Police

Police in Minneapolis during the George Floyd protests

The police are a state body that has the monopoly on the legal use of force. Under bourgeois governments, they are used to repress the working class and protect the profits of the bourgeoisie. They break strikes and carry out evictions.

Origins

In the early stages of capitalism, when the bourgeoisie and proletariat were beginning to grow and entrench themselves as classes, the bourgeoisie needed a way to keep the proletariat under control. Previously, individual employers such as guild masters were able to deal with individual employees on their own because of the close relationship between the two parties, who often lived in the same building for years. In contrast, the new proletarian class could not be managed on an individual level because it organized itself — and therefore acted — collectively.

When the English proletariat reacted to its worsening living and working conditions with mass demonstrations in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the English bourgeoisie originally deployed the army to attack them, but killing demonstrators backfired by creating martyrs and further angering workers. Instructing the army to control crowds through nonviolent means was also ineffective, so a new institution had to be created to control the working class that would be violent, but ideally nonlethal. In 1829, Parliament passed the Metropolitan Police Act and the first modern police force was formed.

Role of the police

The police exist to protect the class character of the state. Everyday police work involves patrolling: monitoring a specific area, where police become used to the area, gain experience using force, and identify local radicals. Patrolling, in other words, is a means of gathering intelligence. Patrolling lays the groundwork for suppressing uprisings.

Crime

See main article: Crime

Statesian police never solve most crimes and spend the vast majority of their time on officer-initiated traffic stops and other minor issues.

Firearm use

Countries with unarmed police

Unarmed police

The vast majority of police forces worldwide routinely carry firearms, usually to better suppress the proletariat, but some police forces do not regularly carry firearms except in exceptional circumstances, often in order to maintain the pretence they are "ethical". These countries and territories are: Bhutan, Botswana, Cook Islands, Fiji, Iceland, Ireland, Kiribati, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Norway, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, the United Kingdom (excluding Occupied Ireland), the U.S. Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.

By country

People's Republic of China

In Revolutionary Suicide, Huey P. Newton notes with surprise that during his visit to the People's Republic of China, the police there actually existed to support the people, unlike the "occupying, repressive force" they represented back home in the United States:

"[The] behaviour of the police in China was a revelation to me. They are there to protect and help the people, not to oppress them. Their courtesy was genuine; no division or suspicion exists between them and the citizens."

United Kingdom

British police have infiltrated over 1,000 political, environmental, and social justice groups. They maintain a secret blacklist of radicals who are barred from jobs.

United States

The police in the United States were created to put down resistance to settler colonialism and slavery and repress urban workers, mostly immigrants. U.S. Police have killed 1,000 or more people every year from 2013-2022.Police in Black, Latino, or indigenous communities act as an occupying army. Black people are 2.9 times as likely to be killed by police as white people, and murders by police are a leading cause of death for Black men. Police brutality was the main cause of the 2020 George Floyd protests. U.S. police also work with far-right groups such as the Oath Keepers, Project Veritas, and Traditionalist Worker Party.

See also

• Pig