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.
I’m not sure what you mean by the kind of help described in the graphics ‘not being available at a moments notice’ or local help being ‘unlikely’. Again, that must come down to geography and funding. And as you mention health care bills and psychiatric institutionalisation, then I assume you are relating these graphics specifically to the US. Even then, I can’t believe those services don’t exist or have been defunded out of existence already. So these graphics are concrete, working, tried and tested *examples* of transformative justice. However, the emphasis on the word ‘imagine’ implies they aren’t currently available. Would it be productive to present them as examples instead? And title them as such? The way they are at the moment makes it sound like these solutions aren’t already in place and highly achievable.
Actually, I live in the Netherlands and I assure you that calling for help in a psychological crisis here can result in high health care bills and forced psychiatric institutionalization. Insurance coverage for psychiatric help is lousy and full or loopholes and
forced institutionalization
is very much a real thing. Forced medication and forced isolation as well.
And help in times of crisis certainly isn’t available at a moments notice. Sure, suicide intervention exists but it is heavily tied to
forced institutionalization. And for anything more structural than psychological first aid, waiting lists are weeks or months long, in some cases over a year long.
But most Dutch people don’t know a thing about any of that unless it happened to them or they are in activist groups engaged with these topics. The situation is similar all over Europe and people are incredibly uninformed about it.
The ‘white people calling the cops on people of color for everything’ thing isn’t US specific either. It’s definitely here in the Netherlands as well. The more marginalized you are, the more likely
people who witness your moments of crisis are to call the cops.
This is true on an individual level and a community level. More services are always available in rich, pampered neighborhoods
were policing is low and community services abound. But as soon as you
live in a more marginalized community, cops are always closer and more
likely to be send to your door than community workers.
Great alternatives to policing can be build inn the presence, but as long as the police continues to exist, the difference between seeing a community worker and seeing a cop is primarily one of privilege.
And that’s the point. Even if you live in a place where policing is low and community services are good, the continued existence of cops means that safety net depends on not being criminalized. The moment you are perceived as unwanted, unruly, lazy, uncivilized, those services vanish and what is left is police intervention.
QueerAnarchism 