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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAbolish the Police. Instead, Let's Have Full Social, Economic, and Political Equality.
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/abolish-police-instead-lets-have-full-social-economic-and-political-equality/Ive said this before: there is no justice where there are dead black people. Ill continue saying it, because if were satisfied with charges and potential prison time, weve missed the entire point of #BlackLivesMatter. This isnt about getting better police, ones who exercise discretion in using force, but getting away from needing police altogether.
In 1966, James Baldwin wrote for The Nation: the police are simply the hired enemies of this population. They are present to keep the Negro in his place and to protect white business interests, and they have no other function. This remains as true today as it was in 1966, only now we have bought into the myth of police serving and protecting wholesale. What do you do with an institution whose core function is the control and elimination of black people specifically, and people of color and the poor more broadly?
You abolish it. In 1964, Malcolm X told the students of Oxford Union: Youre living at a time of extremism, a time of revolution, a time when theres got to be a change. People in power have misused it and now there has to be change and a better world has to be built. And the only way its going to be built is with extreme methods. Abolishing the police is an extreme measure, but as a measure of justice, it should be our ultimate goal.
We dont consider the abolition of police a viable position to take because we believe theyre the only thing standing between upstanding citizens and the violence of the deranged. Were afraid of being attacked on the street, of having our homes shot at, and being left without access to equally violent retribution. But does this mean we want police, or safety and security? Safety and security are ideas, ones that may never be fully achieved, and the police are an institution that have proved themselves capable of only providing the illusion of safety and security to a select few. The bulk of their jobs has nothing to do with violence prevention. They spend most of their time doing things like Slager did in his initial contact with Scottstopping people for broken taillights. Writing for Gawker, David Graeber of the London School of Economics says:
In 1966, James Baldwin wrote for The Nation: the police are simply the hired enemies of this population. They are present to keep the Negro in his place and to protect white business interests, and they have no other function. This remains as true today as it was in 1966, only now we have bought into the myth of police serving and protecting wholesale. What do you do with an institution whose core function is the control and elimination of black people specifically, and people of color and the poor more broadly?
You abolish it. In 1964, Malcolm X told the students of Oxford Union: Youre living at a time of extremism, a time of revolution, a time when theres got to be a change. People in power have misused it and now there has to be change and a better world has to be built. And the only way its going to be built is with extreme methods. Abolishing the police is an extreme measure, but as a measure of justice, it should be our ultimate goal.
We dont consider the abolition of police a viable position to take because we believe theyre the only thing standing between upstanding citizens and the violence of the deranged. Were afraid of being attacked on the street, of having our homes shot at, and being left without access to equally violent retribution. But does this mean we want police, or safety and security? Safety and security are ideas, ones that may never be fully achieved, and the police are an institution that have proved themselves capable of only providing the illusion of safety and security to a select few. The bulk of their jobs has nothing to do with violence prevention. They spend most of their time doing things like Slager did in his initial contact with Scottstopping people for broken taillights. Writing for Gawker, David Graeber of the London School of Economics says:
The police spend very little of their time dealing with violent criminalsindeed, police sociologists report that only about 10% of the average police officers time is devoted to criminal matters of any kind. Most of the remaining 90% is spent dealing with infractions of various administrative codes and regulations: all those rules about how and where one can eat, drink, smoke, sell, sit, walk, and drive. If two people punch each other, or even draw a knife on each other, police are unlikely to get involved. Drive down the street in a car without license plates, on the other hand, and the authorities will show up instantly, threatening all sorts of dire consequences if you dont do exactly what they tell you.
The police, then, are essentially just bureaucrats with weapons. Their main role in society is to bring the threat of physical forceeven, deathinto situations where it would never have been otherwise invoked, such as the enforcement of civic ordinances about the sale of untaxed cigarettes.
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Abolish the Police. Instead, Let's Have Full Social, Economic, and Political Equality. (Original Post)
WhiskeyGrinder
Jun 2020
OP
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,490 posts)1. Haha jk...unless?
Evening kick.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,490 posts)2. .