How Did America's Police Forces Get So Scary and Omnipresent?

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/how-did-americas-police-forces-get-so-scary-and-omnipresent

I found the following article, posted at Alternet and written by Sam Mitrani, a history professor at the College of DuPage, absolutely fascinating. We've been discussing, in these pages and elsewhere, the behavior of "our" police forces and their frequent mistreatment of citizens, especially the poor, brown and less "deserving."

The underlying assumption is that the police exists to protect "us," an idea frequently promoted by the police themselves, whose slogan is usually some variant of this one:



(Notice the U.S. flag incorporated into this example, which adds a note of authoritarianism. The Nixon-era conversion of the U.S. flag from a national patriotic symbol to a dog-whistle call for obedience to authority will be treated later.)

"To protect and serve" — but whom? That's where the history lesson offered by Professor Mitrani comes in. Let's start with a time in the U.S. before we had organized city-run police forces. Mitrani:

The True History of the Origins of Police — Protecting and Serving the Masters of Society

The liberal way of viewing the problem rests on a misunderstanding of the origins of the police.

[merrily]

1. IMO some of them are so inclined, but I would say "Homeland" contributions of money and/or

and/or "stuff" helped a lot. Limited budgets on state and local levels, combined with inability of state and local governments to print money, had once provided a natural check.

I live in Boston, which is probably considered an attractive target for terrorists because of its iconic, irreplaceable national treasures, like Paul Revere's home, our original state house, with the gilt lion, representing the king, the USS Constitution, etc., all within a relatively small area.

Watching the hunt for the then 19 year old Tsarnaev on TV from about midnight to about 5 pm as 7 cities and towns "sheltered in place" was an education about what our state and local police forces are like now. How readily the population seemed to accept it all was also instructive.

IMO, though, the "liberal way of viewing" the police was very much shaped by things like beating up (or worse) workers on behalf of John D. Rockefeller and others and others, and also on disparate treatment of whites and minorities, rich and poor, etc., breaking up demonstrations, arresting civil rights workers, etc.

[malaise]

2. K & R

and the same is true in most parts of the world

[undergroundpanther]

3. I don't like cops

Because they hated people like me,first.

Having a mental illness never will I ask a cop for help. Mentally ill people get shot by cops too often.
I despise authoritarians.

[DeSwiss]

4. K&R

“Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission.

How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.

I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. ”

~V for Vendetta

- They always use FEAR. They always have.......