No More Police: A Case for Abolition by Mariame Kaba

No More Police: A Case for Abolition Reviews

• 
  Petra has forgotten what being in love feels like

  Before I ordered this book I decided to do some research, and have found three very meaningful things. The first is that a great deal of the articles written by abolitionists are by black women. I can understand that. Police violence and incarceration of black people in the US is appalling, an obvious political act, and bears no relationship to incarceration rates of whites committing similar crimes.
  
  Secondly women get a very bad deal by the the police. Report abuse and the police either don't turn up, turn up and arrest both, turn up and arrest the man and let him go on bail and he is so pissed he beats the woman up again. Prostitutes get hammered by the police, their customers get a free pass.
  
  I used to be a Big Fan of Obama, but he did nothing for blacks that meant there would be less incarceration of them. One of the most egregious applications of a drug law, is about cocaine. Cocaine is used more by white people, often in the suburbs and hardly anyone goes to prison. Crack which is 100% chemically identical is used more by black people in urban areas and they are incarcerated if caught. Once imprisoned, they can never, ever again vote.
  
  The abolitionists solution to crime is naive, incomplete, and goes way beyond the border of ignorant/stupid. Here are a couple of examples. Your car is stolen, the police get it back and arrest the culprit. It is found that he has left drug paraphenalia in the car and he is a persisent offender. So the police have been ineffective in stopping crime. (The police are not there to stop crime, they are their to enforce the law which is supposed to stop crime).
  
  The abolitionists say that if the man had been investigated the first time he had turned to drugs and given help the crime would not have happened. So money needs to be put into social services, housing, education etc. I agree with that totally, but not everyone who is poor or disturbed takes drugs.
  
  The idea is that crime will be cut because there won't be the social ills that do produce so many criminals. But it's not going to stop psychopaths and serial killers who rape and murder because they enjoy it. It's not going to stop those who think that they can steal rather than work, it's not going to stop fraud by well-paid personnel in banks and large companies.
  
  It's certainly not going to stop men who think they have a right to beat women because their holy book says so, or just because they are plain patriarchal. It's not going to stop the kind of child abuse where one child isn't loved, the kind of abuse I suffered. And what about gangs of boys? Look at
  Lord of the Flies. It doesn't need social ills for boys to like to form gangs and throughout history in every society some boys and men have always tested their strength through fighting.
  
  My ex of earlier this year lost his son to drugs ten years ago. This young man had a scholarship to Princeton, played ball for the school, was an executive in his father's phenomenally successful digital security for publishers company. He liked drugs... he was killed by street heroin lanced with fentanyl which comes over in vast quantities from China. Was he otherwise a criminal? Yes. He had been known to steal, his father said he did too in his teens, it was quite thrilling getting something for nothing. Did either of them get caught? Yes, both, for my ex, he got a warning, for his son, his parents were called to the police station. No one got charged, nice white rich people from the suburbs. So if we legalised drugs, would that stop the thefts? Unlikely.
  
  Second example, which is kind of SMH to me. School shooters are often suspected of going to do that by classmates. If there were no police and those students could go to a responsible adult without fear of having to go to the police or their schoolmate being arrested, excluded and for them the worst thing, knowing who had ratted on them, that would stop the school shooter because he could then get treatment. It might work! But children now have the ability to tell a 'responsible adult' without any repercussions to themselves and either don't or people ignore them, as they would continue to do.
  
  The third thing I learned or actually realised is that Darwin's theory of evolution would be played out in a quite unintended way. It would be survival of the fittest. The fittest being the strongest. And the strongest being the best armed. Stand your ground and vigilante groups. Who would be there to prosecute them? Psychopaths who rape and murder would be stopped by extra funds thrown at all social initiatives to provide better lives. Bands of men out to avenge their raped women or murdered children would prowl the street.
  
  Should you be a stranger in an area, black in a white area, a white in a black area, non-Spanish speaking in a Spanish area, someone who looks different, someone who practices a different religion, and crimes start to happen. Who do you think will get the blame? Without police and prisons, what do you think they will do to you in the US with all those guns?
  
  And how would anyone control the extreme racist, homophobes, anti-Semites and those who just plain hate their neighbours or think it's time grandpa passed on so they can have the money? Would road rage cease to exist? Would murders of women from their baby-fathers stop so that the men could keep their children and their money? How would social services help with any of these crimes?
  
  But, an important point to me, would it help black people more? Doubtful. The media tends to portray black people as either successful in politics or the media (from rap artists to journalists) or else poor and ghetto. But there are millions upon millions of successful middle class black people (my family in the US own businesses, manage large companies, are bank managers, accountants, professors, IT specialists etc and they live in communities filled with people like them). The police are hard on them too. But not so hard as inner city and poor kids. Are their areas crime-free? Of course not, is anywhere? There are always opportunists who would steal if they see the opportunity.
  
  Abolishing the police is like saying if sex work and drugs were decriminalised (which I agree with) and the billions of dollars available from not having to pay for policing went to addressing social evils, there would be no crime or such a small amount that it could be dealt with locally. Not in this world or any other.
  
  The police need reforming from the ground up. An ex of mine who had started up as a NYC cop in a cruiser and ended up as a Treasury Special Agent who always carried a gun (freaked me) told me that some cops are attracted to a police career because they can use their guns legally, they like the idea of violence essentially, not all are just looking for a good career or to make the world a better place. I have no solution as to how to improve the police force. On my tiny island without real poverty, only 3 beggars, and most crime being between youths from well-off homes who get into drugs, the police are appalling, but they are all black and so the discrimination aspect doesn't come into it. The police are still appalling though at clearing up crimes and can be gratuitusly violent and are often corrupt.
  
  Ultimately gangs or vigilantes would take over. This is incompatible with society, so the Nationl Guard or the military would be brought in to maintain order. They would be the new police. A military state.
  __________
  
  If you don't agree with my point of view, I welcome yours, not as criticism of my review but as your ideas, ones that I may well not have considered.
  
  I have marked this as read because my reading challenge is not the number of books I read but the number of books I reviewed. I will read the book at some point and review it again.
• 
  Kab

  4.5
  

  Police in the U.S. consume [close to] $130 billion a year...Carceral logics normalize policing and punishment in response to social problems rather than collective care and mutual support.

  Police violence is not counted in the crime stats periodically trotted out to justify their existence—even though cops engage daily in actions that fall squarely within the definition of homicide, assault (including sexual assault), home invasions in the form of drug raids, and robbery and theft through asset forfeiture...A cop is caught engaging in acts of sexual “misconduct” every five days on average...Policing is not “broken,” it is operating exactly as it was intended: dealing out daily violence to contain, control, and criminalize Black and Brown communities while creating conditions for capital to flourish...Police embody and exercise the state’s monopoly on the legitimate use of violence.

  We have over a century’s worth of evidence demonstrating that attempts to re-form police don’t produce different results—whether it’s a reduction in police violence or a reduction in violence in communities.

  Safety is not produced primarily by force. Safety is produced by resources, by connection, by equity, and by reciprocal accountability among neighbors (Danielle Sered).

  Campaigns to defund and abolish policing [are about] shifting how we invest our collective resources into collective care and support instead of criminalization and punishment, [to meet] basic needs that include education, long-term housing, income support, health care, access to care for disabled people, childcare, elder care, youth programs, mental health crisis response, violence interruption programs.

  Twenty-four community nonprofits per 100,000 residents led to a 29 percent decline in the murder rate, a 24 percent decline in the violent crime rate, and a 17 percent decline in the property crime rate...Community nonprofits were defined as organizations focused on crime prevention, neighborhood development, substance abuse prevention, job training and workforce development, and recreational and social activities for youth...Violence prevention programs in cities like Milwaukee and Oakland cost $4 and $26 per capita, compared to $502 and $727 per capita spending on their police departments.

  Contrary to popular misconceptions, elimination of policing and punishment doesn’t mean that there will be no consequences for violence or harm. Instead, abolition focuses on accountability rather than punishment. Punishment is inflicting suffering for the sake of hurting someone, it does not require the person punished to do anything in particular but suffer the punishment; accountability is the voluntary process of stepping into responsibility for causing harm and committing to repair the harm. Whether or not a person steps into accountability, abolition contemplates consequences for acts of violence or harm. Consequences are nonpunitive responses that are necessary to increase safety for both the person harmed and the community. Importantly, these consequences do not deny the dignity and humanity of the person who caused harm, or their potential for transformation. A world without policing is not a world where violence is allowed to proceed unchecked. To the contrary...it is a world that creates greater possibilities for prevention, interruption, healing, and repair of violence by meeting material needs [and] fostering mutual accountability.
• 
  Jessica

  Mariame Kaba is without a doubt one of the most important voices in the movement for criminal justice reform and prison abolition. No More Police makes the case by using evidence and statistics on how police intervention is harmful and leads to violence in already marginalized communities. The call to Defund The Police has been met with nothing but negativity from a majority of politicians ranging from conservatives to liberals. Before explaining the goals of defund the police, I think it is important to highlight some stats that I found while reading.
  
  "Research confirms that police are up to 4 times more likely to shoot Black people than white people, even when both groups are engaged int eh same levels of criminalized activity, even when they are unarmed."
  
  "Longitudinal studies indicate that markers of resource deprivation - lack of sufficient income, health care, etc are critical factors in heightened violent crime rates." HOWEVER
  
  "Less than 5% of the 10 million arrests made annually are for "violent crime" and "1%-4% of police calls are for "serious violent crime" like homicide, rape, or robbery. When cops do respond to such calls, they find the person responsible for violence 1/4 of the time." and finally,
  
  "Crime was down overall in 2020, by about 6%, one of the largest decreases in decades." (These same 2020 crime rates were the exact reason why Biden enacted ARPA, giving $350 billion to police in 2022.
  
  Kaba artfully explains the goal of defunding the police, which involves a divestment of resources that are then redistributed to communities ravaged by poverty and a lack of resources. Kaba further proves her point by citing statistics that show no correlation between crime rates and police budgets. Meaning, crime does not go up if police lose money and vise versa. The current state of policing is poisoned, there is no doubt about it. If the goal is abolition, then defunding the police is the starting point. Regardless of political view, anyone can resonate with this story as it is written with facts as well as emotions.
  
  This literature is excellent for anyone who wants to read more about abolition, criminal justice reform, and transformative justice. It is relevant no matter what level your at, or whether you think the country as it currently stands needs to change. This book is likely to convince even status quo-ers that change is needed and that supporting our communities, especially communities of color, is how we actually tackle crime rates, violence, and recidivism.
• 
  Leanna Aker

  Really fascinating! I've always been curious about "defunding the police" and what that might look like. The authors make a great case for how ineffective our systems of policing are.....and back up the argument with data, case studies, and anecdotes. They also paint a clear picture that "policing" is a practice that exists throughout our society, not just with the police. For a topic that is serious and stories that are sad, the book did inspire me to imagine a better and safer society.
• 
  J Earl

  No More Police: A Case for Abolition, by Mariame Kaba and Andrea Ritchie, is an organized and well-researched explanation of the need for abolishing the police.
  
  The kneejerk response from those who support the white supremacist status quo is that pulling the cops off the street will lead to full scale violence and crime. In other words, these people not only don't know anything about what the abolitionist movement is, they are trying to use fear (which statistics don't actually support) to maintain their entitlement and power under the present system.
  
  No matter where you currently stand on the issue, don't let the false fear these hypocrites are peddling be your "rationale" for taking a stand. Read this book. Think about the statistics and the stories. Think about their ideas based on this information. This is not an overnight type of movement. In fact, at one point, they state that achieving safe, supportive and a truly just society is multigenerational. But we must start.
  
  I'm not going to try to restate their arguments, they do too good of a job for me to mess it up. But for anyone who wants a society that is just for all, they owe it to themselves to not listen to the slogans, whether from the fear-mongers or from the "defund the police" crowd. The research here is cited so you can verify things for yourself (isn't that the usual first complaint of those who won't believe anything?). If you're one of those who "do your own research" then this is ideal. Do it. With an open mind. You may not think every idea here is good, but if you disagree with the larger premise, that police do not make people safer and do nothing to decrease violence (in fact they increase violence), then I have to question whether you just like your position in a white supremacist society more than you care for or believe in any moral, ethical, or spiritual system.
  
  Highly recommended for those who want to know about, or know more about, the abolitionist movement. In fact, I think this is one of a handful of books I would recommend to someone who doesn't really like the idea but wants to better understand it. Maybe you won't flip 180 degrees but I find it hard to believe you will be totally against it either.
  
  Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
• 
  Rebecca

  Mariame Kaba is one of the most interesting, educational people I follow on Twitter (and she's getting her library degree!) -- I'm interested in reading her latest book.
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  Beth B

  Stunning. Transformational. Unique. Comprehensive and comprehensible.
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  Stephanie Ridiculous

  Excellent resource for anyone wanting to learn more about abolition & it's thoughts, goals, and some first steps. It may not answer all your questions, and it may not convince you entirely - but it will definitely give you some things to think about, investigate, and reconsider. I definitely recommend, especially to anyone who finds the title shocking/upsetting. It's really worth hearing these observations, critiques, and challenges to the current status quo.
• 
  Andréa

  Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
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  brinley

  Pheeeeeew~ ! This is jam packed. A really definitive argument against policing and one I will refer to as I continue organizing!
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  Kristin

  Couldn't imagine a better book to wrap up 2022. Make it your 2023 New Year's resolution to read this. One of the most inspiring, life-changing books I've read in a long time.
• 
  Amethyst

  I'm invested in learning more about abolition and mutual aid, interested in building community and reducing harm with alongside others. This book amplifies the work already being done by activists/abolitionists across the globe and highlights all the reasons why reforming police or prisons will not work.
• 
  BiblioKel

  Whilst US-based, this book is an important read for everyone, especially those who struggle to understand what abolishment means, how it could work, and why it's important.
  
  "No More Police" perfectly and succinctly shows us why the current system is both ineffective and actively harmful.
  
  The arguments in this book are well thought out and supported by both strong anecdotal data and peer-reviewed research. There is an extensive section near the back of the book that cites all of the author's sources which makes "doing your own research" easy.
  
  The current system is broken and does not prevent crime or keep people safe, especially people from marginalised communities.
  
  The current system needs to be abolished and a new system focused on rehabilitation, not punitive measures, needs to be implemented.
  
  I especially recommend this book to people who support the Blue Lives Matter movement, are members of a policing force, or know someone who is a police officer as it does a brilliant job of showing how individual "good cops" still uphold, support, and enforce harmful systems. I say this as someone who used to work for their state's police service.
  
  Thank you to NetGalley, The New Press, and Mariame Kaba and Andrea Ritchie for giving me a free digital copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Bakari

  No More Police is a very insightful and much-needed book that I’ll be referring to and recommending in many conversations.
  
  It should be clear by now that the system of policing does not prevent or solve crime. In fact, police themselves commit crimes by attaching and killing people. But even as parts of society call for more police reform, that is not enough. We need to seek transformative justice in which society strives to resolve and seriously prevent crimes and conflicts by providing people with the basic and advanced needs to live. We need to push for a culture that values all lives and diminishes the need for constant punishment and revenge. Media and Hollywood need to stop glorifying violence and depicting cops as solutions to society’s problems.
  
  We must strive to highlight and protect the most vulnerable targets of policing: Black people and other people of color, disabled and LGBTQ people, and homeless and marginalized people.
  
  Even if we can’t imagine a society or world without police, we should still make that the goal because it would mean having different conversations about how we resolve conflict and respect one another. It would mean interrogating the roots of problems like rape, gun violence, and petty crime instead of more police surveillance and punishment.
  
  It’s sickening to see the damage that more policing is causing. It’s sickening to see so many parts of society deteriorate into a dystopia because of social indifference and racism, racial capitalism, sexism, and class oppression.
  
  No More Police needs to be read and studied widely by activists and educators, students, and anyone who truly cares about transformative justice.
• 
  Kat

  Everyone should read this book. Kaba and Ritchie, who have both been in the movement for years, do a great job at drawing together basic points in the first half of the book to construct a compelling argument that cops do not keep people safe or stop crime - and that crime is not necessarily violence, a point that will stay with me. The second half of the book is about solutions and community building, and left me with a new energy to show up for my friends, neighbors and chosen family. I found myself hungry for even more examples of deescalation and community connection. I don’t necessarily agree with all of their specific strategies, which they acknowledge is part of the necessary tension that emerges when making change - but I finished this believing a better world is possible if we do the work today.
• 
  Francesca

  This is my favorite book on abolition I have read so far. It explains things in a way that is easy to understand whether you identify as an abolitionist or are just curious. The book also makes it clear even if you do not fully support abolition as long as you are making an effort to support and imagine solutions that do not engage with the carceral state that is positive progress. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever questioned police or the PIC and has hope there could be better ways to help and heal.
• 
  Morgan

  No More Police is a book that clearly lays out dense material in an accessible way. Something I really admire about this book is that the authors lay out multiple approaches but don’t treat situations with a one size fits all solution. I highly recommend this book for people trying to understand the police abolition movement.
  Thank you to the authors and The New Press for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  B.

  4.25
  
  This book does a perfect job of introducing the idea of abolition to newcomers as well as providing a framework to those who may be lost in how to get involved in the movement in even the smallest ways. Also I enjoyed the inclusion of this: "We don’t all need to be abolitionists. But we do all need to make a choice—will we continue to invest in attempts to “fix” policing or seek changes that will reduce and eliminate it?"
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  Elie

  An unassailable argument for the dismantling of our carceral state—the police being just one piece of what must be replaced by community fueled alternatives. Dense and time consuming, demanding attention and intention of the reader.
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  Mike Thomas

  Excellent. Comes out August 30th. Buy it.
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  Mary

  The most thought-provoking, inspiring book I’ve read this year. A lot to digest, and a lot of points to sit with. Must-read.
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  Lex

  Mariame Kaba never fails to make a hopeful yet realistic call to action and case for abolition.
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  Becca

  Thoroughly engages with the arguments for abolition without shrinking from the challenges and tensions.
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  Ariel ✨

  A very good primer. It may be too 101 for people who have been doing this work on the ground for a while, but it provides good examples for explaining abolitionist goals to those new to the movement.
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  Katie ratherbereadinggg

  5 stars