No More Police: A Case for Abolition

by Mariame Kaba

Well, then, why can’t we do both—reduce police budgets and engage in meaningful reform to ensure that the remaining police functions are performed in nondiscriminatory ways that meet the needs and respect the rights of communities? Because this approach misapprehends the core function of police—which is to contain and control, not serve and protect. It also removes the inherent violence of policing from the conversation. As we explore in greater detail in the “Re-Form” chapter, there is no reforming something that is working just as it was designed. Policing at its root is anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, patriarchal, and ableist, and it upholds all other forms of supremacy in service of racial capitalism. Police reforms, while often well-intentioned, misapprehend the purpose of police. There’s also the issue of wasted resources and effort. As Naomi Murakawa points out in Abolition for the People, police reforms reward and re-entrench policing, consuming a tremendous amount of resources while doing little to prevent police violence from happening in the future.156 Simply put, reform doesn’t work.