The origins of policing are inseparable from capitalism's reorganization of human society. Capitalism structured social relations to require new methods and tools to impose an unequal order, including threats and acts of violence. Policing emerged as a specially adapted instrument to enforce that order. Early capitalist development in England and the United States produced frequent uprisings, rebellions, and strikes led by a 'dangerous class' of white workers, immigrants, and enslaved and free Black people. Precursors to modern police were elite efforts to organize and manage urban environments, particularly where concentrated labor and Atlantic revolutionary currents threatened established authority.
There is no origin story of the police without the story of the reorganization of human society by the birth, expansion, and dominance of the system of capitalism. While capitalism did not create inequality, it structured society such that new methods and tools were required to impose its uniquely unequal order - with threat of, and acts of, violence - in new ways. The police became one of the most important tools, specially adapted to fit the contours of this new social order.
The participants were what elites would come to describe as "the dangerous class," which included white workers, immigrants, and enslaved and free Black people. At this point, the existing precursors to the police were attempts by the ruling class to organize and manage the urban environment. The emergence of the mob and the restive crowd posed a massive challenge to the urban order and thus required new solutions.
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