We Need to Abolish the Police

10/23/2022

Wei '25

After years of police brutality and the tumultuous protests of the summer of 2020, one sentiment echoed through the young, liberal population: something must be done about the police. Although most liberals have attempted to reform the police, agreeing that something has to change, tiny modifications are not enough. Communities are suffering. Police brutality, limited resources, and politicians who care solely about profit and upholding the carceral status quo are killing people. Not just any people––overwhelmingly Black, Brown, and/or poor people are affected. These communities are often overpoliced and underfunded in all aspects except for their police forces. Reform is not enough. We must abolish the police.

Won’t crime go up? Who will protect us?
For the 2023 fiscal year, the DC budget approved a whopping $526.1 million dollars for the Metropolitan Police Department, which is double the budget given to economic development, an agenda providing funding for affordable housing, workforce development, and economic planning. Our council’s spending habits manifest very clearly in our city. Despite MPD’s budget being almost identical to the ones before it, our violent crime rate has increased. Homicides and gun violence are increasing, and our police, despite having an extravagant budget, don’t do anything to combat rising chaos. Police often show up after crimes to take notes and write a report, barely doing anything else. FBI data shows that in two thirds of reported rape cases, police don’t make any arrests, which is also true for half of reported aggravated assaults.

Not only do police not prevent crime, but they often are the crime. One third of all homicides committed by strangers are committed by the police, and the top complaints against the police in the US are excessive force and sexual misconduct. 40% of police are reported for abuse against their spouse and/or children. Police don’t keep us safe; they make us less so.

However, what does make us safe is more resources. Crime is concentrated in historically disenfranchised low-income neighborhoods with few resources. Crime rates drop when these communities have food, stable housing, employment, and health and well-being services. The money we would’ve used to fund the police would not just go away; it would be used to fund these services and help communities in need, preventing crime from the onset. All crime has a root, and if we can solve the problem at its root by providing services and support for those who need it most, we can stop crimes before they even happen. As for the crime that does happen, we can make police extraneous by sending healthcare professionals, EMTs, de-escalators, social workers, and more in their place during emergencies. To quote Mariame Kaba, an abolitionist organizer: “We don’t want to just close police departments. We want to make them obsolete.” By taking funding away from the police and giving it back to communities, the need for police will slowly wither away. Our communities will be stronger, happier, healthier, and safer.

What will happen to criminals?
Abolition doesn’t just involve the police, but also the abolition of prisons. What do we do with criminals? Many people believe that abolition lets criminals “walk free,” which is untrue. Abolition simply offers a better alternative to the inhumane treatment and cruelty that happens in prisons. 25% of women’s prison populations and 10% of men’s are assaulted while incarcerated. Within three years of their release, two out of three former prisoners are rearrested, and more than 50% are re-incarcerated. Incarceration strips people of their communities, their resources, and their lives, and when they are released, they are often forced into a life of crime in an effort to stay afloat. The prison system doesn’t stop violence. It simply centralizes it, feeding the cycle while targeting the most vulnerable––the Black, Brown, queer, trans, and poor.

In place of prisons, those who commit crimes should be given humanity and rehabilitation: long-term centers where they can receive the help they need while being unable to hurt anyone else in the process. Therapy, resources, and community support are all things that can be funded with prison abolition. Abolitionists dream of a world where dignity and care are valued over punishment and control. To get to that world, we must abolish prisons and the police.

Why can’t we just reform the police?
We already tried that, and it hasn’t worked.

Modern-day policing at its root is racist and violent. We can trace back the idea of policing in America to slave patrols, a system created with the very intention to terrorize and violently brutalize any slaves who dared to rebel against their masters. After the Civil War, slave patrols turned into militia-style groups, which inspired the creation of the police we see today. Policing has historically been a way for those in power to threaten others and maintain their authority, which will remain true if we keep enabling our notion of “public safety” by tying it to the police.

In 2015, the Obama Administration’s President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing resulted in more training, more feedback sessions, and more money given to the police. What came out of it? Police killings actually increased after this task force made its tweaks. Even a member of the task force, Tracy Meares, admitted that “policing as we know it must be abolished before it can be transformed.” When most people say “why don’t we just do XYZ about the police?” they are suggesting a complete transformation, something that no longer resembles the original idea of police. How much can you reform something before it’s actually considered abolition and the rebuilding of something new?

I’m arguing against “reformist reforms,” reforms that enforce and strengthen the harmful systems at hand. This includes giving the police more money for training or more hires. However, that doesn’t mean we have to abandon the idea of reform completely. Non-reformist reforms, such as gradually taking money from the police or cutting police force numbers, are all things that we consider on the path to abolition. There are alternatives to getting rid of the police overnight. Reform and abolition can coexist and help each other on our path to a better world.

So, how do I get involved in abolishing the police?
Number one rule: don’t call the police. More often than not, police are not necessary for a situation and actually escalate it. When faced with a situation that requires de-escalation and/or intervention instead of violence, consider calling a number from this list of community resources: https://dontcallthepolice.com/washington-d-c/. Doing this could save and change a life.

Most importantly, there is power in numbers! We cannot abolish the police alone, and we must work together. Joining a group or coalition of people who are actively working to abolish the police is one of the easiest pathways to getting involved. Multiple groups in DC are working to defund and eventually abolish DC’s MPD, mostly found in the Defund MPD Coalition. Where you plug in depends on what side of abolishing the police you’re interested in, as abolition is an intersectional and multi-faceted issue. Below are some different types of groups that all relate back to abolition in DC that you can get involved in:

Abolishing the police is environmental justice (https://www.defundmpd.org/why-defund-articles/environment):
The Sunrise Movement DC, the Palm Collective, and ShutDown DC.

Abolishing the police is housing justice (https://www.defundmpd.org/why-defund-articles/housing):
The FairBudget Coalition, Washington Lawyers’ Committee, and the Cancel Rent Coalition.

Abolishing the police is relevant to the decriminalization of drugs (https://www.defundmpd.org/why-defund-articles/decriminalizing-drugs): HIPS, the Drugs Policy Alliance, and SSDP.

Abolishing the police is vital to labor justice, class liberation, and food security (https://www.defundmpd.org/why-defund-articles/food-justice):
Metro DC DSA, Working Families Party DC, Heal Da Homies, and Food Not Bombs DC.

Of course, abolishing the police is racial justice. Some groups organizing around Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian liberation, along with abolition, are Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, the Palm Collective, BLM DC, Occupation Free DC, Justice for Muslims Collective, Anakbayan DC, Sanctuary DMV, and many many more.

(This list is obviously not exhaustive and does not include all of the groups doing amazing work for the DMV community.)

Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/05/10/dc-council-budget-police/

https://www.dcfpi.org/all/a-residents-guide-to-the-dc-budget-4/#:~:text=For%20FY%202022%2C%20the%20approved,budget%20is%20about%20%2418.4%20billion.

https://bostonreview.net/articles/police-reform-doesnt-work/

https://www.dcfpi.org/all/police-budget-remains-flat-despite-big-investments-in-officer-recruitment-and-retention/

https://www.tableau.com/about/blog/2022/1/visualizing-dc-police-budget

https://hershgupta.com/2021/05/27/dc-crime-rates/

https://granta.com/violence-in-blue/

https://www.defundmpd.org/why-defund-articles/violence-prevention

https://www.brookings.edu/research/want-to-reduce-violence-invest-in-place/

https://www.crimeinamerica.net/offender-recidivism-and-reentry-in-the-united-states/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/sunday/floyd-abolish-defund-police.html

https://bostonreview.net/articles/tracey-l-meares-public-good-gone-bad/

https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/06/65309/

https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/origins-modern-day-policing
Image: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/6/12/21283813/george-floyd-blm-abolish-the-police-8cantwait-minneapolis

11 Comments

Bob

10/24/2022 10:33:30 am

So if I’m sitting around minding my business and some crazy nut tries to rob me and I can’t de escalate the situation, who do I call? The ghostbusters? Your wrong Baka

ghostbusters

10/24/2022 02:31:53 pm

did you even read the article

10/24/2022 06:11:45 pm

“When faced with a situation that requires de-escalation and/or intervention instead of violence, consider calling a number from this list of community resources: https://dontcallthepolice.com/washington-d-c/. Doing this could save and change a life.”

Gotham City Citizen

10/25/2022 10:31:41 am

Obviously just use the Batsignal and Batman will help you

Alex

10/24/2022 11:01:35 am

Based

Jack Marino

10/24/2022 08:02:53 pm

I have a lot of qualms with this article. Here are a few:

"Despite MPD’s budget being almost identical to the ones before it, our violent crime rate has increased."

Actually, the DC government made some efforts to defund the police in recent years leading to a spike in crime. Some of this budget has been refunded, but the rise in crime can most likely be attributed to previous years of lower police funding and Covid's mental health effects.

The idea that the police "won't do anything" to combat the rising chaos is a reasonable concern, but this is not because of the existence of the police. After the BLM protests/riots, many cities have reigned in the power of the police, preventing them from holding suspected criminals or arresting perpetrators of juvenile crimes, leading to a general increase in the city's lawlessness. As a result, certain groups of people are emboldened to commit crimes because they have less of a punishment to fear. Sources: https://wtop.com/dc/2022/01/dc-police-chief-calls-for-accountability-on-juvenile-crime/ and https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/12/chicago-portland-protester-charges/

"One third of all homicides committed by strangers are committed by the police" -- This is an inaccurate and misleading statement, also plagiarized from https://granta.com/violence-in-blue/

"The money we would’ve used to fund the police would not just go away; it would be used to fund these services and help communities in need, preventing crime from the onset."

It's also important to remember that some of the wealthiest neighborhoods have the largest police forces. Why? because police are needed to safeguard economic security. Disenfranchised communities won't become wealthy if personal wealth isn't protected by the police. Additionally, we often seem to forget the presence of gang violence in our cities. If an area is marked as "gang territory," violence won't simply go away by funding the community because gangs will always look for ways to extract wealth out of poor communities, and there will always be fights over gang turf.

"In place of prisons, those who commit crimes should be given humanity and rehabilitation: long-term centers where they can receive the help they need while being unable to hurt anyone else in the process. Therapy, resources, and community support are all things that can be funded with prison abolition."

Let me get this right. You are saying that if someone commits murder, they should be sent to therapy and not detained? If people are sent to therapy every time the commit a crime, what's stopping them from doing it again? In order to effectively prevent a "patient" from ever hurting anyone again, they will need to be guarded or kept under lock and key, the same way prisoners are kept. So you support abolishing prisons and replacing them with...Therapy Prisons?

"After the Civil War, slave patrols turned into militia-style groups, which inspired the creation of the police we see today."
Police in some form have always existed in America. Police did not become a new thing when slave patrols were formed. Plus, nobody living today participated in slave patrols, so how would your supposed legacy of police have an effect today. For example, many Americans (myself included) had slaveholding ancestors. Does that mean we support slavery or are racist? Of course not. Similarly, todays police have no connection to the slave patrols of the past.

"Why can’t we just reform the police?"
Maybe we don't need to reform the police much. Overall, police homicides make up an insignificant amount of American deaths compared to gang violence and other violent crime. In 2021, Chicago had almost 800 homicides (an increase caused by the city's efforts to defund their police), and we hear about maybe one act of unlawful police brutality every year. Even so, many police shootings are necessary for their self defense in their altercations with gang members and the like.

"Number one rule: don’t call the police. More often than not, police are not necessary for a situation and actually escalate it. When faced with a situation that requires de-escalation and/or intervention instead of violence, consider calling a number from this list of community resources: https://dontcallthepolice.com/washington-d-c/. Doing this could save and change a life."

If you care about your personal safety, please call the police in the event of an emergency. However, if you seek to incite a Communist Revolution, abolishing the police would help with that. So, therefore, for anyone who is not a militant communist, please disregard this article's dangerous notion that we should refuse to call the police in the case of an emergency.

I also would like to ask you, Mr. Wei, if you or a loved one were hurt or facing an emergency, would you really trust a don't call the police hotline (which refers you to a charity organization) over the tried and true MPD?

10/24/2022 08:25:29 pm

Based Marino

Kanye West

10/24/2022 09:43:18 pm

bro really responded to the article with a longer, better article

stathinker.com

Thinker

10/25/2022 10:29:19 am

The amount of factually incorrect statements in this article is astounding. Thank you Mr. Marino for stating the facts

10/25/2022 06:45:25 pm

First of all when you say that Chicago's homicides have risen because of efforts to defund the police, that is simply untrue. In 2021, the year you mentioned, the murder rate in Chicago was half and again what it was in 2019. In 2021 the Chicago Police budget also had risen by more than $150 million dollars from 2019 to 2021. What does this show? That even if there were efforts to defund the police they did not come to fruition, and that in fact a rise in crime corresponded to a rise in the police budget. Now I am not saying that this rise in crime was caused by the rise in the police budget, but at the very least this data shows that raising the police budget and having a larger police force does not help with violent crime. You also stated that police in the U.S. do not need reform, but that is contradicted by facts. In the year 2020 U.S. Police killed people at a rate of 33.5 per 10 million people, by far the most in the developed world. Canada which is second has a rate of 9.8 killings per 10 million people. This means that I am three times more likely to be killed by police in the U.S. than in Canada. Now many people will argue that this is the case because in the U.S. there are many guns, but in Canada around 30% of households own a firearm. This is similar to the U.S. in which 30% of people own guns. How anyone can see this fact and not come to the conclusion that America's police need reform is beyond me. Now on to the next topic where you say to always call the police in case of an emergency. This is not the best idea. Obviously if you are being attacked or there is an active shooter then you should call the police. This is common sense and everybody agrees with that notion so saying that is nothing new. But now for instance imagine one of your friends or family members is having a mental health emergency and you are wondering who to call. The police are not trained to help in this scenario and they would be the last people who I would call. In fact I know someone who did just this and the police ended up shooting and killing her sister. She was home alone with her sister and her sister began to act strange. She began to worry and believed her sister was about to commit suicide. She then called the police to get help, since she had no idea what to do. The police arrived and entered the house to see if the sister was okay. She happened to be holding something in her hand that the police thought was a weapon (it wasn't one). The officer then promptly pulled out his gun and killed her. So no you should not call the police for every type of emergency. In this case I bet the sister of the now dead girl wished she had not called the police. Overall, police are needed in some instances, but should you blindly trust one and call them for every emergencyr? No. Do American police need reform? Yes. Is the rise in murder in Chicago do to defunding the police? No.

10/26/2022 12:40:41 pm

You are not three times more likely to be killed by police in America. Similarly, comparing the firearms owned my household does not get at many of the variations between the two countries. Cops don't kill without reason. Are there 'good cops' and 'bad cops' sure, but the number of unjustified homicides by police is minuscule. Definitely not the 1/3 of all homicides bs as said in the article.

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