Black Lives Matter & Defund the Police — Abolitionist Futures

Session 4: Policing, Anti-Racism & Abolition

Core Readings (v. 2022):

Defund the Police [Video by Project NIA] [4 min]

Should I call the Police? Steps to ask yourself before calling the police [2-pages]

Audio version

Mediocre Dave (2021) Policing by Consent Abolitionist Futures. [8 pages]

Audio version

Adam Elliot-Cooper (2021) Excerpt from Chapter 6: Futures of Black resistance: disruption, rebellion, abolition. Black Resistance to British Policing. Manchester University Press, p.172—183. [12 pages]

Audio version

Sarah Uncles (2020) The slow pace of urgent change to prevent deaths in police custody. Open Democracy. [7 pages] — Sarah Uncles (2020) The slow pace of urgent change to prevent deaths in police custody. Open Democracy. [7 pages]

Audio version

Further reading:

If you’re joining an Abolitionist Futures reading group for the second time, we recommend you read some of these instead of the core readings.

Critical Resistance (2020) Abolition of Policing Workshop CriticalResistance.org

Andrea Ritchie, Mariame Kaba and Wood Ervin (2020) Defund the Police Toolkit, Interrupting Criminalisation (24 pages)

Mariame Kaba (2020) - Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police. New York Times 12 June 2020 (2 pages)

Gargi Bhattacharyya et al (2021) Chapter 2: Knife Crime, Prevention and Order, Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State. Pluto Press. [10 pages] — Gargi Bhattacharyya et al (2021) Chapter 2: Knife Crime, Prevention and Order, Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State. Pluto Press. [10 pages]

John Moore (2021) Protecting the property of slavers: London’s first state funded police force. AbolitionistFutures.com

UK Black Lives Matter (2021) Our Platform ukblm.org

Abolitionist Futures (2021) Cops in Culture Series

Alex Vitale (2020) The answer to police violence is not reform: Its defunding. Here’s Why. [3 pages]

Connor Woodman (2020) Why do the police exist? Novara Media [5 pages]

Remi Joseph-Salisbury and Laura Connelly (2019) Diversifying the police won’t end institutional racism. Red Pepper Magazine.

Koshka Duff and Tom Kemp (2020) Would ‘Defund the Police’ Work in the UK? NovaraMedia.come — Koshka Duff and Tom Kemp (2020) Would ‘Defund the Police’ Work in the UK? NovaraMedia.com

David Whitehouse (2014) Origins of the police. libcom.org

Lauren O’Neill (2020) What would happen if we defunded the police? Vice.com

Alex S Vitale (2017) The Myth of Liberal Policing The New Inquiry.

Racial Capitalism and Prison Abolition (2020) Illustrated Zine.

Koshka Duff & Cat Sims (2021) Abolishing the Police (An Illustrated Guide).

MPD150 (2020) 10 actions ideas for building a police-free-future

Session 5 : 'Transformative Justice'