Really appreciated Norris weaving stories in with historical context as well as facts and figures. I also appreciated how he expanded beyond violence and crime to include other types of safety, such as stable housing as safety, and ways that the state sabotages DIY efforts of those most affected (su ...more
Another book that tries to help us understand how excessively expensive our failed systems are. Mr. Norris offers feasible suggestions and concrete solutions. I think this is a must read no matter where you are on the political spectrum. I listened to the e-book, which was narrated so well that I fe ...more
This is a thoughtful book that takes a look at different tried and successful approaches to how we can keep all members of communities safe. Zach Norris outlines the difficulties and problems that have thwarted our safety in various avenues of daily life, justice, mental health, prison systems, reha ...more
We Keep Us Safe lives up to the promise of providing a blueprint for holding people accountable while still holding them in community.
First off, I really liked the design of this book. I appreciated the way Zach Norris used time-vignettes and narratives when beginning his chapters. That emphasized ...more
Zach Norris is smart, kind, strategic and fierce -- and he writes well. This book is a contribution to the intellectual work, similar to Angela Davis and Michelle Alexander and Ruth Gilmore among others, that seeded re-newed ideas of abolition that were available for the movement to grab ...more
Zac Norris is the Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center in Oakland, CA which works with neighborhoods to create safety and security without heavy police oversight. Through this book, Norris contends that the lack of safety is due to institutions, like police, media, social service programs and ...more
This book offers a robust working definition of safety - one that moves us away from a framework of fear and towards a culture of care. As calls to defund the police are still being made, this book offers tested alternatives for building a world where (among many other things) harm is healed rather ...more
I don't disagree with anything here, but I think it's pretty superficial and repetitive of other scholarship in the area. The writing just didn't spark for me, and I think people who aren't already convinced wouldn't find these arguments convincing. ...more
I remember the first time I read about decarceration; I couldn’t imagine it. But the seed had been planted. Then this year after the murder of George Floyd, “Defund the police” was added to the more familiar protest chants. The central meaning was to substitute spending on well being for spending on ...more