the woman. He was pistol-whipped and placed under arrest. A Black Corporal later approached the same officers to inquire about the private, he was shot at and he fled. He was eventually found, beaten, and arrested as well. Black soldiers at the camp were enraged, they armed themselves and came to town to confront the police. When the night was over, eighteen people were killed (two others died later from their wounds) that included five police officers, eleven civilians, and four soldiers. The city of Houston was placed under martial law and a house-to-house search was held to find any missing soldiers. The remaining soldiers from the 24th were disarmed and a Court Martial was arranged. It was dark and rainy on the night of the incident, despite a lack of credible witness testimony, 19 Black soldiers were executed and 41 were sentenced to life imprisonment. There were no repercussions for the Houston police. This isn’t taught in Texas schools and most residents of Houston are unaware of these events’

When the Black soldiers returned home, many were less willing to accept harsher treatment at home than they had overseas after fighting for their country. They were accused of having become “radicalized.” In 1919, race riots broke out in 26 cities across the nation and at least 88 Black men were lynched.

During and immediately after World War I, war-related industries needed workers and Black families began a migration north to cities where the work was. Factory managers sent recruiters to the South telling of higher wages in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, St. Louis, Cincinnatti, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere. What they didn’t mention was that they would be forced into segregated housing which was heavily patrolled by the police. Police then, as they did when originally formed, were there to protect the property of the rich and control those unlike them, the immigrants, the poor, and the Black. In 1920, police from multiple jurisdictions helped burn out the Black residents of Ocoee, FL after two Black men attempted to vote. In 1921, Tulsa police joined with the Oklahoma National Guard in the air bombing and burning of Black Wall Street. Police often weren’t the impediment to injustice, they were the cause of it.

Little has changed over the years. In some ways, police forces have more overtly returned to their original purpose. They hire themselves out to the same types of individuals and firms that might have originally paid for their services. Their ranks are more integrated than before, but there is no incentive to cleanse their ranks of those who oppress and brutalize. Their Internal Affairs departments are viewed within as the “rat squad,” that most refuse to talk to lest they be reviled. Police lack the will or desire to police themselves. Police unions have negotiated contracts making it hard for them to be prosecuted. Courts give them deference, their testimony viewed more credibly than others. Summary justice is still far too prevalent, with few repercussions if any. Body cameras are issued but arbitrarily turned off and on. Woodrow Wilson supported the Houston racist police in 1917, Trump defends them today.

There is much talk about, “de-funding” the police with no clear understanding of exactly what that means. It doesn’t mean ridding America of police forces with no clear alternative. It means to most, diverting funds to alternate services related to 911 for example. When someone goes off their medications, don’t call the police who are likely to shoot them, call 911 who can refer someone trained in mental health issues to the site. De-funding might mean the Federal government should stop supplying police forces with tanks and other weapons to use against their citizens. Maybe it means a halt to steady increases to police budgets without accountability and meaningful change. What I’d hope it would mean, is taking a hard look at their original purpose, who and what they were designed to protect, and decide if that can be repurposed to serve all of us and not just some. It should mean lessening the power of police unions and finding ways to remove the bad apples that have spoiled the bunch. If the great majority of police officers know who the bad apples are and do nothing, they are bad as well.

This is a moment in time where change is possible. The people are speaking but will they be heard? If not, there will almost certainly be a next time, and what will happen then? As a nation, we will see. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has just put in place “Election Police” which resembles the methods used to suppress Black votes in Florida’s past. Is America getting better? We will see!

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM and is republished with permission.

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