2020-06-10 - On the Abolition of Policing
-----------------------------------------
In the interests of encouraging discourse, I thought I'd spend a
short amount of time outlining what "Defund the Police" and
"Abolish the Police" means, in the context of the present situation
in the United States.
To listen to some on the right, in print and TV, you'd think the
two had the same meaning, viz. an absence of any policing at all.
Fact is, neither of the phrases actually mean that. That's a "ten
word answer", and should be rejected by everyone as such.
Instead, both refer to *Reform* of the Police, neither phrase
implies an *absence* of policing.
"Defunding the Police" is in fact the lesser reform. Its a phrase
designed to catch attention, and to draw the listener into a
discourse. It refers, rather, to the ludicrous levels of funding
which policing currently enjoys in the United States. To take an
example, fully 4% of all US GDP is spent on Law Enforcement,
compared to less than 1% in the EU27. Policing outcomes, in terms
of crimes solved, police brutality, deaths of suspects, any metric
you can choose, are far better in the EU for that 1%.
To take another example, the Police Budget for the city of Los
Angeles (population 4m) is twice the size of the entire Japanese
National Police Force (126m).
Why is this the case? Primarily, its because since the election of
Richard Nixon in 1972, social services in the United States
have been stripped of funding. Mental healthcare, housing,
youth interventions, drug awareness programs, domestic violence
interventions, public transportation, everything was defunded in
the interests of "fiscal rectitude."
Fact is, none of that money was saved, it just got spent on
policing! And police are the _last_ people who should be dealing
with mental health victims, domestic violence, the homeless, the
addicted.
"Defund the Police" means taking some of that money *back*, and
spending it where is *should* be spent. That's all. The Police
would still continue, maybe with a little less money to spend on
tanks and darth vader cosplay.
"Abolish the Police" is a far deeper reform, and one which has a
scary-ass name, one given to it by right wingers. Like "Defund the
Police", the phrase covers over a sea of competing and disparate
views on what policing _should_ be, but they all start from the
same position - the Disestablishment of Current Police Forces, and
their replacement with a Community-Based System.
This has happened many times, in many places. Most famously, it
happened on this Island, in 2001. Following the Peace Process in
Northern Ireland, the Royal Ulster Constabulary was a force out of
time and place. It was associated strongly with one side of the
conflict, and was literally *lousy* with corrupt officers and
extremists.
So, in 2001, they were all sacked - every man and jack of them.
They were all invited to apply to a new Police Force - the Police
Service of Northern Ireland - a force which has community relations
and representation in its DNA. Has it been an unqualified success?
Lol, no, this is Northern Ireland, sonny! But it _is_ better than
what went before, costs massively less and has massively more
community support.
Or, in an american context, the best example is Camden, New Jersey.
That was routinely named as the most violent city in the US, and
its police force had a long history of corruption and infiltration.
Taking the example of the PSNI, they abolished the old force, and
invited the officers to join a new one. The results speak for
themselves. City crime dropped in *half*. The conviction rate
increased 2,000%, drug addiction rates plummeted. Deaths in custody
are now almost unheard of, brutality reports are minimal, and
result in automatic suspensions and investigations.
That's what "Abolish the Police" can do. It is the reform which the
United States is crying out for. Don't let propagandists deceive
you, the phrases are cover for a deeper and more principled
approach to how lives are lived.
