These are the solutions we need to policing right now.
Remember: the problem cannot be solved by technocratic solutions (i.e. body cams, further trainings, etc.)
The problem is policing itself.This is the sort of shit I am talking about when I say we need to only talk about getting rid of police but also about what sort of actual safety could replace it.
And no, it is not enough for this to exist ‘next to the police’. The harm is in the fact that circumstances of personal and interpersonal harm are viewed through the lens of law and punishment.
The moment we take the concept of laws & punishment completely off the table and start thinking in needs and how to provide them, we become capable of seeing what is needed to achieve actual safety.
OK. Am I being completely dense? Because if you live in a place where *none of those public safety services* are available as a matter of course and as a first resource, and only the police are there to deal with those incidents, then you must be very remote or very underfunded. These are all pretty basic local health, safety, welfare and community services that ideally should be included by a local authority along with hundreds of others. Certainly, a protective or investigative policing role seems more appropriate to deal with whatever communities deem to be their criminal activities (which I’d suggest often cover things like violence, theft, physical damage, unlawful sex etc). But it does seem like a heck of a weird twist where ‘you and your mates need somewhere to sleep it off’ and ‘trained activists disarm gunmen’ are happening in the same place! I don’t think they would be that immediately connected, but they should certainly be networked.
I think you are missing the point.
First off, the sort of help described above not available at a moments notice, and when it is, it often comes with a health care bill that creates a complete new problem, or with the threat of violence such as psychiatric institutionalization. Local help is even more unlikely, as most people don’t have basic knowledge on psychological first aid or de-escalation and don’t feel like it’s their responsibility to step in. These resources definitely aren’t commonly available.
But much more importantly, people call the cops in all the situations described above and when they do, these things are no longer handled as situations where there is a need for care, they are handled as potential ‘criminal activities’ and the response is policing.
The basic nature of policing it that it takes a problem and re-frames it as ‘criminal activity’. The potential to address the harm and resolve the problem is replaced with control and punishment.
The broken break light example is super explicit about this. When you view a broken break light as a rule being broken, the answer is to give the driver a fine. But when you view it as a problem it is clear that all police does is give a driver with a problem (a broken light) an extra problem (fine). They’ve effectively made their situation worse and not solved anything. Which is exactly what policing does all the time.
When we re-frame things back, take off the ‘criminal activities‘ label and look at problems as being best addressed with non-coercive intervention, care, communication and a genuine look at the needs of everyone involved, we get back to solving problems instead of punishing.
That’s transformative justice instead of punitive justice.
QueerAnarchism 