Saturday, July 9, 2016

U.S. POLICE HISTORY: PADDY ROLLERS, FREE BLACKS, AND SLAVES



The excerpt below explains how it is likely that white supremacy was always at the center of policing in the United States. There have been academic papers that make the claim that U.S. Police Forces probably started with slave catching. It's likely that policing sprang from a variety of sources all at once. So this may be partially true or entirely true in the case of the United States.


But slave catching has very likely had a significant impact on how vicious policing is in the U.S. and countries like Brazil that also have vicious police forces.

In any case, this would tend to mean that we shouldn't be confused about who is doing what and why, regardless of the race or ethnicity of the cowardly officer, the prosecutor, or the judge.

This would tend to mean that we shouldn't be confused about who is doing what and why, regardless of the race or ethnicity of the cowardly officer, the prosecutor, or the judge.  

The powers of the police are out of control and becoming more out of control by the day. Sonia Sotomayor wrote a scathing dissent about a recent Supreme Court case where the court decided that evidence, illegally obtained by the police, will be admissible in court. 


Read More: 
http://blackchickrocked.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-supreme-courts-ct-and-white-boys.html


This court case is likely to emboldened an already too bold police force. I'm actually afraid to see what happens next.

But first a bit of a history lesson from DailyKOS.com

  Feeling Rebloggy



"How old is racial profiling? 

The Free Negro Registry was a means of identifying and tracking so-called Free Persons of Color. In colonial Virginia, all Free Persons of Color were required to show identification to any white person on demand.

After the Civil War, the laws were reversed, but only to be revived in 1880 as the Jim Crow laws (named after a black minstrel character). Many of the Jim Crow laws were repealed during the 1960's Civil Rights movement; however, they are resurfacing again in the guise of racial profiling.

Although racial profiling is not backed by written statutes, its roots are in the laws enacted during colonial times. Racial profiling, for want of a better term, is a Gateway Act -- an excuse used to approach citizens assumed to be criminals...[based on appearance]

* * * * *


Slave patrols(called patrollers, pattyrollers or paddy rollers by the slaves) were organized groups of three to six white men who enforced discipline upon black slaves during the antebellum U.S. southern states. They policed the slaves on the plantations and hunted down fugitive slaves.
Patrols used summary punishment against escapees, which included maiming or killing them. Beginning in 1704 in South Carolina, slave patrols were established and the idea spread throughout the southern states.

Slave patrols began with colonial attempts to regulate slavery through laws that limited enslaved people's abilities and required all settlers to assist in enforcing the slave codes. As the population of black slaves increased, so did the fear and threat of foreign invasion which further increased the institution of slave patrols.

Encountered slaves without passes were expected to be returned to their owners, and sometimes punished. As this approach became more ineffective, Slave patrols were formally established. Slave patrols consisted of white men from all social classes. This caused trouble for both enslaved and free black people as it restricted their movement. Black people were subjected to question, searches, and other forms of harassment, often leading to whippings and beatings for people who may not have broken any law...."
Black KOS
2010

All of this should be sounding very familiar to you just about now.

Gives a whole new meaning to the song associated with the television show "Bad Boys," doesn't  it? You remember that show, right? A camera used to follow real white cops banging heads, mostly(?), in black neighborhoods. That's what I saw in the advertisements.

But I always knew who the REAL bad boys were, no matter how many anti-black stereotypes they were reinforcing every week.  


Read more: 


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