Abolishing the police is unthinkable
So ask for something people might actually want, already
In response to the article linked above: it's completely predictable that the average person responds badly to the idea of abolishing the police.
Now, I'm a far-left-wing radical, but the choice of words in “abolish the police”, the "branding" as capitalists would say, is highly suboptimal, and alienates the very people the writer should be hoping to attract.
I now live in the Netherlands, with a low crime rate and competent police who try hard to avoid hurting citizens, even accused criminals.
But this country still has police.
Everyone knows about crime. No one wants crime to happen to them. People want society to stop crimes; "police" is the name we give to people who stop crimes.
In your ideal world, there would still be someone to call when MAGAs are trying to break into your house, and everyone would call that person a policeman!
Here are some better suggestions for naming — capitalists would call this “messaging” — that you can really push into people’s minds — names that they will understand and have an emotional resonance with.
"The prison industrial complex"?
Oh, dear. I personally love this name of yours, it's a clever riff on "military industrial complex", it's accurate… but it's a not a good name for your average person, who is probably just baffled.
It smells of, well, people like me talking about politics and it's totally unclear as to what is going on at all for your average guy. What "complex" is this? Why is it "industrial"?
Call it what it is — call it something people can understand — false imprisonment for profit.
False imprisonment for profit! No one wants that. It's very clear what it is.
And "false" is a nice general purpose word.
Many people are "legally" in jail for bullshit - "not replying to a summons they didn't actually receive" is so common in America! That's not "illegal" imprisonment, but it's sure as hell false imprisonment.
Stop false imprisonment for profit!! Even just “Stop false imprisonment!” if you’re chanting.
Stop enforcing and start helping (because we’re fucking dying)
Mental health and social workers should be doing about 60% of what police officers are doing.
Police are not trained in these matters. The work needs to be done by professionals.
Stop enforcing and start helping: money for mental health, for social workers, for medical health, for COVID!
Police are criminal gangs
This is the big one. Just say it: (American) police are criminal gangs, paid for with your taxes.
Police officers kill far more people in their own homes than all the home invasions put together.
The police take more stuff from people than all the burglars and muggers put together, using an evil system called “civil forfeiture” where they can seize your bank account, your car, your home and it is up to you to prove that you didn’t earn these things illegally.
(A court decision in 2016 was supposed to end this, but the criminal Trump Administration has stymied this, amongst its myriad of crimes. As an atheist, contemplating Trump makes me sad there is no Hell.)
Police routinely commit the most terrible crimes — murder, rape, abuse of all sorts, theft, endless perjuries of the worst sort — for which there are absolutely no consequences at all.
The police forces of America are systematically corrupt institutions from top-to-bottom. They flout the law, they lie in court under oath time and again, they are awash in illegal weapons from the military, and illegal cash from absolutely everyone.
Policing in America is so corrupt that the institution cannot be patched up — it needs to be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up on humanistic principles.
Most of its funding needs to go to to social and medical work.
There needs to be complete openness, strong regulation by civilian boards, and a squeaky-clean adherence to the law.
There need to be fewer police officers, much better trained. Crimes committed by police officers need to get additional punishment, because they are police. With great power comes great responsibility.
To the writer: your words are aimed at political radicals such as me. We are not the people you need to convince.
No one except a few wild-eyed radicals will buy into the idea of abolishing the police.
If you name it what it really is, which is rebuilding policing from the ground up, you will get one hundred times the interest from your average person.
Here are the key points again:
- Stop false imprisonment for profit
- Stop enforcing and start helping
- Police are criminal gangs
- Policing needs to be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up
I hope this wasn’t too critical, but my feelings or yours are as nothing in this battle: we must win.
In solidarity!
