Thread: The American policing system is not broken. It's working exactly how it was intended to work. Abolish it.

(Content warning: Police violence and brutality, racism, sexism, assault)

Policing is a violent, anti-black, and sexist institution.

Police originated as slave patrols and now exist to protect property and militarily enforce white supremacist capitalism.

Diversifying the police force and requiring implicit bias trainings WILL NOT CHANGE THAT.

I have had "positive" interactions with cops. Many people have had "positive" interactions with cops. Yet, THERE ARE NO GOOD COPS.

Because the policing system is inherently racist and violent and it means nothing to be "good" at your job when your job is to enforce unjust laws.

Some stats:

- 40% of cops commit domestic abuse
- Cops kill more people per year than mass shootings do
- Getting killed by police is a leading cause of death for young black men in the US
- Sexual assault is the 2nd most common form of police brutality

There are SO many more.

We can't fix something that isn't broken, and I'll repeat:

The American policing system isn't broken, it's working exactly how it was intended to work, just as it has for hundreds of years.

But we CAN abolish it and create a new, just system.

As a white person, this is a topic I'm still learning a lot about and trying to educate myself on. Please let me know if you have any good resources.

Here's a reading list on abolition and why we need abolition instead of reform: https://abolitionistfutures.com/pre-conference-events/abolitionist-reading-discussion-group/reading-list/

And here's a thread of prison abolitionist readings from @time2ryot! https://twitter.com/time2ryot/status/1265707093509566469?s=20