(C) OpenDemocracy
This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
It’s time to abolish the UK’s police [1]
[]
Date: 2023-01
It feels like every day there is a new story about a British police officer enacting violence on someone. Most recently, the Metropolitan Police has come under fire for continuing to employ serial rapist David Carrick, who this week pleaded guilty to 49 charges of serious sexual violence committed over 20 years, despite receiving repeated warnings about his behaviour.
Carrick’s violence is not a one-off. Met Police bosses are currently reviewing more than 1,600 cases of alleged sexual and domestic abuse involving its staff, and yesterday openDemocracy revealed the force’s refusal to say how many officers in its Sexual Offences Unit have been accused of sex offences. This is not limited to the Met: 80% of UK officers who have been accused of domestic abuse have been allowed to keep their jobs.
It’s unsurprising then, that a growing number of people – myself included – are demanding the abolition of the police in the UK, and internationally. But to understand why, and what it might mean to live without officers, we must understand the true purpose of the police.
Established in 1829, London’s Metropolitan Police was the first organised police force in the world. Overseas, Britain was a colonial power making huge profits off of slavery, exploitation, and trade with other powers. At home, a newly established working class was moving into urban centres, having been forced out of the countryside by Enclosures Acts which privatised land and prevented people from living, farming and roaming freely.
Get our free Daily Email Get one whole story, direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up now
The working class lived in gruesome conditions, and the repeal of the 1824 Combinations Act allowed workers to collectively organise – and the ruling class needed a way, backed by the rule of law, to suppress and control them. The haphazard methods of the military or private security teams were failing, with the use of military force against the rebels of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre leading to more popular resistance and support.
And so, the Metropolitan Police was born. The British police have always described themselves as ‘policing by consent’ – an ideological tool developed by the elite, who knew that policing only by force was ineffective.
In the colonies, though, this was not the case. The abolition of slavery in 1833 meant Britain could no longer accumulate capital through the extraction of free slave labour. But much of the world was still under British rule, and police forces were established in the Caribbean to control recently emancipated slaves. Modelled after the Royal Irish Constabulary, which was organised on semi-military lines, police forces abroad had the explicit aim of crushing unrest and resistance to the British Empire. They did not police by consent, instead being heavily armed and utilising violence as their main tool of policing.
This difference in policing can still be seen at home today, with racialised communities bearing the brunt of police violence in the UK. Black people are nine times more likely to be stopped and searched than their white counterparts (with 71% of those searches leading to no further action), and are overrepresented in the criminal justice system and prisons.
Change is coming
History makes clear that the police do not exist to protect any of us. They exist to have power over us, and like perpetrators, they will use that power indiscriminately to keep us in our place.
When we understand that the police’s purpose is to protect the ruling class and their accumulated capital and resources, the mechanisms of how forces actually work – and their incredibly poor results – start to make more sense.
The Met Police’s budget for 2021/22 was £3bn pounds. That’s £3bn to finance a prosecution rate of 5% for sexual and violent crimes. £3bn for more than 98% of reported rapes to go uncharged. £3bn to pay the salaries of the likes of David Carrick and Wayne Couzens, who raped and murdered Sarah Everard in 2021, and the murderers of Mark Duggan, Chris Kaba and Olaseni Lewis. £3bn for the perpetrators of what has been branded “state-sanctioned sexual assault” against Child Q. £3bn for the countless unnamed officers who terrorise our communities daily.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/abolition-metropolitan-police-sisters-uncut-david-carrick-wayne-couzens-mark-duggan-child-q/
Published and (C) by OpenDemocracy
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/
