Evil never truly dies. It just morphs into a more insidious form.

Slave patrols were created to quell uprisings, which they did via terrorism. They acted as a counter-insurgency force. They brutally hunted and beat any black person found to be out on their own without a note permitting such from their master, and attacked any “unlawful gathering” of black slaves, which of course meant any gathering at all.

Post-emancipation, vagrancy laws were passed which allowed the former slave patrols, now law enforcement, to do the same to anyone committing the crime of being out in public without visible sign of gainful employment. In this way former slaves could be forced into sharecropping, which was basically slavery all over again.

Jason Petty aka Prop reacted to this information on the Behind the Police podcast by commenting on the “white gaze” and asking “Where can we exist? Where can we stand, that we don’t scare you?”

Because ultimately it’s about fear. Black people in America were brought here to be used as livestock, with the belief that they were dangerous animals who would attack and kill white people if given the chance, which justified any and all brutality against them. This did not end when slavery ended. It arguably still hasn’t ended.