As protests continue to bring cities across the United States to a standstill, the problem of racist policing is more evident than ever before. The murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis PD was just the latest in a long line of violent assaults on people of color by law enforcement, and his name joins an ever-growing list of people who have been killed by those who are sworn to protect and serve. The United States is grappling with the issue of police racism in front of the world, and the scale of the conversation currently happening is unprecedented, and sadly still not enough.
While the unconscious bias of some officers of the law has been laid bare for all to see, the conscious and hateful bias of others has remained largely in the shadows. The systemic issue of racial profiling is evident, but the hidden epidemic of far-right activism in police forces around the country is an insidious and even more dangerous threat. The links between the police and organized racism are as old as the institutions themselves.
During the Civil Rights Movement, Southern Police chiefs coordinated with local Ku Klux Klan chapters, and many officers and commissioners in the deep south were accused of aiding Klan activity and even being active members of Klan organizations. While this trend seems like an archaic symptom of the era of segregation, links between law enforcement and far-right organizations have remained constant through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, and now are seemingly more widespread than ever.
