/138/ Fuck, Abolish, Defund: The Police
Added 2020-07-28 06:00:02 +0000 UTCThe protests in the US against police violence - and their globalisation - prompts us to discuss radical proposals for what to do about the police. We look at the US, the UK and Brazil, each in their own national contexts, and debate how policing is structured and what makes realistic responses to state repression a political priority.
Readings:
- Symposium on Policing, NonSite, various authors incl. Dustin Guastella, Christian Parenti
- Global Perspectives on Policing, Verso Books blog, various authors incl. Alex Hochuli
Comments
Pretty underwhelming episode tbh. It didn't include the thoughtful analysis I'm used to. I understand that this is a foreign topic to the hosts, but it felt like a rehashing of red scare or Aimee Terese takes. Which isn't to say their takes are bad, which they are, but it's to say the takes are flimsy. To not mention qualified immunity is insane when it's the debate holding up a federal police reform law. Nor any mention of how police departments receive the money for more training, nor the various training methods for policing communities. I get that it's a big topic, but I was just hoping for an episode with some content. Instead it just sounded like an echo chamber of the podcast left. If they ever want to reapproach this debate, I hope they get a guest who knows what they're talking about that is outside the Chapo trap house extended universe.
Chopped not Slopped
2020-08-11 12:36:32 +0000 UTCI loved the show. A couple things I find myself mentioning a lot when non-Americans talk about the US carceral state. It’s not primarily about the war on drugs, which most people agree is awful and needs to be done away with, but a reaction to an incredibly violent time period in the US (the late 60s). Also, and this gets me in trouble when I say it, we have to grapple with the idea that mass imprisonment may have been a major contributor to the historically low crime rates in the US we see now. I don’t think it’s the best solution, I’m in favor of a proper social democracy, but we have to convince people of the relationship between poverty and crime. No one is talking about it now. America is a violent country, from its start, and most left solutions to mass incarceration act as though crime is all made up and most people are in jail on phony nonviolent charges. That’s simply not true.
Graeme Anfinson
2020-07-31 15:47:53 +0000 UTC
