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This is how I, a 45-year-old white woman and mother of 6, currently at her peak Karen power, went from assuming police work was a necessary part of functional communities, to becoming a passionate advocate for #abolishthepolice #defundthepolice, over the course of one week.
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Have you ever been to a gymnastics hall? You walk in and the whole environment is set up so that it’s really easy to jump, tumble, flip, handstand, and cartwheel. It’s like you walk in, and can’t help yourself. You start doing gymnastics immediately.
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Have you ever seen a cop’s uniform? The whole thing, including every accessory, zipper, and badge, is designed to intimidate and easily inflict violence. It’s like they can’t help themselves. Their uniform makes it so easy for them to consider a violent solution.
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"I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail." Do you know that saying? Apply it to police. If you’re always prepared to easily inflict violence, then the chances of inflicting unwarranted violence go way up.
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Cat in a tree? Got locked out of your car? Kids prank called 911? Found a brutally murdered body? When called, police will arrive at all four of these scenes equally armed to the teeth. Why would we ever be okay with that? It is INSANE.
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As has been thoroughly established, the current policing system is horrific. It sucks *considerably more* for Black people, and it sucks for everybody else too. Take getting pulled over as an example, because that’s a common way that people interact with police.
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It’s horrible! The flashing lights come out of nowhere. My heart starts pumping. Adrenaline running. I’m shaking. Not sure if I should reach for my registration. Did I bring my wallet? The toddler is crying. I feel totally panicked. I don't where to pull over.
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I have no idea why I’ve been pulled over. I’m a boring law-abiding citizen yet I’m still terrified. I can see his hand on his gun. He’s twice my size. I feel like a criminal; he starts with the assumption that I’m a criminal. It feels shameful and embarrassing.
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I hate getting pulled over. It hasn’t happened that often — maybe 10 times in my 30 years of driving. But it is traumatizing every time. I know I’m not alone. These stops are universally traumatizing — even when no ticket is issued.
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To be clear, I’ve never had my life threatened during a traffic stop, I’ve never been asked to get out of the car, I’ve never had to seriously worry the cops would kill me or my teens or my husband. So really, if we’re comparing, my traffic stops have been totally breezy.
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And until the other day, if you had asked me if I’d ever had a bad encounter with the police, I would have said no and considered myself lucky.
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Think about that for a minute. If I believe my police encounters haven’t been bad, that means I think having an unpredictable, shame-inducing, traumatic encounter — that can happen at any time, is out of my control, and at the hands of someone with a gun — is NORMAL.
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And everyone who believes that is normal has accepted this traumatic and fear inducing experience is just the way it is.
That is NUTS. Why is this the system we’ve all decided is normal? Why is it EVER okay for someone with a gun to pull you over anytime they want?
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That is NUTS. Why is this the system we’ve all decided is normal? Why is it EVER okay for someone with a gun to pull you over anytime they want?
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You know what else is nuts? WE PAY FOR THIS SYSTEM. Police are public servants, paid by taxes. We choose to pay for these traumatizing experiences. We choose to pay for this system instead of housing the homeless; instead of feeding the hungry; instead of funding schools.
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I had no idea until last week how over-funded police departments are. I had never seen it talked about. Did you know about this? Medical workers run out of PPE, but cops never run out of rubber bullets, tasers, tear gas, and guns.
15/x https://twitter.com/osu_kailash/status/1269498073090191360?s=20
15/x https://twitter.com/osu_kailash/status/1269498073090191360?s=20
Keep in mind, money invested in things like housing, social services, medical care, and emotional intelligence training, lead to outcomes that mean less need for policing in the first place.
16/x https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-sharkey-violence-community-investment-20180125-story.html
16/x https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-sharkey-violence-community-investment-20180125-story.html
Crime is a response to unmet needs in the community. If we’re not funding police departments, we'll have plenty of money to meet those needs! We don't actually have to criminalize homelessness, drug addiction, and being poor!
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We need someone that you call for help, who doesn’t show up with a gun.
No but really. What if there was a helpful person, or team of persons you could call, who didn't show up with guns?
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No but really. What if there was a helpful person, or team of persons you could call, who didn't show up with guns?
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A mentally ill man has taken off his pants and is walking by a school. What’s the real problem that needs to be solved? Does he need medical care? Housing? A shower? A social worker? Do we really think sending someone trained to easily inflict violence is the best solution?
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Someone is robbing a bank. Okay. What’s the real problem? Why are they robbing the bank? Are they hungry? Is this Ocean’s 18? Is this an addiction issue? Can we help them? Do we really think sending someone trained to easily inflict violence is the best solution?
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Restraining someone and de-escalation doesn’t require weapons or police training. Nurses, therapists and social workers have to do this all the time. We expect police to do the work of social workers, but they didn’t sign up for that. They don’t *want* to be social workers.
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What about rape? It turns out the police are actually quite crappy at preventing and prosecuting rape. A tiny percentage of rapists are arrested and convicted. Do you know what happens when a woman reports a rape? Know about the untested rape kits?
22/x https://twitter.com/ilana_____/status/1268278376961318914?s=20
22/x https://twitter.com/ilana_____/status/1268278376961318914?s=20
Worse, it’s not unusual for police to BE THE RAPISTS. Police arrested for sex crimes 2005-2013: 636-groping, 405-rape, 219-sodomy. But experts say those statistics are NOT comprehensive. Data on sexual assaults by police are almost nonexistent.
23/X https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/19/us/police-sexual-assaults-maryland-scope/index.html
23/X https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/19/us/police-sexual-assaults-maryland-scope/index.html
Protect and serve? We need protection FROM the police. Policing either attracts or creates violent men. A job that attracts violent men? Horrible. Creates violent men? Also horrible. Related, did you know 40% of police officers are domestic abusers?
24/x https://www.fatherly.com/love-money/police-brutality-and-domestic-violence/
24/x https://www.fatherly.com/love-money/police-brutality-and-domestic-violence/
I thought #abolishthepolice #defundthepolice was like some kind of power shoutout, I thought it was like #fuckthepolice. I didn’t understand it was an actual movement with nuanced thinking behind it until last week. The more I read, the more passionate I am about it.
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We can reimagine the whole thing! It was hard for me to wrap my brain around it at first, but it’s really and truly possible to imagine a society where there are no police. And it is a GLORIOUS society. We have to abandon policing.
26/X https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/06/would-defunding-police-make-us-safer/612766/
26/X https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/06/would-defunding-police-make-us-safer/612766/
I always assumed reform was the answer. Throw out the bad apples! Body cams! More training! Break the unions!
But now I am fully convinced reform isn’t the answer. When you look at reform options, nothing is effective enough.
27/x https://twitter.com/samswey/status/1180655701271732224
But now I am fully convinced reform isn’t the answer. When you look at reform options, nothing is effective enough.
27/x https://twitter.com/samswey/status/1180655701271732224
The beginnings of policing were hateful, and it’s still hateful. There’s no way to save it. There are too many generations of people who deeply distrust the police. Policing must be dismantled and abolished.
https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/brief-history-slavery-and-origins-american-policing
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https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/brief-history-slavery-and-origins-american-policing
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I have lived my life with the default assumption that policing is necessary and important to a healthy, functioning society. I had never questioned that assumption until last week. I now know my assumption was wrong.
#abolishthepolice #defundthepolice
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#abolishthepolice #defundthepolice
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