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I'm going to express a viewpoint I have long kept to myself. A viewpoint I believed, if made public, would kneecap my dreams of public service. But my silence was just a vestige of my internalized respectability politics. F*** respectability. Here's why I am a #PoliceAbolitionist
First off, it's important to note that this is not a new view, or an original thought by any means. When I first googled the phrase, I found it was already well in use, and there was a theory and discussion that had been underway for years. I'm still learning that theory. 2/x
I originally came to the view & phrase on my own, based on my experiences & observations as a queer Black American. My perspective was honed by the work of #JamesBaldwin #AssataShakur, the #MOVEBombing, #BlackPanthers, #LeslieFeinberg's Stone Butch Blues, and so many others. 3/x
I think of #policeabolition in two ways: First, police abolition is a body of work, a history, and a movement that I am learning and hope to participate in. 4/x
Personally, #policeabolition is the result of this thought process:
1. The state does not protect me or my people.
2. Police are state actors & thus do not protect me or my people.
3. Police & policing make me less safe. 5/x
1. The state does not protect me or my people.
2. Police are state actors & thus do not protect me or my people.
3. Police & policing make me less safe. 5/x
4. There is no positive social function the police serve that isn't better served by an existing agency, an holistic justice system & a compassionate approach to social ills.
5. There must be a way to keep communities safe that doesn't rely on the state monopoly on violence. 6/x
5. There must be a way to keep communities safe that doesn't rely on the state monopoly on violence. 6/x
The theory #policeabolition is best described by the theorists themselves. I am still a very young student in this. Here are some links:
https://www.themarshallproject.org/.../3382-police-abolition
7/x
https://www.themarshallproject.org/.../3382-police-abolition
7/x
This is abt #prisonabolition, but relevant. After all, "[T]here is no penitentiary system without general surveillance; no carceral confinement without control of the population." (from The Cambridge Handbook of Policing in the US, unsure of author) http://criticalresistance.org/
8/x
8/x
Another link re: #policeabolition https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/abolish-police-instead-lets-have-full-social-economic-and-political-equality/?fbclid=IwAR3EerZtJLhyWQZ9p0Wcp-RKgzDWLDieS3tvXwtI1Stmwij8UXuZz-8lz3M
9/x
9/x
And another... #PoliceAbolition https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/police-abolitionist-movement-alternatives-cops-chicago/Content?oid=23289710&fbclid=IwAR09Gx32zLVT7wCnlnQjdG43G12VNBFw9k9IVn56R3cH7KYDq9-j-c0lYv4
10/x
10/x
A broad understanding of #policeabolitionism should also include a baseline understanding of #PrisonAbolition b/c, again: "[T]here is no penitentiary system without general surveillance; no carceral confinement without control of the population."
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/davisprison.html?fbclid=IwAR01m2HCXOj9HhdXuf4F7R6TC1dlydpghf9HgGCrfKeq46NR3YdzixoZBS0
11/x
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/davisprison.html?fbclid=IwAR01m2HCXOj9HhdXuf4F7R6TC1dlydpghf9HgGCrfKeq46NR3YdzixoZBS0
11/x
Here's more on #PrisonAbolition:
https://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Angela-Davis-Are_Prisons_Obsolete.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2aCi7Tqsdxqb1xHeAOJJzmU96l3l-xtBaKyrBaxZ-hjC4TXGtvjK8Hwpc
Ultimately, #PoliceAbolition & #PrisonAbolition are mutually supportive movements just as policing & the prison industrial complex support each other. Understanding both is essential to being rounded in the movements. 12/x
https://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Angela-Davis-Are_Prisons_Obsolete.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2aCi7Tqsdxqb1xHeAOJJzmU96l3l-xtBaKyrBaxZ-hjC4TXGtvjK8Hwpc
Ultimately, #PoliceAbolition & #PrisonAbolition are mutually supportive movements just as policing & the prison industrial complex support each other. Understanding both is essential to being rounded in the movements. 12/x
Also supportive of the theory of #PoliceAbolitionism are: --The history of state police (and the police state)
-The history of private police
-Criticisms of private property (not to be confused with personal property)
These are all areas where I'm still learning.
13/x
-The history of private police
-Criticisms of private property (not to be confused with personal property)
These are all areas where I'm still learning.
13/x
Amid my learning, I still have my first thought process. Let's dig into that:
1. The state does not protect me or my people. (To be clear "my people" here are Black and/or queer.)
Few groups have a history of US police violence comparable to Black & queer communities.
14/x
1. The state does not protect me or my people. (To be clear "my people" here are Black and/or queer.)
Few groups have a history of US police violence comparable to Black & queer communities.
14/x
In northern states, the first police were patrol units developed as a response to urbanization & the desire of land-owning whites to protect private property. In southern states, the first police were slave patrols (also abt maintaining "private property").
15/x
15/x
Northern & southern concepts of policing merged in the form of municipally funded agents of violent law enforcement. The policing of Black bodies (either as property or threats to property) & poor bodies (as threats to wealth) are baked into the origins of American policing. 16/x
In queer history you'll find decades of brutal rape & murder by police. Gendered clothing article laws were enforced w/ brutal strip searches. In the 50s-70s queer social gatherings were disrupted by billy clubs. Queer folks were rounded up and throw in jail. 17/x
CW: sexual assault
Butch lesbians (or AFAB folx who didn't perform femininity per social expectations) & effeminate gays (or AMAB folx who didn't perform masculinity per social expectations) were singled out in jail, beaten, anally & vaginally raped as "punishment." 18/x
Butch lesbians (or AFAB folx who didn't perform femininity per social expectations) & effeminate gays (or AMAB folx who didn't perform masculinity per social expectations) were singled out in jail, beaten, anally & vaginally raped as "punishment." 18/x
Butch lesbians had to be "reminded they were women," while feminine gays & drag queens were "treated like women." (Which has scary implications abt how the patriarchal policing system views women.) The horrors of anti-queer policing run deep. 19/x
As a queer Black person, a demiguy, an AFAB who dares claim my own masculinity, knowing that it is Black & thus threatening & "thuggish" in the eyes of society, I do not see protection or service in the badge. Police do not protect me. They do not protect my people. 20/x
Realizing I conflated 1-3 in my history lesson. Point made for now, so on to 4. There is no positive social function the police serve that isn't better served by an existing agency, an holistic justice system & a compassionate approach to social ills. 21/x https://twitter.com/JacDArcher/status/1265752722512293890
(Getting tired. Will come back and finish this thread tonight.)
22/x
22/x
