Gregory's Server@batkaren “Policing” as an institution wasn’t specifically created to control slave populations in the southern US. It took the form it did in the south because of the needs of the system in the south. The problem was the system, not policing in general.
The choice is whether you want to grant a monopoly on violence to the state, or you want to have disorganized vigilante violence and retribution by individual citizens (eg lynching).
Policing in the US doesn’t have to suck.
@batkaren Urban policing in the northern industrial states was modeled on London metropolitan policing and was incredibly harsh on the Irish underclass.