Kristian Williams - Our Enemies in Blue - Police and Power in America

and Watch. This body was responsible for arresting vagrants and othersuspicious persons, preventing felonies and disturbances, and warning offires. I ,2 But one guard described his job succinctly as "keeping down theniggers."" , Indeed, slave control was the aspect of their work most emphasizedby the public officials, and given highest priority by the guard itself."With very minor differences, their orders here were a summation of thosegiven the rural patrols in the preceding hundred years, with the major andnatural exception that they did not inspect plantations."I):'The organization of the Charleston Guard and Watch represented asignificant advance in the development of policing. I)) The force contained adeveloped hierarchy and chain of command, consisting of a captain, a lieutenant,three corporals, fifty-eight privates, and a drummer. Each was givena gun, bayonet, rattle (for use as a signal) , and uniform coat. Some acted asa standing guard; the rest were divided into two patrols-one for st. Philip'sParish, and the other for St. Michael's. The captain issued daily reports, andall the men were paid. I '(. The same group patrolled every night, and disciplineand morale received a level of attention unique at the time. "7By our earlier criteria, there can be no question that the Charleston Guardand Watch were involved in policing. They were authorized to use force. hadgeneral enforcement responsibilities, and were publicly controlled. They werealso exceptionally modern. The guard was the principal law enforcementagency in Charleston, enjoyed a jurisdiction covering the entire city (and someof the surrounding countryside) , served a specialized police function, andhad a preventive orientation. It also established organizational continuity andpaid its personnel by salary. In fact, lacking only twenty-four-hour service, theCharleston Guard and Watch may count as the first modern police department,predating the London Metropolitan Police by more than thirty years.Charleston, heing subject to the pressures of maintail1iug a slave systemin an urban area with an industrializing economy, underwent an intenseperiod of innovation, just around the time of the American Revolution. Itsefforts to control the Black population put it in the lead in the developmentof modern policing. But once policing mechanisms were in place,the authorities felt little need to tamper with them. When change againappeared on the agenda-following the discovery of a plan for insurrectionin 1822-the authorities instituted reforms that had been developed previouslyin other cities.I'8 During the intervening years, Charleston's advanceswere surpassed by those of another Southern city, facing similar but distinctsocial pressures.NEW ORLEAN S: " BARBARISM, "" DESPOTISM, " AND ''A SYSTEM OF VIOLENCE "Occupying a strategic position for both economic and military uses, the city ofNew Orleans has changed hands numerous times. But, until the Civil War, eachsubsequent regime agreed on one basic principle: the utter suppression of theBlack race. In succession, the French, Spanish, and American governmentsenacted very nearly the same set of laws for this purpose, controlling the social,economic, and political life of the Black community and regulating the work,travel, education, and living arrangements of Black people in the city. Louis XIV46