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Plenty of people respond to demands for police abolition by, quite understandably, asking: who will respond in a crisis if not the cops? A 2019 survey of unhoused people in Portland, Oregon, were also asked that question. Here's what they recommended.
https://news.streetroots.org/sites/default/files/BelieveOurStories_PortlandStreetResponseSurveyReport.pdf#page=22
https://news.streetroots.org/sites/default/files/BelieveOurStories_PortlandStreetResponseSurveyReport.pdf#page=22
These are the types of supplies/services that were deemed as particularly helpful in moments of crisis or need.
This is the type of training that unhoused people said they wanted from first responders. Police offer none of these, and actively undermine efforts to provide them.
The success of anti-carceral alternatives depends on the police not being involved. As the folks at @crackdownpod have documented, Vancouver Police claim to support harm reduction while lurking outside safe consumption sites and deterring usage.
