A World Without Police

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A World Without Police Page 30

by Geo Maher


  police protection for persons struggling with, 162

  police seen as one-size-fits-all solution for problems of, 10

  police shooting of mentally ill persons, 53, 63, 115, 147

  statistics about, 53

  mercenaries, 43–4

  Mérida Initiative (Mexico), 43, 166

  Mexico

  autodefensas in, 172

  communities in as taking security and justice into their own collective hands, 170, 172–3

  creation of community police after police massacre in Guerrero state, 171

  demands for community control against police in Oaxaca, 159

  grassroots networks/movements in, 168, 170, 171

  Mérida Initiative, 43, 166

  Oaxaca Commune, 170

  police reform in, 180

  rising up of Purépecha Indigenous community in Cherán, 171–2

  urban social movements after 1985 earthquake, 168–9, 175

  Zetas cartel, 180

  Michigan

  Detroit Police Officers Association, 103

  killing of Renisha McBridge in Dearborn Heights, 21

  Migra! (K. Hernández), 189

  migrants

  criminalization of, 189, 190, 194, 195, 199, 200, 209

  deaths of, 183–5, 186

  family separations of, 191

  policing of, 39–41

  Mijente, 208

  militarization, of policing, 31, 32–3, 34

  military hardware, police access to, 32–3, 83

  Miller, Stephen, 195–6, 197

  Milwaukee Police Association, 116

  Minneapolis, Minnesota

  formation of self-managed security collectives in, 134

  Office of Violence Prevention, 130

  police killing of George Floyd in, 1–2, 4, 5, 6–7, 50, 74, 84, 85, 90, 93, 112, 129, 130

  Powderhorn Safety Collective, 134

  resolution on transformation of community safety in, 131–2

  Minneapolis Group Violence Intervention program, 135

  Minneapolis Police Department (MPD)

  attempt to rent temporary space by, 3

  behavior of during George Floyd riots, 130–1

  calls for dismantling of, 2–3, 129–30, 133

  on chokeholds and other neck restraints, 85

  and police reform, 90, 130

  public agencies severing ties with, 5

  Minnesota

  formation of self-managed security collectives in Minneapolis, 134

  Office of Violence Prevention in Minneapolis, 130

  police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, 1–2, 4, 5, 6–7, 50, 74, 84, 85, 90, 93, 112, 129, 130

  resolution on transformation of community safety in Minneapolis, 131–2

  school districts eliminating contracts for school police in Saint Paul, 141

  state troopers and other police retaliating against protesters in, 221

  Mirandé, Alfredo, 38–9

  misconduct complaints, against police impact of collective bargaining on, 112

  protection against civil suits as result of, 91

  rules about, 107–8, 109–10, 111

  settlements for, 80

  sexual misconduct, 35–6, 56, 57

  toward sex workers, 60

  Missouri

  Ferguson, Missouri. See Ferguson, Missouri

  St. Louis County Police Department, 222

  Mohandesi, Salar, 128

  Mollen Commission, 77

  Montgomery, Kandace, 133

  monuments, defacing and removal of, 6–7

  Mosby, Marilyn, 28

  Mothers/Men against Senseless Killings (MASK), 141–2

  Movement for Black Lives, 151, 208

  Movimiento Cosecha, 203–4

  MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha gang), 188, 190, 210

  Muhammad, Saladin, 119

  Mullins, Ed, 214

  Nagle, Angela, 196–7, 198

  National Action Network, 72

  National Association of Government Employees (NAGE), 107, 113

  National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO), 107

  National Black Police Association, 117

  National Center for Women and Policing, on officers committing domestic violence, 58–9

  National Coalition against Domestic Violence, on domestic abuse/violence in policing, 59

  National Coalition of Anti-violence Programs, on police brutality of trans people, 60

  National Transgender Discrimination Survey, on police assaults on LBGTQ people, 59–60

  National Violence Commission, 76

  Neal, Jackie, 108

  neck restraint, 74, 85

  neighborhood watch, 135, 141

  Nelson, Sara, 112–13

  Neocleous, Mark, 35

  neoliberalism

  resistance to, 4

  wreckage/disaster of, 162, 168

  Nevins, Joseph, 187

  New Jersey

  Camden Police Department, 149–51

  Garrity v. New Jersey, 109

  prison population in, 150

  New Sanctuary Coalition, 207

  New York

  INCITE! in Brooklyn, 144

  New York PBA, 116

  police brutality against Martin Gugino in Buffalo, 8

  Workers United of Upstate New York, 113

  New York City

  disparities in who police target in, 48

  Guardian Angels, 141

  as shuffling police budgets, 191

  spending on police in, 216

  New York City Panther 21, 181

  New York City Police Department budget cuts in, 94

  early corruption in, 75

  as fighting against civilian oversight, 104

  killing of Eric Garner by, 5, 64, 72, 81, 85–6, 89, 93, 99

  Knapp Commission, 76–7

  as lashing out at civilian oversight, 214

  Mollen Commission, 77

  war on de Blasio by, 224

  Nguyen, Nancy, 207

  Nicaragua, Sandinista Revolution, 175

  911, calls to, 21, 23, 52, 130, 131, 142, 147, 206

  Nixon, Richard, 29, 39

  “No Cop Zones,” 137

  no-knock raids, 5, 91, 93

  No More Deaths, 186, 207

  No One Is Illegal (Vancouver, Canada), 205–6

  Nopper, Tamara, 160–1

  Norcross, George, 150

  North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 186, 187, 197

  Northern Ireland

  alternatives to police in, 176

  community restorative justice (CRJ) centers in, 163

  Irish Republican Army (IRA), 162–3

  Oakland, California

  Anti Police-Terror Project, 142

  police killing of Oscar Grant in, 4, 34, 72, 155, 159

  police prostitution ring case, 61

  school districts eliminating contracts for school police in, 5

  Oath Keepers, 221, 222

  Oaxaca, Mexico

  as example of demands for community control against police, 159

  Oaxaca Commune, 170

  Obama, Barack, 4, 16, 43, 78, 79, 80, 83, 87, 88, 89, 90, 149, 185, 189

  Öcalan, Abdullah, 164

  Ocasio-Cortez, Alexandria, 159, 191

  #OccupyICE, 190, 207

  Occupy movement, 4

  Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), 192

  officer safety, emphasis on, 67

  Ohio

  police killing of John Crawford III in, 21

  police shooting of Tamir Rice in, 21, 41, 177, 215

  Oñate, Juan de

  protest against monument of, 8

  removal of monuments to, 6

  Operation Gatekeeper (1994), 186–7, 188

  Operation Gideon, 44

  Operation Streamline, 189

  Operation Wetback (1954), 201

  Oregon

  anti-ICE protests in Portland, 190

  police lieutenant as collaborator with Patrio
t Prayer in Portland, 220

  protests/rebellions in, 9

  shooting of white supremacist by anti-fascist in Portland, 9

  Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, on policing budgets, 34

  Orlando, Florida, Pulse nightclub massacre at, 67

  ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement), 192

  Orta, Ramsey, 72

  Ortiz, Carmelo, 183, 184

  Ortiz, Ely, 183–4, 186

  Ortiz, Rigoberto, 183, 184

  Ortiz, Stephanie, 188–9

  Pacifying the Homeland (McQuade), 149

  Page, Dan, 222

  Paik, A. Naomi, 199, 207–8, 209

  Palestine Police Force, 166

  Pantaleo, Daniel, 64, 81, 89

  Parable of the Sower (Butler), 228

  Parenti, Michael, 67

  Park, K-Sue, 194–5

  Parker, William, 62

  Parkland, Florida, mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, 66

  PARS (Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System), 190

  Patriot movement, 221, 222

  Patriot Prayer, 9, 220

  Peace Officer (documentary), 63

  Peel, Robert, 25, 38

  Pennsylvania

  anti-ICE protests in Philadelphia, 190

  Citizen’s Local Alliance for a Safer Philadelphia (CLASP), 141

  Frank Rizzo, 6, 104, 141

  military force as used against protesters in Philadelphia, 83

  police attack of Aida Guzman in Philadelphia, 97–8

  police budget adjustments in Philadelphia, 94, 191

  police killing of Walter Wallace Jr. in Pennsylvania, 53, 125

  police shooting of Brandon Tate-Brown in Philadelphia, 125

  state police as modeled on US occupying force in Philippines, 38, 100

  Women Organized against Rape in Philadelphia, 143

  people of color

  as defined as insurgent class, 42

  even police who are themselves people of color as heaping disproportionate brutality on, 27

  implicit bias of police against, 23

  Perry, Daniel, 223

  Peterson, Scot, 66

  Pew, survey of Black officers and white officers, 152

  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

  anti-ICE protests in, 190

  Citizen’s Local Alliance for a Safer Philadelphia (CLASP), 141

  military force as used against protesters in, 83

  police attack of Aida Guzman in, 97–8

  police budget adjustments in, 94, 191

  police killing of Walter Wallace Jr. in, 53, 125

  police shooting of Brandon Tate-Brown in, 79–80

  Women Organized against Rape, 143

  Philadelphia Police Foundation, 123

  The Philadelphia Negro (Du Bois), 27

  Phoenix Repeal, 205

  PIC (prison-industrial complex), 15

  pig majority

  defined, 22–3

  as extending far beyond white people but fundamentally about white power, 31

  as global minority, 45

  white Americans as continuing to play disproportionately heavy role in, 26

  pig media, 22

  Pineda, César Enrique, 169

  Pink Tide (Latin America), 167

  Plan Colombia, 43, 166

  Playing the Whore (Grant), 60

  Pocan, Mark, 192

  police. See also policing

  as attack dogs of racial capitalism, 219

  calls for defunding of. See defunding the police

  calls to make them obsolete, 11

  campus police, 33–4, 145

  corruption among, 218

  as created to safeguard specific interests of wealthy, white, property-holding men, 65

  criminal charges against as result of brutality by, 8

  as crushing workers’ movements, 100

  disguising of as workers, 121

  early labor aspirations of, 100

  as embodying division of the poor, 25

  extortion by, 216–17, 224

  fabrication of social order by, 35

  as fascists, 222

  firings as result of brutality by, 8

  as fundamentally inseparable from suburbs, 160

  as gang, 213

  gap between what they are required to do and what the public believes they are supposed to do, 66

  hostility of to labor movements, 219

  imagining and building world without, 11

  as key mechanism for perpetuation of contemporary world, 128, 129

  lawbreaking by, 218–19

  library police, 145

  as linchpin holding together cross-class alliance in post-emancipation America, 24

  and the military, 177–8

  as not preventing crime, 63–4

  as not required to prevent crime, 66

  origins of, 194, 199

  privatization of. See private security apparatus

  relationships of to white supremacist groups/far-right militant activities, 220, 221

  as remaking the law, 218

  resignations of as result of brutality by, 8, 215

  role of, 10

  in schools. See campus police; school resource officers (SRO)

  seen as one-size-fits-all solution to social problems, 10

  social police, 35

  special rights for, 107, 109, 110–11, 112, 117

  as standing against democracy, 25

  statistic on number of uniformed police, 32

  stealing through civil asset forfeiture, 216–17

  as substitute for abolition democracy, 225

  as substitute for true abolition, 13

  as symptom of contemporary world, 128

  as trained violence workers, not trained mental health workers, 52

  training for. See training, for police

  transit police, 4, 34

  as useless, 128

  police abolition

  calls for, 14, 129

  described, 210

  examples of, 167–70

  as fantasy, 95

  as global task, 181

  history of, 15

  pitfalls of, 146–8

  as requiring reckoning with police unions, 122

  urgency for, 180

  as a wager, 230

  police action, 42, 166

  police associations, 101, 105, 106–7, 112, 124. See also benevolent associations; Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)

  police bankrolls, 216. See also salaries and wages, of police

  Police Benevolent Association (PBA), 99, 101, 102–3, 116, 122

  police brutality

  Colin Kaepernick as drawing attention to, 98

  against Indigenous people, 50

  police associations as responsible for, 112

  protests against, 22

  as provoking mass rebellion, 3

  in Puerto Rico, 174

  settling cases of, 69, 136

  as spark of mass rebellions against police violence, 76, 102

  and trans people, 59–60, 62, 63, 210

  police control board, 181

  police fascism, 219

  police foundations, calls for dismantling of, 123

  police-free future/police-free zones, 134, 135, 137

  police-friendly communities, 215

  police killings

  beginning point of, 49

  disparities in, demographically, 47, 48

  men as dominant target of, 51

  as occurring in poorer areas, 50

  protests against, 1

  role of video of, 81

  Police magazine, article upholding

  kneeling on suspect’s neck, 112

  police murder

  connecting individual instances of to policing as murderous system, 193

  as “officer-involved shooting” in copspeak, 35

  repeating cycle of police murder and mass rebellion, 129

  resistance to, 4, 152, 227


  as symptom of much-deeper sickness, 63

  police orders, 101

  police power

  breaking of, 100, 122

  and collusive bargaining, 105

  and contracts, 108

  as criminal blackmail, 218

  extent of, 99–100

  history of labor organizing, 99–106

  as just tip of the spear, 36

  and legislation, 108

  police unions as central pillar of, 125

  pushing back on, 153

  turning point in, 102

  twin fulcrums of, 103

  police prostitution rings, 61

  police racism, 26, 27–8, 48, 51, 62, 198. See also racial profiling

  police reform

  according to Correia and Wall, 89

  body cameras as topic of, 81

  chokeholds as topic of, 80, 85–6, 93

  community policy as topic of, 86–7

  current attention to, 91–3

  demilitarization as topic of, 80, 83–4

  diversification as topic of, 84

  as doing little more than legitimizing police, 117

  history of, 74–80, 146

  lessons learned from failed reforms, 90, 96

  levels of, 94

  as mirage, 74, 90

  no-knock raids as topic of, 93

  as part of the problem, 73

  procedural justice as topic of, 74, 80, 87–8, 130

  qualified immunity as topic of, 91

  as requiring reckoning with police unions, 122

  task of, 73

  training as topic of, 84–5

  police scientists/science, 35, 38

  police strikes, 64, 101, 102, 120, 138

  police unions

  according to Adler-Bell, 111–12

  actions of regarding Jonathan Josey case, 97–8

  agenda of, 104

  as albatross, 120

  on Black Lives Matter (BLM), 99

  as born full-grown as “labor” aristocracy, 119

  calls for expelling and abolishing of, 115, 120

  calls for labor movement to disaffiliate them, 122–3

  as central pillar of police power, 125

  confronting and destroying of, 100

  as on the defensive, 123

  growing strength of, 106

  as harassing and threatening elected officials who cross them, 99

  history of, 120–1

  as mediators, 104

  as not really unions, 106

  police power as expressed largely through, 36

  policing. See also police

  as about controlling “dangerous” people, 25

  as about disciplining workforce, 25–6

  as Achilles’ heel of US racial order, 227

  alternatives to. See alternatives, to policing American policing going global, 42

  Black leadership as supporting unchecked policing, 29

  border policing. See border policing

  broken windows policing. See broken windows policing

  as cancer/virus, 37–8

 

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