History of Policing by

amontgomery11_1 — 2025-07-15 04:25:17 UTC

The first policing force in the US. It was created in order to control enslaved African-Americans. This is important to today because policing was built on racism and although discrimination is not as severe as it was then, it is still a major problem.

amontgomery11_1 — 2025-07-15 04:36:09 UTC

The department was modeled by London's police force according to the podcast. The Boston police managed labor unrest, strikes and immigrant communities. Again, the name of Police "Force" is rooted in the power they held above society and their freedom of speech. This continues to today with instances of lethal force of police when not needed.

amontgomery11_1 — 2025-07-15 04:50:48 UTC

Former slaveowners transitioned into policing as a career. African-Americans were considered free, but were arrested and convicted of small crimes at a higher rate. Again, this is still true today. African-Americans are sentenced more harshly than white people for small, petty crimes.

amontgomery11_1 — 2025-07-15 04:55:06 UTC

Policing became more bureaucratic due to rules, schooling and exams in order to be part of the force. This was supposed to combat discrimination and oppression, but it only made it part of the institution to be passed through centuries. Police also cracked down on labor rights movements, contradicting freedom of speech.

amontgomery11_1 — 2025-07-15 05:07:02 UTC

The podcast quotes Nixon admitting the "War on Drugs" was to target Black communities. Regan then later introduced the "three strikes" law. The crack vs. cocaine also created a racial gap and discrimination because cocaine is seen as the "rich people" drug and crack is the poor "tweaker" drug. This assumption is very clear to today although this is not the case.

amontgomery11_1 — 2025-07-15 05:09:26 UTC

Police enforce Jim Crow laws by the South completely dismissing them and the North harassing Black communities with surveillance and housing raids. The police were the main cause of unrest, much like today. There was also call for change, but recommendations were ignored.

amontgomery11_1 — 2025-07-15 05:13:39 UTC

The crime bill funded over 100,000 new officers, and built new prisons. Because of this it accelerated mass incarceration due to the newly built space and officers. The power in numbers created a sense of authority and the zero-tolerance policy became more common. It was believed by stopping smaller crimes with big consequences, it would stop people from committing big crimes. Again, this justified discrimination against black communities embedding it into out police system.

amontgomery11_1 — 2025-07-15 05:17:09 UTC

The police become more militarized because of the physical, emotional, and economic tragedy of 911. Because the attack was preformed by Muslims, their communities were also discriminated against more harshly than the past. This one instance created a bias against a whole community, again rooting racism into our police force.

amontgomery11_1 — 2025-07-15 05:19:13 UTC

The movement was created in response to the murder of Trayvon Martin and the lack of consequences for his killer. The movement grew stronger as more cases similar to Trayvon's were covered in the media.

amontgomery11_1 — 2025-07-15 05:22:40 UTC

With the murder of George Floydd, the BLM movement became one of the largest in history due to the centuries of unlawful deaths of Black people. The movement included ideas to defund the police and start the system from scratch again. By looking at all of these instances, the police force was rooted in racism and no one in the force wants to change it. Instead of a "Force", they should be a department of true bureaucrats.