Reform won’t save us- the case for police abolition
TW: Police violence, racism, sexual violence
Tamir Rice. Michael Brown. Sandra Bland. These names all represent Black people whose lives were cut short by the police. Their stories resonated both in the US and in the UK, sparking protests, riots and political conversations. Tears were shed, platitudes spoken, and reforms made. However, years after their untimely deaths, we find ourselves in exactly the same place that we were told we would never be in again. The killing of George Floyd in June of last year sparked a new wave of protests calling for an end to police violence, but this time saw a particular resurgence in an idea that, although incredibly simple, has generated significant controversy- police abolition.
By no means a new concept (The Black Panther Party advocated for the idea in the early 1970s), the idea of abolishing the police was effectively neutralised during the Obama years, as his adminstration funnelled millions of dollars into police reform measures. These included more diverse hiring practices, body cameras and longer training programmes. However, four years after the end of his presidency, we find ourselves looking at a situation that appears not to have changed at all. If reform was the answer to solving police violence, then why did the police not become any less violent?
In this article, we’ll look into the origins of policing as we know it, why attempts at reform have failed, and why police abolition, at first glance a seemingly utopian and unrealistic idea, is actually the best chance we have at solving both police violence, and the root causes of crime.
If reform was the answer to solving police violence, then why did the police not become any less violent?
The police as we know it today is a fairly recent invention. In the 19th century, Britain was engaged in prolonged conflict in Ireland, using its army as a force to engage both enemy combatants and civilians alike. However, this approach often resulted in the deaths of numerous Irish republicans, thereby creating martyrs who would continue to inspire Irish civilians to resist British occupation. Seeking a solution to this problem, Robert Peel, a Tory Party politician, devised the idea of using specially-trained forces to subtly infiltrate, arrest, and effectively neutralise republican oppposition. This early form of British policing, a model based on subversion and the threat of violence, was then exported back to the British mainland and became the template for the Metropolitan police. Set against the backdrop of a rapidly industrialising Britain, where labour strikes and workplace organising were beginning to pose a significant threat to the capitalist establishment, Peel’s new model of policing was welcomed with open arms by the ruling elite- no longer would they fear the underpaid and underfed masses rising up against them, as any significant industrial actions would be neutralised by the Met.
Peel’s model of policing went on to not only spread around the UK but also across the Atlantic to the US, where the first modern American police force was formed in Boston in 1838. In the American context, police forces were used not only to suppress working-class dissent, but to also act as a means through which to keep the Black population in line. Police were used to hunt down, catch and re-enslave runaways from Southern plantations, and in many cases, to oversee or actively take part in lynchings across the United States. Suppressing industrial action on one hand, while enacting violence against Black people on the other, the police were not created to protect the average citizen. Rather they were created to protect the interests of the wealthy, and to serve as a means through which to provide cheap labour for US capitalist interests.
From slavery, to Jim Crow, to modern-day mass incarceration, the police have served as the vehicle through which Black people are rounded up, brutalised, and put to work in the service of capital. Modern day police forces across the US disproportionately target Black and brown communities for drug offences, in order to ensure that the country’s privately-run prisons are full enough to continue generating profit (in 2015, the US private prison industry was estimated to be worth $4.8 billion). Police departments are granted greater amounts of state funding if they are able to arrest greater numbers of people, resulting in quota systems that put the pursuit of financial incentives first, and justice second.
Here in the UK, the story is very much the same. Black and other ethnic minority groups make up 14% of the population of England and Wales, but constitute 25% of the prison population. Numerous studies have demonstrated that not only is the justice system biased against Black and other ethnic minority people, but that this bias begins at the moment of contact with police. Despite the fact that Black people are less likely to use drugs than white people, they are disproportionately targeted by police stop and search powers; for every 1000 Black people, there are 38 stop and searches, compared to just 4 for every 1000 white people, and only 1 in 5 of these searches results in further action being taken. From the humiliation of targeted stop and searches and the overrepresentation of Black people in deaths in police custody, to the racism of the court system which is more likely to prosecute Black people for the same crimes as their white counterparts, the police play a critical role in criminalising the Black population in order to enable the UK’s multi-million pound private prison industry to prosper.
Black and other ethnic minority groups make up 14% of the population of England and Wales, but constitute 25% of the prison population
As we can see, a mere glance at the history of policing leaves much to be desired; built on a solid foundation of imperialism, classism and racism, policing as we know it does not exist to serve the interests of the ordinary citizen, but instead serves as a tool to be used against the poor and ethnic minorities- anyone who can be perceived as a threat to the established status quo. When the Black Lives Matter movement was coming to the fore of mainstream society in 2014–15, many of its supporters and associates saw police reform as a genuine way of affecting systemic change in the police. Reform methods such as equipping officers with body cameras, increasing diversity in the police, and longer and more detailed training programmes became go to’s for US districts seeking to quell the anger of protestors. These reforms were embraced with open arms by many across the US. After all, more Black cops must be a good thing. Right?
However, contrary to the notion that the reforms would be effective, the opposite was seen. There was no marked decrease in the number of fatal shootings by police. Despite the increase in the number of body cameras and the supposed increase in accountability they would bring, no cops have been prosecuted for murder. Despite the diverse hiring initiatives that brought more Black people into the Police force, there has been no marked decrease in instances of police violence. And despite the longer and more detailed training programmes, there has been no marked decrease in the use of deadly force. Why is this?
Well, firstly, prosecuting cops for murder is incredibly difficult. Societal attitudes tend to be in favour of the police, and these attitudes transfer into the courtroom. In the rare cases where a police officer is brought to trial, judges and juries tend to be unwilling to prosecute them, as it is assumed that whatever action they took was justified and in self-defence. Body cameras or bystanders may record what has literally happened, as many of us have seen, but not only can body cameras be turned off, meaning that many incidences of police brutality have no video evidence to speak of, but the attitudes of judges and juries stifle any attempt to get a conviction. Increasing diversity in the police force is another measure that has been implemented both in the US and the UK, however, there is no evidence that shows that Black police officers are any less likely to engage in violent behaviour. In some instances, the opposite has even been true; presumably out of a desire to not be perceived as giving preferential treatment in the eyes of their white colleagues, Black cops can sometimes be even more violent than their white counterparts.
When faced with the sobering facts it’s hard not to feel demoralised. Reforms that promise to bring about an end to violence that is endemic will, unsurprisingly, be welcomed with open arms. However, as we can see from our current reality, reform has not been the answer. As the great Audre Lourde said, ‘the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house’. Increasing funding for the very same institution that oppresses us will never enable us to be free. Instead, we must look to other methods, outside of the police, to bring about the change that we want and that we need.
At this point, you may be starting to agree with what I’m saying. Conversely, you may not. Understandably, many people’s knee-jerk reaction to the idea of abolishing the police is to say, ‘what about the rapists? who’s going to be there to lock them up?’ Whilst undoubtedly a legitimate concern, arguments such as the one above often fail to reconcile with our current reality. In the UK, only 15% of those who experience sexual violence report it to the police, and of those cases that are reported, a mere 1.7% result in prosecution. Contrary to the popular narrative that police spend their days catching the worst of the worst, the majority of police work is devoted to dealing with noise complaints, low-level drug dealing and anti-social behaviour. The vast majority of survivors of sexual violence do not report it to the police, and when they do, they often report police behaviour as having been at best unsympathetic, and at worst, openly hostile. This is not even accounting for the fact that alongside complaints of use of excessive force, complaints regarding sexual misconduct are one of the main complaints made against police in both the UK and the US. How can those that perpetuate the very same crimes they are meant to be dealing with, be expected to be trusted?
Alongside complaints of use of excessive force, complaints regarding sexual misconduct are one of the main complaints made against police in both the UK and the US
As we can see, you only need to dig beneath the surface a little bit to expose the glaring contradictions that exist in society’s perception of the police. Having now addressed the origins of modern policing, why attempts at reform have been ineffective, and why the police are not the solution for dealing with violent crime, we are now going to look at the alternative- abolition. First things first, I want to establish that abolition does not mean that all police forces are suddenly disbanded overnight. Rather it means a process in which funds are allocated away from police forces and towards addressing the root causes of crime, with police abolition as the end goal.
The vast majority of crime is not random. We do not live in a world in which people are just ‘born’ criminals. Socio-economic factors such as poverty, social exclusion, domestic violence and drug dependency all contribute to why people commit crimes. If you live in an environment where jobs are nearly impossible to come by and high living costs force many into homelessness, it is not incomprehensible why you would start dealing drugs in order to survive. However, if you lived in an environment where solid, long-term employment opportunities were provided, and you had access to affordable, good-quality housing, the likelihood of you needing to resort to dealing drugs to survive would be dramatically reduced (legalise all drugs, but I digress). The correlation between poverty and crime is both well-documented and almost universal- high levels of poverty result in higher levels of crime. Instead of channelling all our resources into police that only deal with the after-effects of crime, wouldn’t it make far more sense to address crime at the source?
In 2019, the NYPD’s budget stood at $6 billion dollars, more than the budgets for housing and social care combined. Imagine if instead of criminalising those living in poverty, funds were instead allocated to improving people’s quality of life, in order to ensure that people were able to live lives that did not force them into criminal activity. Imagine if rehabilitation programmes were properly funded, to ensure that those suffering from drug dependency were able to get the help they need. Imagine if adequate funding was given to schools, to ensure that children were not left behind their wealthier peers. Imagine if talks and workshops on consent, relationships and unlearning attitudes of male entitlement were made a key part of the education system, to ensure that the root causes of sexual violence were dealt with early on. All these things and more are the alternatives that police abolitionists envision. A world in which issues are dealt with before they arise, not after. A world in which Black people and other racialised minorities are not targeted and harrassed for merely existing. A world, simply put, that is better than the one that came before it. We can build that future.
Resources for further learning:
Watch:
13th (documentary available on Netflix, addresses mass incarceration and the prison-industrial complex)
When They See Us (drama series available on Netflix, based on the true-story of the Central Park Five, the show addresses police brutality and the racism of the court system)
Read:
How I Became a Police Abolitionist (article available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/how-i-became-police-abolitionist/613540/)
The End of Policing (book available at: http://libcom.org/files/Vitale%20-%20The%20End%20of%20Policing%20(Police)%20(2017).pdf)
Take action:
Abolitionist Futures (police and prison abolition organisation based in the UK and Ireland: https://abolitionistfutures.com/)
HAVEN (a UK-based organisation that provides prisoners with educational literature and dictionaries: http://www.havendistribution.org.uk/index)
