'These past grievances, past harms by law enforcement, need to be addressed before even attempting to move forward.'
That history has once again become the subject of national debate as millions of Americans in recent days gathered in cities large and small to denounce police brutality and racial bias after the death of, a 46-year-old black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota, killed by a police officer after allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store.
“Too often people look at the contemporary issue, the issue that is going on right now but not understanding that all that is happening is seeped in 400 years of legacy of injustice,” she says, adding, “These past grievances, past harms by law enforcement, need to be addressed before even attempting to move forward.”
Slave patrols were not designed to protect public safety in the broadest sense but, rather, to protect white wealth, says Seth Soughton, a law professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law and a former police officer in Tallahassee, Florida, whose research has focused on excessive police force.
“The Ku Klux Klan could often count on empathy or active assistance at the time,” says Soughton."The best that can be said for a lot of policing at the time is that they didn’t do anything to stop that. But often there is far worse to say because not only did they not do anything to stop it, they actively assisted it.”
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