Dear Friends,
This month, for a special podcast edition of Toward Solidarity, I had the honor of interviewing historian, Matthew Guariglia, about his new book, Police and the Empire City: Race and the Origins of Modern Policing in New York.
The book takes place in the decades around the turn of the twentieth century when New York City was changing rapidly. Thousands of Black Americans migrated to the city as refugees getting away from the racial terror of the south. Millions of non-English speaking and non-Protestant European immigrants arrived as well, bringing with them distinct ethnic identities and, often, radical political traditions. These populations joined earlier white settlers and some Asian immigrants to form a massive industrial workforce at a time when economic inequality was immense and there was a drive among elites to weaken the collective power of this growing working class through racial division, racial socialization, and racial oppression.
Matthew’s book documents the way the institution of policing developed over this time period and become a potent weapon to carry out the task of stratifying this vast, multiethnic 99% into a racial hierarchy. While his primary focus is on New York, he also writes about the NYPD’s interconnection with the growth of racialized policing around the world.
In my conversation with Matthew, we talked about the history that is present the book and about how policing continues to be used as a tool of domination today.
As you watch or listen to this interview, I hope you do so the with the broader purpose of Toward Solidarity in mind—the truth that, although the hardships we experience across these manufactured lines of division are not the same, when we can gain a clear analysis of how power operates we can see that all of our fates have always been linked together.
During the interview, you’ll learn that the same policing tactics that were created on colonial frontiers were brought back to big cities to violate Black Americans and snuff out the freedom-seeking political traditions of European immigrants. You’ll learn that the same technologies that have been honed to control and blockade Palestinians are today being put to use on the US-Mexico border. The same Israeli military currently carrying out a genocide in Gaza has trained U.S. police forces to suppress protest here. Matthew’s home city of Atlanta is at this moment building a “cop city” where police forces from around the world will come and be trained to put down people’s movements in their own countries.
So, I hope you take from this interview the reality that no matter who we are, our fates are linked and that our freedom struggles, therefore, need to be as well.
With all of that said, I hope you enjoy this conversation. I encourage you to buy a copy of Matthew’s book, Police and the Empire City, learn about his research and advocacy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and connect with him on Twitter at @mguariglia.
With gratitude and care,
David
In the coming week, I’ll be posting powerful clips from this interview on my Instagram and Twitter. I’d love it if you would look out for them there and share them with friends!
If you’d like to learn more about my work or this Toward Solidarity newsletter you can do so here.
Many thanks to Rachel Conrad for recording and editing this interview!
Police as "Race-Makers" | An Interview with Matthew Guariglia