'Disband, Disempower, and Disarm': Amplifying the Theory and Practice of Police Abolition

• In Event: Penal Abolition: Session 2 of 3

Abstract

Critical criminologists have challenged the utility of efforts to reform the criminal justice system for decades, including calls to abolish the prison system. Recently, the riots in Ferguson, Baltimore, Milwaukee, and Charlotte have made racialized police violence and police reform issues of national concern. In this article, we take the riots as a point of departure to examine the theory and practice of police abolition. We contend that the riots created a rupture in the common sense idea that the police are an inevitable fixture of life in the United States. The first half of our article analyzes the strongest justifications for police abolition found in the modest literature written on this subject. The second half of our article examines the strategies and tactics of activist groups across the country that are putting police abolition into practice. Our goal is to contribute to building a more theoretically robust conceptualization and practice of radical abolition in the United States.

Authors

• Meghan G. McDowell, Winston-Salem State University

• Luis A. Fernandez, Northern Arizona University