Police abolition movement

The police abolition movement is a social movement that aims to reduce violence and improve communities over time, eventually ending the need for prisons and police forces. The movement has its roots in the early twentieth century, though it became more structured in the 1990s and 2000s. Numerous scholars, many of whom are African American, have written about police abolition and related topics, such as defunding the police and increasing community safety. Although the ultimate goal of the police abolition movement is to end incarceration and disband police forces, members of the movement have varying opinions about how to reach that goal. Although some call for an immediate dissolution of police forces and the prison system, others believe that gradual change is necessary to ensure that the process is successful. The police abolition movement focuses on community programs and support to help reduce and prevent violence, including police violence. Members of the movement contend that state violence is the most pernicious type and until it ends, communities will not be able to stop violence.

Background

From its start, policing in the United States has been closely tied to race and racism. Statistics indicate that the outcomes of policing have been more negative for minority populations due to racial profiling and other discriminatory practices, which disproportionately impact Black people and other minorities. For that reason, Black people have often been at the forefront of the police abolition movement.

Social scientists point out that the connection between race and policing in the United States goes back to the British colonies that enacted slave codes, which were laws discriminating against Black enslaved people. Since police forces did not exist at this time in the colonies, White colonists acted as enforcers of such laws. White Americans later formed slave patrols, which were bands of men who hunted down and captured escaped slaves. Some also caught free Black people and forced them into slavery. The first regular police force formed in Boston in 1838. This decision was also related to race, as the police force was hired in part because of violent clashes between abolitionists and their detractors in the city. In the mid- to late twentieth century, the war on drugs and the criminalization of poverty led to over-policing in minority communities. Because of this racialized policing, many of the most important voices in the police abolition movement have been Black. Many of these activists also oppose the militarization of police.

Public polling indicates that, as of 2020, support for the police abolition movement was determined mainly by demographics. A public opinion poll indicated that people who supported defunding or abolishing the police were more often Black, Democratic, or under the age of fifty. People who were Republican, White, or over the age of fifty were more likely to disapprove of defunding or abolishing the police.

Overview

Abolition is the freeing of people who are held in bondage. The original abolition movement in the United States, largely supported by formerly enslaved African Americans, worked to end the institution of slavery. Yet, even after the end of the Civil War, White supremacy continued to affect every aspect of African American’s lives. The Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery “except as a punishment for crime,” making Black people a target of law enforcement in the South, where convict leasing programs forced incarcerated Black men to work for free for local farmers or businesses. When public outcry ended the practice of convict leasing, many incarcerated people were forced to work on chain gangs.

In the 1940s, many African Americans were focused primarily on changing racist laws to help Black people receive equal treatment under the law. In 1947 a group that included Black and White men began riding on public transportation together to challenge racist segregation laws in an event called the Journey of Reconciliation, which helped inspire the better-known 1961 Freedom Rides. During the six weeks of the event, the men involved were brutally beaten by police and jailed. One of these men, Bayard Rustin, formed a network with likeminded activists who believed in prison abolition. They held the Conference on Prison Problems, during which they talked about alternatives to prison. Some individuals at the conference wanted to completely abolish prisons while others wanted to reform them. The idea of reformation created tension between the police and the prison abolition movement for decades.

When crime rates, over-policing, and incarceration rates increased in the 1970s, Black scholars and activists studied the police abolition movement. Their work examined aspects of the criminal justice system, such as the prison-industrial complex and mass incarceration.

In 1976 a Quaker named Fay Honey Knopp published the book Prisons: A Handbook for Prison Abolitionists, which helped raise awareness of the struggles faced in prisons. In the 1980s Ruth Morris, an activist, created the International Conference on Penal Abolition to gather together experts and create an understanding of the issue. In 2003, activist Angela Y. Davis published the book Are Prisons Obsolete? In the book, she discusses creating social structures and organizations that would help prevent and address violence. Davis believed that if society changed, it would reduce the need for prisons and possibly the police. In the 2000s and 2010s, many organizations—including Black Lives Matter (BLM), the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, and BYP100—advocated for and promoted the awareness of abolition, including police abolition. Although abolishing the police and prisons are somewhat different goals, they are closely intertwined, with people supporting one goal most often supporting the other.

The police abolition movement gained widespread attention in 2020 during the international protests following the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by police in Minneapolis. Nationwide protests began after the officers who killed Floyd were not charged for days after his death, despite having a video showing the event. Activists who took part in the protests began using phrases from the police abolition movement such as “defund the police.” A majority of Americans supported the protests but found such slogans confusing or controversial. Many Americans were further confused because the media sent mixed messages about the movement’s goals.

During 2020, three groups of people began supporting the police abolition movement. The first group wanted to reduce the size of police forces along with their budgets. Some of these people also called for the rebuilding of police forces to change their culture. The second group wanted to gradually reduce the number and size of police forces with the eventual goal of eliminating them. A third group had the goal of ending, in sudden and absolute terms, all law enforcement. Scholars who studied and created work concerning abolition agreed with the second group. They wanted a true abolition but did not expect it to happen suddenly.

Although most abolition advocates have the ultimate goal of completely eliminating police forces and prisons, people differ in their short-term goals for the movement. Most supporters believe dramatically reforming the system over time is more feasible than ending policing and prisons at once. For this reason, people have cited the reforms that they believe are most important to make immediately. One is ending policing inside schools. Scholars have pointed out that the school-to-prison pipeline has increased the likelihood of American children being sent to prison for infractions at school. For example, in 2020 a judge in Michigan sentenced a fifteen-year-old to prison for not completing her schoolwork, an infraction that most people argued should not lead to incarceration. The girl spent 78 days incarcerated. Advocates believe that removing law enforcement from schools will help reduce the number of young people entering the criminal justice system. Studies have found that individuals incarcerated as youths are more likely to be incarcerated as adults. Keeping teens out of the prison system can help reduce prison numbers in the long run.

Police abolitionists who support reforms leading to abolition also want to reduce the size of police departments and the militarization of police. To combat increasing crime in the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson signed a bill in 1965 providing police forces with military-grade gear and encouraging increased police presence, especially in urban areas. This led to the militarization of police and police spending a disproportionate amount of time in Black neighborhoods. Abolitionists believe that militarized police forces can enact more violence in communities. They believe that decreasing militarization will help reduce violence against communities and help police forces become part of the community instead of being seen as occupying forces inside communities.

Another immediate change police abolitionists want to see is the removal of quota systems for the police. Some police departments want officers to meet quotas for the number of citations they should give out each month. This quota system is supposed to encourage officers to prevent crime by giving citations for even small offenses. Nevertheless, many people believe that the quota system is enforced so that police departments bring in a certain amount of money through citations. Furthermore, abolitionists want to reduce the number and types of offenses that can result in people being sent to prison. More Americans went to prison from 1965 to 1982 than had gone to prison between 1865 and 1964, in part due to the war on drugs and mandatory minimum prison sentences.

Police abolitionists also have the goal of reducing harm to people who have been imprisoned. Most want to immediately end solitary confinement. Numerous studies have linked poor mental and physical health with spending time in solitary confinement. Furthermore, studies indicate that people who spend time in solitary confinement are more likely to commit crimes after being released. Likewise, many want an immediate end to capital punishment. Studies have shown that capital punishment is more likely to affect minorities and poor people. Furthermore, police abolitionists want to end the physical and sexual violence that is common in many jails and prisons. Similarly, many police abolitionists want government programs instituted to give formerly incarcerated people homes and jobs so they have an opportunity to rebuild their lives after incarceration.

Community policing is a reform wanted by people seeking change but not complete abolition. The foundation of community policing is building trust and respect between police officers and the people in the communities they serve. The point of this type of policing is to have community members and leaders and police officers work together to address crime. Supporters of community policing claim that such collaboration helps to change negative behavior patterns and more appropriately allocates resources.

Whether the goal is immediate or to implement abolition through a series of reforms, the police abolition movement has been widely criticized. Opponents believe that society will break down without law enforcement to ensure that members of society are punished for wrongdoings. Nevertheless, police abolitionists believe that abolishing the police will make the country a safer, not more dangerous, place. Abolitionists point out that violence is a good measurement of danger, so they focus on violence in society. They point out that violence can be perpetrated by law enforcement and individuals. They also point out that social science research has shown that violence in society acts much like a virus, with pockets of violence perpetuating more violence. These abolitionists point out that state violence from police officers helps to perpetuate more violence in a particular community. Abolitionists believe that removing police officers and their violence will help reduce pockets of violence in a community. Furthermore, abolitionists want to give the funds normally allotted to police to other entities and programs to decrease poverty. They believe that reductions in poverty will also help reduce violence, a theory that is also supported by research. For example, crime increased when President Ronald Reagan reduced social services by cutting job programs, educational programs, and mental hospitals in the 1980s. Nevertheless, opponents of abolition believe that human nature will always lead to criminal behavior, and completely abolishing police forces will foster an environment that will lead to increases in crime.

Bibliography

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