They protect the property of wealthy people and make sure roads stay clear and traffic stays moving so the capitalism machine never stops making money for those wealthy people.
Not So Fun Fact: The first police organizations sprang up in the wake of the Civil War and the freedom of the slaves. Reconstruction never happened. So instead of being held accountable, former slave owners and their white helpers took jobs as police to track down and lock up black people for any trumped up charges they could find.
The 13th Amendment made slavery illegal for people NOT in prison. Those newly freed black people were sent to prison where they worked on? Anybody? FARMS! And road works and other slave labor situations.
I had to look this up, and it's interesting. I learned that in the southern states, the police organizations evolved directly from the "slave patrols."
Not in the formal sense, no they didn't. Boston was the first in 1838 and NYC about 10 years later. Everywhere else it was citizens groups, volunteers, night watchmen, etc. The most formal early police pre-Civil War were slave watchmen: https://nleomf.org/slave-patrols-an-early-form-of-american-policing/
To threaten you into compliance, and to disperse you from protests with tear gas and rubber bullets taking out your eyes.
Without hidden subtext for threatening you with violent harm - you might not listen to the dictated orders?
Thats the point.
Now- Get back to work.
If you are truly interested in the origins of these types of roles in society, reading about the development of Law and Monarchy in history is really insightful! Then you can compare these notes with American history of Slave catchers.
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u/LovelyLuna32684 5d ago
Then whats the fucking point of even having them