No More Police: A Case for Abolition

4.5

Police in the U.S. consume [close to] $130 billion a year...Carceral logics normalize policing and punishment in response to social problems rather than collective care and mutual support.

Police violence is not counted in the crime stats periodically trotted out to justify their existence—even though cops engage daily in actions that fall squarely within the definition of homicide, assault (including sexual assault), home invasions in the form of drug raids, and robbery and theft through asset forfeiture...A cop is caught engaging in acts of sexual “misconduct” every five days on average...Policing is not “broken,” it is operating exactly as it was intended: dealing out daily violence to contain, control, and criminalize Black and Brown communities while creating conditions for capital to flourish...Police embody and exercise the state's monopoly on the legitimate use of violence.

We have over a century's worth of evidence demonstrating that attempts to re-form police don't produce different results—whether it's a reduction in police violence or a reduction in violence in communities.

Safety is not produced primarily by force. Safety is produced by resources, by connection, by equity, and by reciprocal accountability among neighbors (Danielle Sered).

Campaigns to defund and abolish policing [are about] shifting how we invest our collective resources into collective care and support instead of criminalization and punishment, [to meet] basic needs that include education, long-term housing, income support, health care, access to care for disabled people, childcare, elder care, youth programs, mental health crisis response, violence interruption programs.

Twenty-four community nonprofits per 100,000 residents led to a 29 percent decline in the murder rate, a 24 percent decline in the violent crime rate, and a 17 percent decline in the property crime rate...Community nonprofits were defined as organizations focused on crime prevention, neighborhood development, substance abuse prevention, job training and workforce development, and recreational and social activities for youth...Violence prevention programs in cities like Milwaukee and Oakland cost $4 and $26 per capita, compared to $502 and $727 per capita spending on their police departments.

Contrary to popular misconceptions, elimination of policing and punishment doesn't mean that there will be no consequences for violence or harm. Instead, abolition focuses on accountability rather than punishment. Punishment is inflicting suffering for the sake of hurting someone, it does not require the person punished to do anything in particular but suffer the punishment; accountability is the voluntary process of stepping into responsibility for causing harm and committing to repair the harm. Whether or not a person steps into accountability, abolition contemplates consequences for acts of violence or harm. Consequences are nonpunitive responses that are necessary to increase safety for both the person harmed and the community. Importantly, these consequences do not deny the dignity and humanity of the person who caused harm, or their potential for transformation. A world without policing is not a world where violence is allowed to proceed unchecked. To the contrary...it is a world that creates greater possibilities for prevention, interruption, healing, and repair of violence by meeting material needs [and] fostering mutual accountability.