This is the continuation of a long tradition beginning in the slave states in the early 18th century America, when slaveholders were required by state law to patrol the plantations, the slave quarters, the woods and roads for enslaved Afrikans who were acting in any way whites found suspicious, inappropriate or insolent. These bands of white patrollers or paddytrollers were authorized to administer punishment as they deemed fitting and proper, which included beatings, maimings and killings. Modern day cops exercise the same authority and carry out the same function.

Mirimba Ani has written about this European attitude in her masterpiece, Yurugu. In the section entitled, "The 'Cultural Other' and European 'Law'", she describes white attitude toward Black people thusly, "These cultural others are not truly human--not really people."

As for Black and Hispanic cops who are accomplices in these practices, they are no different than the brainwashed Black overseers who did so in the slaveholding South. Thus they joined in the 50 shot execution of Sean Bell on his scheduled wedding day.