piefed.nullspaceBack when policing forces were new, and still finding their identity
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PugJesus
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Explanation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Liberty_Place
While the notion that policing forces in the US grew out of slave patrols is widespread, it is not strictly speaking true - in the 1850s, many locales simply did not have formal policing forces, which was still a cutting-edge innovation from Britain (see: Peele’s Principles ). In the post-Civil War era, Federal Reconstruction in the South led to an increasing need for abstract law enforcement which did not rely on mob consensus.
Sadly, the reversal of Reconstruction resulted in many of those newly-established law enforcement organizations in the South being taken over or subverted by the enduring racist majority; while in the North they took the more ‘usual’ route of being subverted by monied interests in politics. Later, US policing would become more insular and a political power in and of itself, which was… not really any better.
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Yes, but also, while policing forces of any kind always exercise the prejudices their members hold, policing forces additionally act in accordance with the norms of internal institutional cultures.
When internal institutional cultures are good or not influential, the behavior of police resembles that of the civilian population (with regards to prejudices, at least); when they are bad, the behavior of police is worse than the civilian population.
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I mean, tbf, the meme doesn’t assert that either person is inherently good or bad, it only references the behavior of each.