Walking While Indian, Walking While Black: Policing in a Colonial City.
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| Title: | Walking While Indian, Walking While Black: Policing in a Colonial City. |
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| Authors: | Sellers-García, Sylvia (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | American Historical Review. Jun2021, Vol. 126 Issue 2, p455-480. 27p. |
| Subjects: | Race discrimination in law enforcement, Police reform, Police, Crime, Criminal profiling, Colonies |
| Geographic Terms: | Guatemala (Guatemala) |
| Abstract: | This article focuses on policing reforms that took place during the last decades of colonial rule in Guatemala City. Based on an examination of criminal cases and legislation, it argues that these changes prompted a policing wave—rather than a crime wave—at the end of the colonial period. In this critical moment, police placed particular emphasis on arresting nonwhite men for crimes related to vagancia (being unemployed) and carrying weapons. Broadly written bans ensured that all manner of instruments—even work tools—could be construed as instruments of violence. The result of this targeted policing was the creation of a criminal profile inflected by race, gender, and class; criminals, the new policing regulations argued, were nonwhite, laboring men. This article argues that there is a longer history of racialized policing, starting in the late eighteenth century, and methods and mindsets developed then have created a legacy of colonial policing into the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
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| Abstract: | This article focuses on policing reforms that took place during the last decades of colonial rule in Guatemala City. Based on an examination of criminal cases and legislation, it argues that these changes prompted a policing wave—rather than a crime wave—at the end of the colonial period. In this critical moment, police placed particular emphasis on arresting nonwhite men for crimes related to vagancia (being unemployed) and carrying weapons. Broadly written bans ensured that all manner of instruments—even work tools—could be construed as instruments of violence. The result of this targeted policing was the creation of a criminal profile inflected by race, gender, and class; criminals, the new policing regulations argued, were nonwhite, laboring men. This article argues that there is a longer history of racialized policing, starting in the late eighteenth century, and methods and mindsets developed then have created a legacy of colonial policing into the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 00028762 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/ahr/rhab197 |
