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Title: On Policing
Author: Critical Resistance
Date: January 2009
Language: en
Topics: police, anti-state
Source: http://criticalresistance.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/CR-statement-abolition-of-policing-2009.pdf

Critical Resistance

On Policing

Policing is the practice, empowered by the state, of enforcing law and

social control through the use of force. The roots of policing in the

United States are closely linked to slavery, the capture of escaped

slaves, and the enforcement of Black Codes and Jim Crow. Police forces

were also routinely used to keep new immigrants to the US “in line” and

to prevent the working classes from making demands. Clearly, not much

has changed. Policing is still set up to target poor people, people of

color, immigrants, and people who do not conform to socially acceptable

behavior on the street or in their homes. For example, police frequently

target women, queer and gender non-conforming people, people of color,

and young people just based on their appearance or behavior. The choices

police make about which people to target, what to target them for, and

when to arrest and book them play a major role in who ultimately gets

locked up.

Some of us are comforted by the option of being able to call someone

when we need help. Some of us are told from a very early age that the

police are our friends who will help us when we’re in “trouble.” But the

impact of policing on many of our communities—more people beaten and

killed by cops and the growing number of our friends, family members and

loved ones being locked away behind bars—shows us that the police hurt

rather than help us.

Policing is, in its very nature, in opposition to self-determination.

The practices of watching, questioning, intimidating and arresting

people—through the use of force are violent practices. Not only do cops

use threats of violence—the guns on their hips, the clubs on their

belts—to control people, they often use force in making stops,

inquiries, and arrests. Harassment of people on the street or “stop and

frisk” practices—stopping people to frisk them for drugs or weapons—are

tools often used to intimidate, monitor, and control poor people and

people of color. While we’re told the police are on the street to stop

or solve “crime”, their very presence is a way of enforcing social

control, and actually creates more violence.

When people die at the hands of police, more often than not, the state

concludes that the use of force was reasonable... Police review boards

are completely useless.And even though some people argue that police

abuse is an isolated problem that can be blamed on the actions of rogue

officers, it is really a systemic problem that is fundamental to the way

the policing system in the US is built and maintained.

In recent years, the militarization of the police has increased

dramatically. Not only has US law enforcement come to resemble the US

military more closely, but it has also begun to be equipped with the

same technologies. From providing training in tactics and instruction in

using certain types of equipment to the cooperation between the military

and domestic law enforcement at the US/Mexico border, militarization of

law enforcement has meant that the US has become another space within

which the military can operate and has meant that residents of the US

are potential military targets to be eliminated.

The same way that locking people in cages does not help us build the

healthy, stable communities we want, relying on the state to force

people into acting in ways that serve the state doesn’t encourage the

kinds of cooperation, trust, and accountability we know are at the heart

of building what we truly want.

Instead of relying on the violent establishments of police and prisons,

what if we got together with members of our communities and created

systems of support for each other? We are capable of looking after and

caring for one another, providing each other with our basic human needs,

creating community self-determination. Relying on and deploying policing

denies our ability to do this, to create real safety in our communities.