&gt; When police were created, it was largely for basically racist purposes, even if the &quot;races&quot; under consideration in many locales were &quot;Irish&quot; and &quot;Italian&quot;.<p>Ok, but I think this is a reflection of different races falling en masse into different social classes. If you&#x27;re in Italy and your city has natives, gypsies, african laborers, jews, and persian merchants (note: stylized example, not necessarily reflective of any historical events), I&#x27;d expect the police might be called into being as a defense (or, depending on your perspective, offense) against the gypsies and africans, while at the same time people largely didn&#x27;t care about the jews and persians (from a policing perspective). They&#x27;d be dealt with more by the taxing authorities.<p>If the police were an expression of racism, I&#x27;d expect something different.