Can We Abolish the Police Without Abolishing the U.S. Government?
A lot has happened during the last year. There was an unprecedented global pandemic that is still raging out of control in parts of the world. A man named George Floyd was murdered. If Floyd had been born white, he would likely still be alive. A massive protest movement erupted, some say the largest in U.S. history. The perpetrator was arrested. The protest movement continued. People began questioning the very notion of policing — embracing ideas like defunding and abolition.
Now the perpetrator has been convicted, but what happens next?
A heartening aspect of these events was the tenacious spirit of radicalism that began developing in their wake. People from all backgrounds realized that American policing, at its core, is simply an expression of the state’s monopoly on violence. And that state is inherently colonialist, capitalist, and white supremacist. There is an assumption that we start by defunding the police, and we gradually move toward replacing them with something completely different — something that truly upholds safety and security for our communities.
But what is the way forward? What are the logistics of this monumental task?
These questions have been on my mind lately, so I decided to articulate my thoughts on this controversial yet crucial…
