New Books in History Michael Casiano, "Let Us Alone: The Origins of Baltimore's Police State" (U Illinois Press, 2025)
Feb 1, 2026
Michael Casiano, Assistant Professor of American Studies at UMBC and author of Let Us Alone, traces how Baltimore’s police grew into a racialized municipal power. He discusses the book’s organization by policing sites, the chilling cover photo of masked detectives, vagrancy laws and jails, reformers' roles, courtroom cases like Henry Brown’s, and the Black press as a record of policing.
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Masked Lineups As Racialized Surveillance
- Baltimore police anonymized plainclothes detectives with white masks to humiliate and surveil Black residents.
- This ritual, “Facing the Masks,” symbolized racialized state power and public intimidation.
Police Power Extends Beyond Uniforms
- 'Police power' includes broad municipal tools beyond uniformed officers, like schools and asylums.
- Casiano argues this capacious power enforced racial separation and protected capitalist interests in Baltimore.
Site-Based Chapters Improve Readability
- Organizing the book by policing sites lets the narrative shift focus while keeping a chronological through-line.
- Casiano used classroom feedback to shape a readable, varied case-study structure.
