Why The Data Shows a Need for Police Abolition
Journalist & activist Awkword explains how dangerous American policing is, and presents an alternative
Funding for American police forces continues to balloon, irrespective of crime rates, and despite police work inherently being unable to solve crime, or harm. As activist and writer Awkword writes in his information bomb of an article for The Antagonist, American police only solve 2% of major crimes.
Though we like to think of ourselves as the “Land of the Free,” American policing has resulted in the U.S. having the largest prison population on earth, both in total numbers and as a percentage of population. American policing as a system is so prejudicial against the poor and against people of color that it has resulted in apartheid-level disparities in the United States.
Black American students make up just 15% of the nation’s student population, yet make up 41% of arrests. “In fact, one in three Black kids born today will wind up in prison; one in six Latin American boys will too,” Awkword continues.
What’s more, individual police officers themselves happen to cause immense harm to the communities they’re meant to serve and protect. Just take a look at the terrifying and true facts below that Awkword provides in his piece for The Antagonist.
Cops steal more property than all of the property crimes combined
In 7 out of 10 states, cops are legally allowed to rape people in their custody
There are 250,000+ untested rape kits in police custody nationwide
40% of cops admit to abusing their families
The story also does a good job of answering the “ok, that’s awful, but what is an alternative?” question. Explaining his conception of Police Abolition, Awkword writes:
As an abolitionist, I’m most often asked about murderers and rapists, people who “can’t change,” and why all we do is bitch and moan but never propose real-life solutions.
Here’s the thing: not only do we regularly propose alternatives to cops and cages, but we’ve also been busy for years implementing them — and recording our many, significant successes. The problem is that, amid all the irresponsible, poorly researched, pro-police narratives spread across mainstream media, it takes a Good News Network (or IGD) to report on Denver’s STAR program successfully replacing police more than 2,200 times in less than a year. And this is in spite of a 2021 National Alliance on Mental Illness poll that showed eight in 10 Americans believe mental health professionals — and not police — should respond to mental health calls.
Read the entire piece, here, and share it with your network of loved ones.