Abolish the Police for the Safety of Our Community

“Defunding the police sounds radical until you realize we’ve been defunding education for years.”
— T. J. McKay @CoachTJMcKay
Click here for a free eBook version of The End of Policing

Click here for a free eBook version of The End of Policing

“Well, I’m certainly not talking about any kind of scenario where tomorrow someone just flips a switch and there are no police. What I’m talking about is the systematic questioning of the specific roles that police currently undertake, and attempting to develop evidence-based alternatives so that we can dial back our reliance on them. And my feeling is that this encompasses actually the vast majority of what police do. We have better alternatives for them. [...]

Well, I think that one of the myths we have about policing is that it is politically neutral, and that it is always here to sort of create order in a way that benefits everyone. But the reality is that America’s social order has never been entirely equitable. We have a long history of exploitation of the Indigenous population, of African Americans through slavery, Jim Crow and today.

And while we’re not using police to manage slavery or colonialism today, we are using police to manage the problems that our very unequal system has produced. We’re invested in this kind of austerity politics that says the government can’t afford to really do anything to lift people up. [...] And then we ask the police to put a lid on those problems — to manage them so they don’t interfere with the “order” that we’re supposedly all benefiting from.”
— Alex S. Vitale, author of The End of Policing
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“While there is no contemporary example of defunding in the US, there are studies suggesting that less policing could mean less crime. In 2014 and 2015, New York officers staged a “slowdown” to protest the mayor, arguing that if they did less police work, the city would be less safe. But the opposite turned out to be true. When the officers took a break from “broken windows policing”, meaning targeting low-level offenses, there was a drop in crime.

Researchers posited that aggressive policing on the streets for petty matters can ultimately cause social disruption and lead to more crime. Policing that punishes poverty, such as hefty traffic tickets and debts, can also create conditions where crime is more likely. When New York ended “stop and frisk”, crime did not rise.”
— Sam Levin, The Guardian

Note: Crucial fact-checked information, and strong language.

excerpt from Teach the History of policing

Although this is curriculum intended for high school students, it is also a great entry point for adults who have never had this education. Visit The Zinn Education Project’s Teach the History of Policing

“As part of our People’s Historians Online series, we hosted a special session with Keisha N. Blain on the “Roots of the 2020 Rebellion,” focused on the history of policing. Many teacher participants reflected that what they learned about the origins and practices of policing is vital to make sense of current events, but is not in their U.S. history textbooks. Therefore, we offer resources below to teach outside the textbook in middle and high school classrooms about police throughout U.S. history. There are many more books, articles, and films on the topic — these are just a few student-friendly suggestions.”

An Abolitionist Reading List

Articles on the 2020 Uprising

  • I’m a Minneapolis City Council Member. We Must Disband the Police—Here’s What Could Come Next (Time)

  • No More Money for the Police (New York Times)

  • The Only Solution Is to Defund the Police (The Nation)

  • The Police Don’t Change (Slate)

  • The answer to police violence is not ‘reform’. It’s defunding. Here’s why (The Guardian)

  • Defund the Police Now (The Appeal)

  • After four nights without police presence, neighborhoods protect themselves (Star Tribune)

  • ‘You Can Only Demean People So Much.’ Minneapolis Activists Aren’t Surprised a National Movement Started There (Time)

  • Minneapolis City Council members consider disbanding the police (City Pages)

  • What a World Without Cops Would Look Like (Mother Jones)

  • Movement to defund police gains ‘unprecedented’ support across US (The Guardian)

  • Uprisings Are Driving a Surge in Mutual Aid in Minneapolis and Beyond (Truthout)

  • 50 protest murals show the Twin Cities’ solidarity, grief through art (City Pages)

Books

Minneapolis/Minnesota-Specific

See more on MPD150 and find out how you can support this work.

See more on MPD150 and find out how you can support this work.

Click for full resolution .pdf file

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Articles on abolition

  • Thinking about how to abolish prisons with Mariame Kaba: (Chris Hayes’ podcast & transcript)

  • Video: Why We Can and Should Abolish the Police and Prison-Industrial Complex (Films for Action)

  • What Abolitionists Do (Jacobin)

  • This Study Found That Major U.S. Cities Spend Millions More On Policing Than On Social Programs (Blavity)

  • We Don’t Just Need Nicer Cops. We Need Fewer Cops (The Nation)

  • Policing doesn’t need reforming. It needs to be abolished and created anew (The Washington Post)

  • The Myth of Liberal Policing (The New Inquiry)

  • Abolish the police? Organizers say it’s less crazy than it sounds (Chicago Reader)

  • Responses to Violence Must Move Beyond Policing (The Appeal)

  • Police “Reforms” You Should Always Oppose (Truthout)

  • How Can We Reconcile Prison Abolition With #MeToo? (Filter)

  • The Domestic Violence I Survived Taught Me the Importance of Prison Abolition (Transform Harm)

  • Surviving Rape as a Prison Abolitionist (Transform Harm)

  • BEYOND REPAIR: While Republicans & Democrats Unite to Increase Police Power, Others Point to New Way Forward (Ricardo Levins Morales)

  • Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore Might Change Your Mind (New York Times)

  • A Jailbreak of the Imagination: Seeing Prisons for What They Are and Demanding Transformation (TruthOut)

Further Reading for Abolitionists

A majority of these resources come directly from MPD150.com. Find out how you can support their work.

 
Sign Arjuna’s Change.org petition here.

Sign Arjuna’s Change.org petition here.

Divest from BPD, Reinvest into our Communities

“For decades, Berkeley has prided itself on being one of the most progressive cities in the country, known for setting a precedent when it comes to racial and social justice. As such, Berkeley should continue to set this precedent by discontinuing the tens of millions of dollars poured each year into BPDs new SUVs and riot gear, and instead reinvesting into initiatives that contribute to local and community wellness, such as tenant-owned and community-controlled housing, access to mental health care, local food, education, and worker-owned businesses. At the same time, in order to prioritize public safety, we must reallocate funds from the Berkeley Police Department into social workers trained in trauma-informed crisis intervention and de-escalation tactics who live in the community, and neighborhood organizers coordinating mutual aid. All of these initiatives must be led by and function in relation to Berkeley’s frontline community-based organizations.”

— Arjuna M. Berkeley High School student who organized this petition.