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No, US policing doesn't trace its roots to heinous slave patrols Hannah
E. Meyers 5-6 minutes


May 17, 2021 | 7:15pm | Updated May 17, 2021 | 7:16pm


NYPD officers respond to a shooting in Harlem in April 2020 during a
surge in gun violence across minority communities.

NYPD officers respond to a shooting in Harlem in April 2020 during a
surge in gun violence across minority communities. Christopher Sadowski

There’s a storyline in vogue among those who would defund the cops
that claims that modern policing grew out of the vile squads that hunted
runaway slaves. “From slave patrols to traffic stops. We can’t reform
this,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) recently admonished.

It’s a slur, and a dangerous one: Modern police didn’t get their start
as slave patrols, and saying so is just one more way activists stir up
anger against law enforcement. Such ahistorical statements silence vital
dialogue about police reform and decrease trust.

Most of the 18,000 US police agencies were founded after abolition,
and many were explicitly modeled on modern concepts of policing invented
by the British. And the officers in many major cities — including LA,
Houston and Atlanta — are mainly minorities. To call the increasingly
diverse ranks of the police some kind of modern slave-driving force is
offensive and obscene.

Such falsehoods distract from a much more important — and daunting
— challenge. In many US cities in 2021, there is an inherent tension
between police and black citizens. In 2020, in New York City, over 63
percent of homicide suspects were black, as were 65 percent of homicide
victims. Over 49 percent of rape suspects were black, as were over 40
percent of rape victims.

Over 53 percent of felonious-assault suspects were black, as were over
46 percent of the victims. Almost 66 percent of robbery suspects and
61 percent of grand-larceny suspects were black. Over half the suspects
for petit larceny, misdemeanor criminal mischief, possession of stolen
property, juvenile felony and misdemeanor offenses were black. Most
staggering: Over 72 percent of shooting suspects and nearly 74 percent
of victims were black.

Gotham’s population is 21.7 percent black.

A quick look at the numbers above makes clear that NYPD will be
interacting with black citizens under tense conditions a massively
disproportionate amount of time. Not because of history, but because of
crime rates.

We may not have an explanation for why crime commission is so unequal
among New Yorkers of different races. But one thing is clear: To
combat a very real and very understandable perception that police are
targeting blacks, police need to interact with minority New Yorkers
in non-tense situations. Community policing in the past few decades
was such a positive revolution partly because it pushed officers to be
fixtures in the community, to know a neighborhood and its residents,
to be familiar and trusted.

Community policing isn’t glamorous or a “reimagined” police force,
but it’s a powerful way to tamp down the impression that cops are the
enforcers of an oppressive system, rather than partners in maintaining
public safety.

When Mayor Bill de Blasio published his “NYC Police Reform and
Reinvention Collaborative Draft Plan” in March, it began with this
slavery narrative: “Racialized policing in New York City is a tragic
part of that larger history of over 400 years of oppression, which runs
from slave catching and kidnapping in the 19th century in a direct line
through to more contemporary practices of unconstitutional stops and
frisks of black and brown individuals.”

(There was no longer a single slave in New York City by the 1840 Census,
and the NYPD wasn’t established until 1845, but why quibble?)

With truly gobstopping chutzpah the document continues: “We understand
that we have not, nor can we, erase a 400-year legacy during one
mayoralty, or as the result of one plan.” Putting aside the vainglory
in thinking we looked to de Blasio to purge us of the stain of slavery,
what does this mea culpa do to tackle the very current and difficult
racial tensions around policing?

If the narrative we amplify is that the current NYPD, which is composed
primarily of minorities, is just a few degrees of separation from slave
hunters, will that increase trust? Politicians should be looking for
ways to lower crime while improving the relationship between police and
the community. Peddling historical lies isn’t the answer.

Hannah E. Meyers is director of the policing and public-safety initiative
at the Manhattan Institute.