Imagining a World Without Prisons and Police Zine by: Cadence D.
This zine is dedicated to all people who are harmed by prisons and police, and to my school community. (All photos by my mom Sarah-Ji)
“You know, they’re only criminals because you’ve chosen to call them that, right, sir?” ~ Rhodey (Avengers: Infinity War)
In England and the United States, the police were developed from around 1825 to 1855. They were created to control crowds like protesters and strikers. The first prison system in America was slavery. The first police in America were slave catchers. People in power made policing and prisons so they could keep the power they already possessed. They didn’t like the fact that people of color and poor people could also have the same power they have. So, they were not created to protect everyone. Those people in power targeted certain groups (people of color, poor people, etc.) and called them “criminals” even if those targeted groups weren’t even committing crimes. They called them criminals because that’s what they’ve c hosen to call them.
Taken from aworldwithoutpolice.org/the-problem:
“Police brutality activists often say that police are s upposed to protect and serve, and then denounce them for not doing so. But these assumptions about the purpose of the police are mistaken. From their inception down to the present, police forces have protected and served the wealthy few against the many, and the white against the rest. Unequal enforcement and violence aren’t aberrations: they are a necessary part of the job. Historically, police forces were created to protect the property of businesses and the wealthy and enforce white supremacy. In cities they formed to repress the growing numbers of poor people that accompanied the rise of industrial capitalism, while on plantations and in agricultural colonies they formed in response to the threat of slave revolt.”
WHAT IS THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX?
The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems. Through its reach and impact, the PIC helps and maintains the authority of people who get their power through racial, economic and other privileges. There are many ways this power is collected and maintained through the PIC, including creating mass media images that keep alive stereotypes of people of color, poor people, queer people, immigrants, youth, and other oppressed communities as criminal, delinquent, or deviant. This power is also maintained by earning huge profits for private companies that deal with prisons and police forces; helping earn political gains for “tough on crime” politicians; increasing the influence of prison guard and police unions; and eliminating social and political dissent by oppressed communities that make demands for self-determination and reorganization of power in the US.
Taken from criticalresistance.org/about/not-so-common-language
WHAT IS ABOLITION?
PIC abolition is a political vision with the goal of eliminating imprisonment, policing, and surveillance and creating lasting alternatives to punishment and imprisonment. From where we are now, sometimes we can’t really imagine what abolition is going to look like. Abolition isn’t just about getting rid of buildings full of cages. It’s also about undoing the society we live in because the PIC both feeds on and maintains oppression and inequalities through punishment, violence, and controls millions of people. Because the PIC is not an isolated system, abolition is a broad strategy. An abolitionist vision means that we must build models today that can represent how we want to live in the future. It means developing practical strategies for taking small steps that move us toward making our dreams real and that lead us all to believe that things really could be different. It means living this vision in our daily lives. Abolition is both a practical organizing tool and a long-term goal. Taken from criticalresistance.org/about/not-so-common-language
WHAT ABOLITIONISTS DO Taken from: jacobinmag.com/2017/08/prison-abolition-reform-mass-incarceration
“Abolitionists have labored day after day, talking to legislative aides about how to reduce prison spending through decarceration and how to put that money back into social welfare and educational spending, or why the local jail should not be ‘refurbished’ to provide more bed space.” “Rather than juxtapose the fight for better conditions against the demand for eradicating institutions of state violence, abolitionists navigate this divide. For the better part of fifty years, abolitionists have led and participated in campaigns that have fought to reduce state violence and maximize people’s collective wellbeing.” “Abolitionists have worked to end solitary confinement and the death penalty, stop the construction of new prisons, eradicate cash bail, organized to free people from prison, opposed the expansion of punishment through hate crime laws and surveillance, pushed for universal health care, and developed alternative modes of conflict resolution that do not rely on the criminal punishment system.”
“Abolitionists know that most people who are incarcerated will eventually be released from prison. Thousands of people are released from prisons and jails every single day. This is not something that we have to imagine as a goal for the future. It is a reality that pushes all of us to consider what conditions will support people’s freedom once they return.”
“Abolitionist groups have often led fights for better conditions, connecting them to more transformative political possibilities. And the pragmatic radicalism of abolitionists has won tangible victories.”
MARIAME KABA ON PRISON ABOLITION
From a comic by Flynn Nicholls tinyurl.com/whosleftprisonabolition
DISBAND THE POLICE
Taken from: http://aworldwithoutpolice.org/the-strategy/disband/
As police murders continue and superficial reforms prove unable to stop them, more and more people are recognizing that the problem is not within police institutions–it is the institution of policing itself...the only way to end police violence is to transform society, and make wealth and resources freely available to all. Far from reforming the policing while maintaining their current role, this aim requires abolishing the police altogether. In other words, we’re not fighting for a new police–nicer, more diverse, with better training than their predecessors–nor even a new justice system. We’re working to disempower, disarm, and disband individual police units and entire agencies, and transform society as a whole. We’re fighting for a world without police.
Here are some steps to disband the police: ● Transform how we think about crime, conflict and identity. We can break the association between crime and violent punishment, justice and jail cells, and criminality and certain kinds of people. We can expose how “crime” talk is used to dehumanize black, indigenous, NBPOC, poor, queer, unruly and rebellious people. When we don’t think in terms of punishment, control and division, we can begin to imagine what real justice might entail. ● Fight to disband particular police units when they are involved in scandals or otherwise politically vulnerable, as happened to the NYPD Street Crimes Unit that murdered Amadou Diallo in 1999. ● Decommission police precincts when they’re threatened by funding shortages, demographic changes, or challenges by popular protest. ● Organize to drive police forces out of specific institutions, such as schools or hospitals. Instead of replacing them with private security, develop community safety teams that are democratically elected and directed by those they protect. ● Demolish the political power of police unions, including lessening their influence in local governments, and ultimately decertifying and disbanding their unions entirely. ● Once our movement is strong enough, disband police forces entirely in democratic self-governing areas, and replace them with systems of community safety and conflict resolution.
COMMUNITY SAFETY LOOKS LIKE... communitysafetychicago.tumblr.com These pictures feature Chicagoans' responses to the question: 'What does community safety look like?'
EXAMPLES OF CHICAGO ORGANIZING AROUND POLICE ABOLITION Taken from: chicagoreader.com/chicago/police-abolitionist-movement-alternativescops-chicago/Content?oid=23289710
Mothers Against Senseless Violence (MASK) One example of an organization that creates alternatives to the police is Mothers Against Senseless Killings (MASK). MASK is an organization that serves dinner on a corner in the neighborhood of Englewood in Chicago. That used to be an area for violence by citizens and police. After serving dinner daily, the violence has decreased greatly.
Assata’s Daughters Another organization that works around prison abolition is Assata’s Daughters. This organization is full of young, black feminists. Some may say, they’re like a radical version of Girl Scouts. They’ve done a lot of work on imagining way to create safe communities for everyone. A few years ago, Assata’s Daughters did an #AbolitionNOWChi march in Bronzeville against the police.
#LetUsBreathe Collective The #LetUsBreathe Collective, formed in the wake of Michael Brown's death, launched an occupation of an empty lot across the street from CPD's Homan Square facility in North Lawndale. The collective dubbed it "Freedom Square," publicized it as an experiment in "imagining a world without police," and called for the city to put its $1.4 billion police budget to other uses.
RESISTANCE TO PRISONS AND POLICE VIOLENCE IN CHICAGO
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Go to @AbolitionLinks on Twitter for links to resources.
Police “Reforms” You Should Always Oppose transformharm.org/police-reforms-you-should-always-oppose/ Origins of the Police by David Whitehouse https://worxintheory.wordpress.com/2014/12/07/origins-of-the-police
Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore Might Change Your Mind https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/magazine/prison-abolitionruth-wilson-gilmore.html
Stop Kidding Yourself; The Police Were Created to Control Working Class and Poor People https://www.lawcha.org/2014/12/29/stop-kidding-police-createdcontrol-working-class-poor-people/ A Community Compilation on Police Abolition https://issuu.com/ftpzines/docs/gbnf_zine_all What Does Police Abolition Mean? http://bostonreview.net/law-justice/derecka-purnell-what-does-police-a bolition-mean
Policing is a Dirty Job, But Nobody’s Gotta Do It: 6 Ideas for a Cop-Free World rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/policing-is-a-dirty-job-butnobodys-gotta-do-it-6-ideas-for-a-cop-free-world-199465 Standing Up for Our Communities: Why We Need a Police-Free Future https://truthout.org/articles/standing-up-for-our-communities-why-we-n eed-a-police-free-future/ Thinking About How to Abolish Prisons with Mariame Kaba: Podcast & Transcript https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/thinking-about-how-abolish-pr isons-mariame-kaba-podcast-transcript-ncna992721
Follow @AbolitionLinks on Twitter for more information. Read this zine online at tinyurl.com/ImagineAbolitionZine