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posted ago by davidverner ago by davidverner +39 / -0

I'm tired of hearing BLM dipshits making this argument and I've been making it a point to correct them on this. First formations of police in the new colonies were vigilante patrols in the first colony cities.

The United States inherited England’s Anglo-Saxon common law and its system of social obligation, sheriffs, constables, watchmen, and stipendiary justice. As both societies became less rural and agrarian and more urban and industrialized, crime, riots, and other public disturbances became more common. Yet Americans, like the English, were wary of creating standing police forces. Among the first public police forces established in colonial North America were the watchmen organized in Boston in 1631 and in New Amsterdam (later New York City) in 1647. Although watchmen were paid a fee in both Boston and New York, most officers in colonial America did not receive a salary but were paid by private citizens, as were their English counterparts.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/police/Early-police-in-the-United-States

An early night watch, formed in Boston in 1631, was followed by formation of a rattlewatch in New Amsterdam, later to become New York City, in 1651 and a night watch in Philadelphia in 1700. The New York rattlewatch "strolled the streets to discourage crime and search for lawbreakers" and also served as town criers. In 1658, they began drawing pay, making them the first municipally funded police organization. When the British took New Amsterdam in 1664, they installed an English constable whose duties included keeping the peace, suppressing excessive drinking, gambling, prostitution, and preventing disturbances during church services.

In the Southern colonies, slave patrols were created as early as 1704 in the Carolina colonies in order to prevent slave rebellions and enslaved people from escaping.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_the_United_States#History