Defund the Police and Abolish Prisons - An Abolitionist Horizon

 

Below is the draft content of  a pamphlet I wrote for the Wilmington, NC DSA on the modern day abolitionist movement. Is abolition of the carceral state possible? Certainly not under capitalism. But working toward abolition is an integral part of tearing down the bulwark that supports the exploitative system we need to overturn. A luta continua, vitória é certa.

Why we need to defund the police and abolish prisons

As Democratic Socialists we understand that our criminal justice system does not prevent harm nor dispense justice. Under capitalism, its purpose is to defend and protect capitalists’ ability to exploit working people, not to protect us. The system isn’t broken, it is doing exactly what it is designed to do.

Look at the history of policing in our country. It had its origins in the slave patrols, organized to capture escaped slaves and return them to their “owners”. After the Civil War, Black freedmen were arrested for “vagrancy” and forced to work on chain gangs to provide labor for the former slave masters. Later, police were used to break strikes when working people demanded better wages and working conditions. Today, sheriffs evict poor people who can’t pay their rent and throw them out on the street and police departments detain undocumented immigrants for deportation.

We are told that the police are there to protect us from criminals who want to harm us, but calling the police frequently results in greater harm and even death. The arming of the police with military weapons doesn’t make us safer, it creates an occupying army which wages war on Black, brown and working-class communities.

Why is it that someone selling marijuana on the street corner is a criminal, while the owners of the big drug companies, who sold opioids that killed tens of thousands, can get away with murder? Why is it that there are so many Black, brown and poor people in prisons and so few rich white folks? Is it because the rich white folks define what is and what isn’t a crime?

It may be difficult to fully understand the negative impact on our communities of keeping millions of people—overwhelmingly Black, brown, and poor—in jails and prisons, but we can start by considering these facts:  

·         Almost half of all black adult women in America have a family member who is in prison.

·         1 in 9 black males between the ages of 20 and 34 is locked up.

·         The total cost of incarceration in the United States (including costs borne by the families of those incarcerated) is estimated to be about $1 trillion a year.

The brutal machinery of police and prisons must be dismantled in order to build institutions that will truly “serve and protect” all working people. Abolitionists recognize that this won’t happen all at once. What we are doing today is building towards an abolition horizon in the future. To do that we need to fight to reduce the size, power and authority of this repressive system and replace it, piece by piece, with institutions that serve our community with care, real justice and equity

Let’s begin with some alternatives to calling the police – for today

Identifying and/or training members of our community to assist with issues related to community health & safety is just one step towards making police presence unnecessary in our communities.

1.       Taking community health courses in First Aid, CPR, de-escalation, and/or restorative justice are just a few of the ways we can build community capacity and self-reliance. Community training programs are available at

Sokoto House: https://sokotohouse.org/

CPR Classes:  https://cprworksofwilmington.com/

2.       Take a Mental Health First Aid Training Course

Trillium:  https://www.trilliumhealthresources.org/regional-operations/mental-health-first-aid

3.       When community members are having a mental health crisis, it is important to center the needs of the person in crisis and utilize the local/community resources, such as

Port City United Connect at 910-798-4444

RHA Mobile Crisis hotline 844-709-4097 (available 24/7/365)

4.       For Domestic Disputes call: National Domestic Violence Hotline 800-799-7233

5.       For Suicide Prevention call: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline – Dial 988

Let’s work towards an abolitionist future - for tomorrow

·         Defund the police by rejecting any expansion of their budgets while demanding that current funds be diverted to programs that benefit the community.

·         Demilitarize the police and end police occupation of Black and brown communities.

·         Repeal laws that criminalize people involved in sex trades, drug trades and street economies and those that criminalize poverty and homelessness.

·         End the cash bail system, free all prisoners who are incarcerated for non-violent or victimless crimes and end all fines and fees associated with the criminal legal process.

·         Remove police from our schools and end the use of suspensions and zero tolerance discipline.

·         End police cooperation with ICE and the deportation of immigrants and refugees.

 

Martin Luther King, Jr., reminded us that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” His life’s work would add “but only if we bend it.”