Racism in the United States and the current nature of policing in the United States are inextricably connected to one another. The history of racism is deeply ingrained into policing in the United States and provides context to the current oppressive nature of the police, specifically targeting Black people and minorities. The level at which racism is rooted in our policing is both frightening and disturbing, but also sheds light as to why the systematic violence by police towards Blacks continues. Policing as a form of creating racial hierarchies is but one example of how the United States has systematically oppressed its citizens, specifically Blacks and minorities.

“Slave Patrollers” were the first ever state-sponsored police force in the United States. Essentially, white property owners were given the power by the state of suppressing slave rebellions and attempts to run away by using violence and intimidation against them (Ritchie, Mogul, 2008). When slavery was abolished in 1865, slave patrollers were replaced by police officers enforcing “black codes” which were “designed to control Freedmen and Freedwomen by making activities that had previously been classified as petty offenses (and that remained petty offenses when committed by whites) into serious crimes when committed by Black adults and children (loitering, breaking curfew)” (Cooper, 2015). With the implementation of Black Codes, the number of black inmates began to skyrocket. In Mississippi, the number of Black inmates tripled between 1874 and 1877 (Adamson, 1983). Eventually, Black Codes were dismantled during Reconstruction, but the nature and purpose of policing in the United States were well established and the legacy of violence continued. Following Reconstruction, Black people were still highly oppressed by the state and local governments via Jim Crow Laws, which were laws enforcing segregation of Black people. Throughout the 1900’s leading up to the Civil Rights movement, the police’s role of oppressing Black people continued. Police officers would allow suspects in custody to be lynched, and would even partake in the lynchings with no repercussions. Essentially, for approximately the first 200 years of America’s existence, the police’s role was solely to oppress Black people. The emergence of the Civil Rights movement forever changed the dynamic of American people and reminded us that human rights are inalienable regardless of race. With this movement though, there was a need for new ways to systematically oppress Black people and still maintain the façade of freedom and equality. From this transitional period in American history emerged the War on Drugs, which blurred the lines between police and military and disproportionately impacted Black communities.

Following the Civil War, the Posse Comitatus Act was passed in order to distinguish Armed Forces and Civilian Police. The law made it a felony for Armed Forces to “perform law enforcement duties of the civilian police” (Hershnov, 1990). The civilian police and armed forces have two distinct functions. On the one hand, the Armed Forces role is to destroy the enemy. On the other, the civilian police force is responsible for protecting civilians and using as little force as possible (Cooper, 2015). This distinction is crucial to democracy. The moment the Armed Forces of a nation turns on its own people, the government loses its legitimacy and democracy has collapsed. Unfortunately for US democracy, in 1981 the US military was for the first time in over a century, allowed to give civilian police “access to military bases, research and equipment” (Cohen, 2015). The erosion of the Posse Comitatus Act happened because of the War on Drugs, declared by Nixon in 1971 and intensified by Regan in 1983. The War on Drugs marked a new wave of systematic oppression and state issued violence towards Black people, of which the police played a crucial role. It is significant that Regan declared drugs a “national security threat”, blurring the line between who is a civilian and who is an ‘enemy of the state’. Since the military is charged with destroying the enemy, calling drugs a “security threat” demonizes drug users and turns them into the ‘enemy’. It also gives the police much more power both physical and psychological when interacting with civilians. Do the police see them as people, or as enemies? Police officers who are trained to view drugs as an ‘enemy’ of the state are inherently going to be much more violent towards those civilians who are targeted. Whether or not the civilian police is out to protect us, or ‘destroy the enemy’, is no longer clear. The militarization of the police only started with the erosion of the Posse Comitatus Act, and in 1993, the ban on US military to train civilian police departments in urban warfare and close-quarter combat was lifted (Balko, 2006). In 1994, the US Department of Defense authorized “a large-scale transfer of military equipment and technology to local police” (Balko, 2006). The militarization of the police has led to a dramatic growth in SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) teams in civilian police departments. Almost every city in the United States with a population greater that 50,000 has at least one SWAT team (Kappeller,1997). According to the American Civil Liberties Union, between 2011 and 2012 there were approximately 500 SWAT team raids for low-level drug offenses, leading to 7 deaths and 46 injuries. What is more, only 35 percent of the SWAT team home invasions found drugs. Between 1982 and 2007 the number of drug arrests tripled from 500,000 to 1.5 million (Bureau of Justice Statistics of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2008). To shed light on how disproportionally the War on Drugs has impacted Blacks, the United States currently incarcerates four times as many black men as did South Africa under apartheid (Zimbardo, 1998).

The history of racism in policing as well as the militarization of the police provides a perfect climate for racial oppression, violence, and inequality against Black people. Being aware of the forces which drive our political systems is the first step in changing them. If we cannot acknowledge the pernicious relationship the police has historically had with Black communities in the United States, we cannot begin to heal.

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2. American Civil Liberties Union. War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing. New York, New York: ACLU; 2014.
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