The very people that cry the loudest for law and order are always those that either already hold all the power, or are the lackeys to those that hold that power, and there is no in-between. In point of fact, when your position is secure within society, the efforts of many of those people will over time transfer seamlessly to being devoted to simply wanting to keep all that they have, and in consequence they will often spend a considerable amount of their resources to see that exactly this is accomplished.
The law and order mindset comes into play, because in order to better and more safely protect property and assets it most definitely helps to have the police force, that is the "order", in conjunction with the application of justice, that is the "law" structured in a way that those judicial decisions made, as well as those police actions taken, are always done in conformance with protecting those institutions that are already well established, and wish to remain that way.
So then, though the law and order is really meant as a protection racket for the most powerful and elite, it helps to have a significant portion of the general public on board, as it never is a good position for the very, very few, to appear to be reaping all the benefits, especially at the expense, of the greater public, at large. This so signifies, that law and order is typically structured in a manner in which the silent majority, so to speak, are led to believe that there is a very thin line between anarchy, revolution, chaos, and rioting, all overcoming good civilization, and that line is held in place only by those brave men and women wearing blue, and upheld by those good justices in black.
The reality though is that today's law and order is really just the evolution of the still respected southern way of life, in which, in order to keep down the mass of the population, which is far more numerous, and often suffers from a fair degree of frustration and need; that it is critical to have both the firepower as well as the personnel to take care of business in a manner in which those that dare to stand against law and order, will most definitely regret it. That is the main reason why the biggest proponents of law and order, believe that no quarter can ever be given to those that threaten the status quo, and further it is the prevailing reason why meaningful change in this country is a long, arduous, and perhaps futile one, because those in power have the money, the law, and the order all on their side.
Remember this always, while it may be so, that the law and the order may sometimes be progressive, that is only because such is necessary from time-to-time, in order to keep the public at large, at bay. The reality is that no western nation comes close to even approaching the amount of people incarcerated in America, of which, those of color, and those that are poor, are almost exclusively targeted, for none in power, see the utility or value of those particular people, and having no value, they must be summarily dismissed from society.
So it can be said, back in the day the owner of the plantation had his overseer do the whipping of his slaves; nowadays, the powers to be aren't so obvious and aren't so physically brutal, believing it makes for better form, to have the order find the malcontents, and then have the law, put them away. So it was back then, so it is today.