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Comedian John Oliver devoted his HBO show June 7 to tracing the racist violence of modern U.S. policing to its white supremacy origins dating back to the slaveholder era as a tool to preserve White power.

鈥淚t鈥檚 important to understand how deeply policing in this country is entangled with white supremacy,鈥� he said during the 30-minute segment. Oliver鈥檚 Last Week Tonight show was put together amid weeks of public uprising around the country in response to the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, among other examples of brutal and racist policing caught on video.

Police have not just been just incidentally tainted by racism, he said.

鈥淪ome of America鈥檚 first law enforcement units were the slave patrols charged with capturing and returning people who had escaped from slavery. And when slavery ended, White people had no intention of letting that be the end of White power.鈥�

Quoting from Michelle Alexander鈥檚 2010 book The New Jim Crow: 鈥淎s one Alabama planter said, in the wake of emancipation, 鈥榃e have the power to pass stringent police laws to govern the Negroes鈥攖his is a blessing鈥攆or they must be controlled in some way or white people cannot live among them.鈥欌��

鈥淚 know that鈥檚 uncomfortable to hear. It鈥檚 certainly uncomfortable for me to say. But if we want to talk about how we got here, it鈥檚 important to remember that we got here on purpose.鈥�  

鈥淭his clearly isn鈥檛 about individual officers,鈥� Oliver said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about a structure built on systemic racism that this country created intentionally, and now needs to be dismantled intentionally and replaced with one that takes into account the needs of the people that it actually serves.鈥�

鈥淭hat is the idea behind 鈥榙efund the police,鈥� if you actually listen to it.鈥�