Differential Experiences of Black and White Citizens with Police Agencies: A Brief History
Organized police forces as we know them have been around for about 150 years. Prior to that time, cities were patrolled by a few men who roamed the streets in the evening hours, calling out the time or weather conditions. In 1838 Boston became the first to employ men to patrol during daylight hours. Six years later New York City combined day and night watchmen into a single organized force. Over a thirty-year period after 1845, nearly every major city in the United States developed an organized police department (Platt et al., 1982).
The sharp increase in the demand for organized social control in the mid-1800s may be attributed to several factors: increased population density, growing ethnic diversity, the development of industrial capitalism, and the emergence of a hierarchical class structure. Several social theorists contend that a primary purpose of the police was, and continues to be, to protect the property, wealth, and position of the higher classes (Platt et al., 1982; Feagin and Hahn, 1973; Fielding, 1991). Historically, police relations with poor racial and ethnic groups often have been marked by aggressive domination and violence. Many times in their efforts to control the "dangerous classes," as defined by powerful white leaders and groups, the police relied on brute force. For instance, in the Draft Riot of New York City in 1863, the local police were estimated to have killed more than a thousand people, many of whom were poor and working class Irish immigrants (Platt et al., 1982).
In the South, the emergence of an organized police force was somewhat different. The history of the southern watchmen dates back to the year 1690 with the legislation of the slave codes. In order for the slave population to be adequately subordinated and controlled, all white males were given the right to stop, question, and apprehend any black person. These methods of control reflected and perpetuated the negative, often criminalized, portrayal of the black man in the white mind (Owens, 1977).
Police violence against African Americans continued throughout the history of the United States. From 1920 through 1932 white police officers killed 54 percent of the 749 blacks killed by white persons in the South and 68 percent of those killed outside of the southern region (Myrdal, 1944). Further, in an analysis of 76 race riots between 1913-1963, the immediate precipitating event in 20 percent of the uprisings was the killing of or interference with black men by white police officers. This percentage dramatically increased in the years 1964-1967, when seven of the fourteen major riots that occurred over the three-year period could be directly traced to the misconduct of white policemen against black citizens. In addition, most of the smaller riots were triggered by the larger riots and were thus indirectly linked to police-citizen encounters (Feagin and Hahn, 1973).
According to a number of analysts (see Fielding, 1991), the modern police forces, as major control agents of the state, are not only concerned with crime and its prevention but also with the surveillance and coercion of subordinate racial groups in society. Groups of individuals who are viewed as a threat to the dominant white society must be adequately controlled. There is much close patrolling of black and other minority communities. From the 1960s to the 1990s the common practice of preventive police patrolling in ghetto areas, with its "stop and frisk" and "arrest on suspicion" tactics, has led to unfavorable police contacts for black and Latino males. Harassment of this type in turn intensifies negative attitudes toward the police. In minority communities there is often a strong mistrust and even hatred of the police officers, who are frequently viewed as serving the interests of the dominant white group. The relationship between black and other minority citizens with white police officers has been, and continues to be, different from the relationship these officers typically have with white citizens (Alpert, 1989; Bogomolny, 1976; Feagin, 1991; Walker, 1992).