During slavery there were slave patrols. Slave patrols enforced the "slave codes," brutal laws that dictated what slaves could or could not do, and where they could exist. Slave patrols were formed of white slave owners and non-slave owning citizens.

Any white man was allowed and expected to stop any Black person and interrogate them to make sure that they're not up to sneaky Black stuff.

During the civil war, many Southern states codified into law this expectation that all white men should be on the lookout for Black people sneaking around, living life free and stuff. States like Georgia brought their "citizens arrest" law into existence in 1863 for this exact reason.

"Now we are all slave patrol!"

("We" means "white people.")

After slavery was abolished in 1865, slave codes evolved into "Black codes," brutal laws that governed what Black folk could or could not do. Slave patrols evolved into official Black patrols (AKA the Police force) or unofficial Black patrols like the Ku Klux Klan, also formed in 1865. It was an eventful year. 🤷🏿‍♂️

Any white man was allowed and expected to stop any Black person and interrogate them to make sure that they were not up to sneaky Black stuff.

The Black codes evolved into Jim Crow, brutal laws that governed what Black folk could or could not do. Between the police, the KKK and the white citizens' councils, there were lots of official and unofficial groups policing Black folks' movement.

White folk could harass Black people themselves, or they could escalate up the chain of violence, either the official one, or the unofficial one. "I'll call the police on you!" Or "I'll call the Klan!" Or "I'll call my husband and his brother on you!"

This chain of violence was used to maintain "sundown towns," entire cities and counties where Black people could be beaten or killed, just for being there after dark.

https://justice.tougaloo.edu/map/

Segregation was created and maintained by violence on an unimaginable scale. Here's just one county:

https://www.npr.org/2016/09/15/494063372/the-racial-cleansing-that-drove-1-100-black-residents-out-of-forsyth-county-ga

As in the time of slavery, and Black codes, and Jim crow, white men that kill Black people while acting as part of this chain of violence, are legally shielded from prosecution.

Many white folk don't even know this history of why they feel so comfortable asking a Black person to prove that they belong in an area. But they participate in it.

If you are white in the US, think of how many times *in your entire life* that a Black citizen with no authority whatsoever, walked up to you, detained you, and demanded that you show ID.

The number of times is likely to be close to zero, even if you live in a majority Black neighborhood. It just doesn't happen in reverse. 🤷🏿‍♂️

Participating in this chain of violence has not changed much in the past 100 years. The NextDoor app is a fancy way to either find your lost cat, or to police the movements of Black people.

Ahmaud Arbery was murdered by 3 white men with no authority who wanted to detain him under that 1863 citizens arrest law from the civil war.

https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/582508-its-time-to-repeal-and-replace-citizens-arrest-laws/

Through US history, groups like the NRA have sold the importance of having a gun to protect yourself from Black intruders. Before the advent of smartphones, we would often hear stories brave white folk protecting their community from prowlers.

What Black folk knew before smartphones, and before Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, or Emmett Till, is that many of these incidents were just murder by white people participating in the chain of violence to control Black movement and behavior.

Carolyn Bryant lied about Emmett Till, escalated up the chain of violence to her husband, sat in the car with him as they drove around looking for Emmett, allowed that child to be kidnapped, tortured and murdered, and then lied about it in court.

She hasn't even been charged with a crime.

The other murderers were also acquitted.

The authorities know where she lives. There's no statute of limitations on her crime. We just don't want to prosecute her. We like the chain, just not where it leads.

There's a town in Ohio where the Fire Department blares a siren at 6:00 p.m. Black people don't like that. Young white people don't understand, because to them, it's just a siren?

But people that know white US history, know that there were hundreds of sundown towns that blared a similar siren at 6:00 p.m. This was intentional terrorism against Black people.

The siren meant that if you were Black and in the town after 6pm, you could be beaten or killed.

The Purge IRL, but only for Black folk.