Just bc someone isn't calling for Breonna Taylor's killers to be arrested doesn't mean they don't want justice for her family.

It means they want justice outside of and not defined by the system that killed her.

And maybe, they can't fully articulate it bc we know little else

The response is often "Well if not arrest, then what?"

You're asking ppl to conceive of "justice" in an unjust society where the laws are racist, sexist, ableist, queerphobic, etc. You're asking ppl seeking liberation to define justice in a few tweets and that isn't how it works

There are abolitionists who have been working on this matter of "justice" & what it looks like, deconstructing every framework & reference we have bc they are all carceral

It's like how we juxtapose liberation to oppression, thereby defining it by its relationship w oppression

The radical notion "abolish the police" can still be emphasized while people do the work to come to a collective understanding of justice that serves the needs of all people

That's why it's called "work"
Can't snap a finger and make it happen out of nowhere

If you read abolitionists, particularly proponents of ATI & preventative solutions, you'll understand the tension but you'll also grasp the hope and possibility

We seek to create a society that does not rely on punishing people based on the rules of the system that set them up

The 1st step, and one of the most difficult, is understanding that we've not even been ALLOWED to conceive of accountability outside of an unjust system. We rely on it bc there hasn't been enough support in the efforts to challenge its corruption and brokenness

Ask someone "What does accountability look like?" and most will say "Jail" without even thinking.

Why?

We've been conditioned to assume that's the only and best thing.

but w/ everything we know about jails, why do we still cling to this?

Bc we have no other ready answer

I mean, we do, but it isn't one that is taught in any way that creates the accessibility necessary to change millions of minds

I remember mentioning house arrest once & someone said it wasn't enough. I asked them to explain why. They said, "the person won't suffer enough"

So in that is a recognition that jail/prison is a place of suffering and that we approach "accountability" by equating it with "suffering".

Yet we know prisons are places of torture, sexual assault, starvation, medical neglect, etc.

So the question then becomes

Why do you want these people to suffer?

What will their suffering do to change what happened? What comes of their state-funded suffering that makes you feel better? Why are you giddy abt your tax $ supporting govt sanctioned torture more than feeding, housing, educating ppl?

Now, here's where I diverge from some of my colleagues, as I support community vigilantes lol

My alignment is in part bc I am 154% against public funding going towards sustaining corrupt systems that abuse people and are disparate in its doling out of said punishment

*I* can't abide knowing that the state gets to arbitrarily decide who gets to live or die, who gets 10 days vs 10 years, etc.

And it's so ridiculously arbitrary that NO ONE should have ANY confidence in the "justice" system because it doesn't work. It is COMPLETELY biased

If only ONE innocent person is murdered by the state, the entire thing needs to be abolished

If only ONE person's life is destroyed by a corrupt "justice" system, the entire thing needs to be abolished

Why?

You can't reform the conditions that made those "mistakes"

I can't reconcile calling on the SAME police who get paid to kill unarmed Black people to engage in any form of "justice" after the fact.

It is not possible.

I can't ever be comfortable saying "Because of your bias and corruption, you took this person's life, so I now want the same bias and corruption to take yours" because I am then SUPPORTING the bias and corruption of that broken system

And that isn't right.

I don't want to pay for that
I don't want preventative programs and initiatives to pay for that
I don't want schools to pay for that
I don't want the unhoused to pay for that
I don't want anyone or anything to have to pay for that kind of injustice to thrive