Postcard Series: The Evolution of Policing by Mallory Culbert

by Mallory Culbert

OLUTION V E OF E H T

@mivcv, @culbert_mallory bit.ly/nevertoldus

POLICING (in the united states)

The South, usa

The

origin

of

the

united

states’

obsession

with

the

police began before the civil war. Busy commercial centers in

the

northern

goods

us

during

concerned Policing

hired

security

transport,

but

to

protect

southern

property policing

with

protecting

the

institution

the

profession

and

practice

is

of of

and was

slavery. violently

maintaining the status quo and enforcing the law’s heavy interest in punishing “deviants” in order to protect private property.

Slave patrols were some of the south’s first forms of policing. revolts

They

and

were

civilians

returning

tasked

runaway

with

slaves

preventing

using

harsh

slave

physical

punishments. By law, almost all white men had to serve in these patrols for up to one year of service. These groups were designed to enforce slave codes by giving the white population that didn’t “own” slaves policing power and the duty

to

police

Black

people.

This

was

insurance

that

the

landless white men who didn’t own slaves would serve rich plantation

owners

instead

of

going

against

them.

During

the Reconstruction period after the civil war, local sheriffs functioned enforced

exactly

the

like

the

segregation

earlier

and

slave

suppression

patrols. of

free

They Black

folks in the name of maintaining “public order” (aka White Supremacy).

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The South, usa

When

the

Trans-Atlantic

slave

trade

was

made

illegal, southern white men with political power (the hegemon or dominant culture) needed new ways to maintain they

their

created.

position Even

at

the

though

top

the

of

the

systems

hierarchy in

place

didn’t truly emancipate enslaved americans until the 1960s,

other

forms

of

control

were

put

in

place

to

maintain a constant supply of cheap labor.

The

13th

amendment

abolished

slavery

except

as

punishment for a crime–that’s when the Black Codes were

passed.

These

codes

criminalized

Black

freedom, mobility, and power, in order to put them in prison

to

Industrial

work

for

Complex

cheap.

This

exists–to

is

take

why

the

Prison-

away

the

control

that “deviants” have over our own bodies and put our bodies to use for production.

During the Reconstruction period after the civil war, local sheriffs functioned exactly like the earlier slave patrols. They dutifully enforced the segregation and suppression

of

free

Black

folks

in

the

name

maintaining “public order” (aka White Supremacy).

NEXTdistro

of

The South, usa During the political wildfire that was the late 1800s, police

captains

and

sergeants

were

hand-picked

by

local political party leaders who used their money and social influence to harass political opponents. Those party leaders who ran taverns instead of gangs would pay

off

work.

officers

During

illegal,

allow

president

commission

to

enforcement the

to

Prohibition

illegal when

hoover

(a

investigate

was

movement

across

to

just

the

make

gambling alcohol nazi)

how

nation.

policing

and

was

created

ineffective That a

sex

made

was

a law

when

“respectable”

profession began. This created a more unified sense of white power which used the stigma of criminality to justify discrimination.

This

shift

included

toward the

professionalism

development

of

around

record

the

systems

1930s and

experimentation with the science of criminal behavior.

Police

science

sociological Black

combined

research

people

to

crime

about

commit

the

statistics

natural

criminal

with

tendency

acts.

of

Academic

research came out that backed up the idea that Black people are a race of criminals. Black people became Public Enemy #1 in the north and the south.

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The South, usa Immediately after the civil war, social groups were defined more by class/job, and Black-white friendships among working people were common. These southern not-gentlemen poisoned rural white folks with ideas of White Supremacy which turned poor whites against poor

Black

people.

The

ruling

class

divided

and

conquered

the

working class that outnumbered them by using false ideas of white racial superiority. Ugh, rich people.

Rich white people turned the white working class against the Black working class to protect their wealth. Police officers were another huge factor in the creation of the racial hierarchy that the PrisonIndustrial Complex is based on. Because the law’s job is to protect the

interests

of

consequences

the

for

white

white

ruling

people

class,

who

there

violently

were took

little

to

“justice”

no into

their own hands.

Black southerners fled north as the Ku Klux Klan began using lynchings to attempt to control bold or ambitious Black folks. Lynchings were public rituals for the whole white community with boys participating as

young

drinks,

as

10

white

years

people

old.

Local

proudly

vendors

took

sold

pictures,

tickets white

and

food

people

and

traded

postcards that featured the brutalized victims, white people shot at the bodies for sport. These postcard momentos were so popular that businesses mothers

advertised

with

love.

photos.

Whatever

handed

out

as

on

Even

the the

remained

souvenirs.

of

The

back,

Nazis the

and

sons

published victims’

police

force

bodies acted

act) as an extension of white fear and anger.

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sent

and

them

to

distributed were (and

cut

their these

up

and

continues

to