What does abolishing the police actually look like?
After the recent and tragic deaths of so many black lives taken by corrupt police officers around the country, the Black Lives Matter Movement has had a resurgence full of vigor and hunger for justice. Part of said justice being called for by activists in the black community is the abolition of police departments across America. Police abolitionists believe, as a system, the police are inherently unjust, so much so that police reform is not enough to liberate black and brown people from police violence. Abolishing the police is in fact a necessary part of black liberation, for police officers act as systematic preservers of white supremacy; however, the advocacy and movement of police abolition is being met with resistance due to ignorance surrounding what exactly abolishing the police entails. So, what does abolishing the police actually look like? How would our society function without police?
In short, without police, American society would function like affluent white or suburban neighborhoods. For the most part, there is a sense of community amongst suburban America as well as community protection and maintenance from homeowner associations. In white suburbia, kids go to school without fear of the police, parents go to work without police interference, residents enjoy the occasional barbecue and lounge on their porches while kids play all without abuse or harassment from police officers. For white suburbia, life is relatively “normal” in that regard.
That sense of normality has not been the same for the black community, as the ideology of policing is designed to brutalize and criminalize black people. In her article for the New York Times, writer and activist Mariame Kaba states, “when you see a police officer pressing his knee into a black man’s neck until he dies, that’s the logical result of policing in America. When a police officer brutalizes a black person, he is doing what he sees as his job.” Conversely, white people may find it hard to imagine a reality in which police abolition is not only possible but safe because for them, police officers act as a protector or guardian. However, the black community has historically experienced a different, more violent, and unethical reality in terms of policing, and abolishing the police demands for that reality to permanently end.
As previously mentioned, for many skeptics, police abolition seems like an unsafe solution to begin the work towards dismantling white supremacy. So, let’s examine the problem with police as we know it in a broader sense: first, the entire justice system in the United States criminalizes homelessness, sex work, and drug addiction; therefore, rendering people without stable housing, sex workers, and those suffering from addiction unprotected by the law and from those who enforce the law.
Secondly, undocumented immigrants cannot rely on police officers for safety out of fear of jail or deportation. Next, police are largely ineffective in protecting victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. In fact, to add insult to injury, the National Center for Women and Policing found that at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic violence, which is four times the amount of the general population, as well as commit sexual violence against civilians. Notably, victims of sexual assault have expressed, apart from the assault itself, one of the more traumatizing aspects of reporting their assault is speaking with police officers. Victims must relive their trauma for the sake of filing a police report and are too often met with victim-blaming from police officers, further adding to their trauma.
Lastly, police are inherently unethical, with origins of brutalizing black people dating back to slavery when police acted as slave patrols that would catch and return runaway slaves. With this in mind, there is no reform that can fix the damage already done to the black community and prevent police from committing further violence against black people due to the inherent anti-blackness within the policing system.
In his article for Vox News, Sean Illing interviewed seven scholars and activists to ask them about police abolition and what it entails. The first question presented in the article was, “what does abolishing the police mean?” The common sentiment shared by all his interviewees as well as other activists of police abolition and myself is- abolishing the police entails eliminating “our overreliance on law enforcement, discrimination, and avoidable harm in public safety, including unnecessary police killings.” Instead, the policing system would be replaced with “community care networks and justice structures rooted in restoration rather than punishment” and social workers better equipped at handling sensitive situations such as domestic violence and sexual assault which, as previously mentioned, is currently grossly mishandled by regular police officers.
For example, rather than having victims of sexual violence speak with police officers who are equipped with guns, a social worker specializing in trauma psychology could speak with someone who has been assaulted. A specialized social worker can offer a level of understanding, knowledge, and empathy that police officers are not trained to do and these reports can be sent in from the social workers to the police.
Furthermore, the article also mentions a campaign called “8 to abolition” which is a multi-stepped plan to defund police authorities, encourage decarceration and accessible housing, and decriminalize Black, Brown, and poor communities. The 8 to abolition plan provides the first step to abolishing the police which initially entails significantly cutting the disproportionate amount of funds police departments receive from cities and reallocating those funds to under-funded aspects of the community, specifically, city departments that aid in maintaining the well-being of community residents like health care, education, housing, employment, and arts.
Moreover, in her book, “Are Prisons Obsolete?” Angela Davis examines the role of the prison industrial complex in American society, deconstructing how it affects underprivileged, minority communities. In regards to American society’s perception of crime, those who commit crime and what the fate of criminals ought to be, Davis states, “We think about imprisonment as a fate reserved for the “evildoers.” Because of the persistent power of racism, “criminals” and “evildoers” are, in the collective imagination, fantasized as people of color.”
Counter-arguments to abolishing the police argue that crime rates across the country would go up; however, research has shown that crime rates are often high in racially and ethnically segregated neighborhoods because of the heavy police presence within them, not in spite of it. This is because black people in America are treated as “criminals” based on the police’s natural suspicion of us regardless if a crime was committed or not, resulting in more arrests and stops in black neighborhoods compared to white neighborhoods. Correspondingly, to further debunk that myth, in some minority communities police are often the biggest perpetrators of committing crimes.
For example, in Vallejo, California, police committed 30% of all murders in 2012. Vallejo is a small city in California, with a population of 122,000. Vallejo’s resident demographics are largely black and brown with almost 70% of residents being people of color. Vallejo’s history with police violence is a great example of how the community might be perceived to be dangerous or high in crime because the population is mostly black and brown residents. However, the community’s violence can be attributed to the prominent police presence within it. Not to mention, the Vallejo Police Department has a violent history that they do simply because their community residents are minorities. Again, the VPD felt as though they were doing the community at large a favor by killing and brutalizing “evildoers” and “criminals.”
What is most dangerous about the notion of black people and other people of color being labeled by society as inherent criminals is the ways in which these harmful stereotypes manifest themselves in all forms of policing: airport transportation security admission (TSA), police officers in schools and colleges, security guards at malls and movie theatres, etc. It’s important to recognize that all subsets of the policing system provide an opportunity for police or security to discriminate against black and brown minorities.
So, we must ask ourselves: “What can we, as the public, do to protect the black community from harmful and life-threatening discrimination regarding the way and to who America serves justice?”
The abolishment of police is essential to the preservation and well-being of the black community and the first step to deconstructing anti-blackness in America's criminal justice system. Most importantly, the amount of funding police departments get can be re-distributed amongst other city departments that can truly begin to reduce crime if given proper funding (education, employment) as well as more effectively protect the livelihood of the communities we live in. It’s imperative that we not only examine the role police have historically played in abusing the black community but actively do the work; correspondingly, doing the work means playing your role. It’s important to start by reading on police abolition from writers and activists within the community who have been doing the work already for years.
In addition, signing petitions, attending community town halls, or advocating for police reform on social media will help to spread awareness on the need for police abolition as well as illustrate solidarity among our communities. Together, we must convey to our elected officials that police reform is simply not enough and police abolition can’t wait. Abolishing the police is the only way to ensure police are no longer granted the power to commit further harm against the black community, other people of color, or anyone else. The first step to abolishing the police is more attainable than we are led to believe by many of our government officials, for a future of police abolition can be made more possible when we begin doing the work together.
Ebony Purks is a 22-year-old recent college graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in English. She is a freelance writer and blogger and runs a personal blog called Black Girl’s Digest where she writes analyses covering anything from pop culture to current events. Additionally, in her spare time Ebony enjoys binging her favorite shows on Netflix, watching YouTube, practicing yoga, and reading on occasion. Some of her favorite books include “Bad Feminist” by Roxanne Gay and “Letter to My Daughter” by Maya Angelou. Overall, Ebony is a passionate young writer who encourages self-expression, for herself and others, and is always eager to learn something new. You can find her on Instagram @ebpurks
This edited by EIC Kailah Figueroa
Copyedited by Tah Ai Jia