While the lure of “reimagining” and “reforming” policing is powerful—both of us have fallen prey to it at various points—history, experience, and research all point to the reality that policing is not “broken,” it is operating exactly as it was intended: dealing out daily violence to contain, control, and criminalize. We understand calls to defund the police as an essential first step toward a larger vision of reimagining and building a world where everyone has access to greater safety.
