It bothers me when abolitionists I respect say things like "There's no evidence police make anyone safer."

There are decent papers using reasonable causal inference methods that find police deter crimes with victims. That's evidence.

We should abolish the police anyway.

Abolishing the police doesn't need to hinge on there being no benefits to police.

Police act unjustly in a bunch of horrific ways. These horrors predictably follow from the incentives associated with police & states. Plus alternative ways of providing security are possible.

So, yeah, police provide some security & deterrence. There's no need to deny this.

Let's be abolitionists who acknowledge & seriously engage with the current literature on the economics of crime yet still have the courage of our convictions.