The Evolution of Status Quo Policing in the United States

The role of policing in the United States is a divisive subject. On one hand, there is support for the notion of 'law and order', which has been touted and acted upon by figures like Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and J. Edgar Hoover. However, this has led to criticisms of abuse of power, racist policing, and policing in order to uphold a status quo.

Early Policing in the United States

The origins of policing in the United States can be tracked back to the maintenance of a racialized status quo. The first 'police' forces in the United States were formed either in order to protect property, or to engage in slave patrols, which were: "authorized to stop, search, whip, maim, and even kill any African slave caught off the plantation without a pass, engaged in illegal activities or running away”. This type of enforcement helped to maintain a vertical hierarchy that empowered white, land-owning individuals, whose profits largely derived from large scale free-labor in the form of black slaves.

Jumping ahead to the 20th century, police found themselves enforcing Jim Crow laws, which helped to maintain black disenfranchisement in the United States following the Reconstruction Era. In New York City, which saw a substantial increase in black residents during the Great Migration, the police would forcibly separate interracial marriages, and arrest, or attack black and Puerto Rican individuals who were found in white neighborhoods. This is an attitude that has continued to define law enforcment, here described by H. Cauvin: "On 5 August 2006 The Washington Post ran a story on a Washington, DC police commander’s statement that “black people were an unusual sight in Georgetown” and that to be “suspicious at the sight of a couple of young black men hanging out … is not racial profiling, it is common sense”"

The repression of black and Puerto Rican communities in New York City would continue into the WWII era. Both groups were subjected to increasingly racially inflammatory media and calls for increased law enforcement. The effect of this was a massive increase in vigilante and police violence that targeted black and Puerto Rican individuals.

The Drug War, Police Militarization, and the Prison Industrial Complex

The roots of the drug war can be found in the heroin trade of the 1940s. In many major cities, the heroin trade offered one of the few employment opportunities for black and disenfranchised youths. The growth of this industry led to new federal and state laws that levied heavy punishments for drug use, and offered an excuse for an increased police presence in ghetto neighborhoods Perhaps one of the more jarring aspects of this is the fact that by the 1960s, the two organizations who controlled the majority of the heroin trade were the Lucchese crime family, and the NYPD. As pointed out by Lisa Schneider: "In one decade the special investigative unit of the NYPD put 180 million kilos or $32 million worth of heroin on the streets."

The militarization of police can be traced back to the 1960s during the Civil Rights movement. The SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) team originated during this period. The Los Angeles SWAT team in particular were formed in response to the Watts Riots of 1965, which took place in reaction to police racism.

It's impossible to talk about police brutality without also talking about the racialized nature of policing in the United States. In conjunction with a higher level of police contact, black people in the United States are more likely to experience poor quality housing, mental illness, unproductive school settings, and incarceration.

'Law and Order' in the Present Day

The killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012, and subsequent acquittal of George Zimmerman, as well as the killing of Michael Brown in 2014 saw a widespread public reaction from social media to the streets. These events saw the rise of Black Lives Matter as a contemporary movement that focuses on ending police brutality, and public complacency in the systemic abuse of black Americans. This marked one of the most significant contemporary movements of resistance against police brutality in the United States. Furthermore, these events brought to prominence the importance of technology as a means of holding police accountable for their actions. In a different example of police brutality, at UC Davis in 2011, Dylan Rodriguez points out that: "The political outcry was primarily fueled by the viral circulation of cell phone, Facebook, and YouTube videos depicting riot-geared police officers dousing the UC Davis occupiers with a caustic yellowish fluid." Although technology has not stopped police brutality from occurring, and police continue to get acquitted for acts of violence, social media and video technology have created a significant public outrage, and subsequent public inquiry into the role of policing in American society.