[We can’t get rid of policing as we know it if we continue to
value one person’s time and labor over another’s, which is a
requirement of racialized capitalism. ] [[link removed]]

IT'S TIME TO TURN THE WORLD RIGHT SIDE UP BY REIMAGINING PUBLIC
SAFETY  
[[link removed]]


 

Mary Hooks
December 1, 2020
Prism
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
* [[link removed]]

_ We can’t get rid of policing as we know it if we continue to
value one person’s time and labor over another’s, which is a
requirement of racialized capitalism. _

,

 

One of the first times I remember encountering police was when I was
in second grade, circa 1990. My teacher had made an announcement that
we’d have a special guest and things would run differently from our
usual schedule. The angst in the air to meet a “special guest”
loomed as we awaited said guest to disrupt our day-to-day schedule. A
white man with a crispy uniform walked into a class of youngsters
followed by another human dressed like a dog with a trenchcoat on. We
were told to sit in a circle on the floor as the “special guest”
introduced us to himself as “Officer Friendly” and said the human
dressed like a damn dog was named “McGruff the Crime Dog.” His
practiced speech led us to believe that this “dog” was going to
come save us when crime happened. 

As the officer spoke, I recall the nasty feeling that came into my
stomach when he told us that if bad things were happening in our
homes, that we should call them: “So, when you see someone doing
drugs, stealing, or violating you, you should call us and we will
handle it.” Knowing what I'd been taught about not trusting the
police versus what this white dude was now telling me we had to do was
creepy; even by just listening to what he said, I felt I’d betrayed
my upbringing in some way. Calling the police for help was not the
protocol in my family. My great-aunt taught my sisters and I that
“what happened in her house stayed in her house” and to violate
that meant there would be consequences. I was certain that her rules
would reign supreme.  

After the presentation of the “special guests,” we were called up
one-by-one and fingerprinted. The officer told us that this was to
protect us in case any stranger ever kidnapped us. In hindsight, it
was because this classroom of Black, brown, and working-class white
kids were already suspects to people like “Officer
Friendly”—they were just waiting for us to make our first
mistakes. 

Growing up in the 80s and 90s, I’d learn that visits from police in
my community would be frequent and unwelcomed. The angst of the
interruption would always be present when they arrived and it would
always mean that things were never the same after they’d left. The
police would take someone and that meant that on Sundays my sisters
and I would be dressed to go with my aunt to the jail to visit that
someone behind a glass. I hated those visits; the way the officers
treated the visitors was not how you treat a guest. There were no
hospitalities offered and the rules of the jail were rigid, which
meant the standards of behavior my aunt expected were even more
rigid. 

As time went on, my distrust for police turned into an all-out
disdain. I’d borne witness to the ways they came into my
neighborhood, with no “friendly” on their badge, and wreak havoc
on the lives of the people caught surviving. Unfortunately, I blamed
us. I thought the adults around me were making bad decisions, not
realizing that their decisions were because they had even worse
options. Nor did I know that Nixon had declared a War on Drugs
[[link removed]] and Reagan
sent the troops
[[link removed]].
I didn’t know that the good factory union jobs had moved to Ohio and
welfare-to-work laws made single-headed families like mine stretched
to figure out how to be a parent and a worker. I didn’t know
that Clinton had signed a crime bill 
[[link removed]]that meant when
someone was taken after “Officer Friendly” came, they wouldn’t
be returned for a lot longer. I didn’t know that the high tide of
capitalism was drowning the labor force and while commodifying our
every need and desire. I didn’t see how the tug of worker and
consumer kept people in my family always robbing Peter to pay Paul. 

I just knew there were some people, like the white kids in my school,
who brought lunch and there were those of us who had to get the
“free lunch.” I knew that there were some people, like the ones I
saw on _Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,_ who had everything, and
there were some like my family who barely could keep our lights on.
There were some who would see those “special guests” as their
protectors, and those of us who knew them to be kidnappers.

It’s taken years of experience, study, and listening to put all the
pieces together of this society and to understand just how ridiculous
the system of “public safety” actually is. When I look at the
conditions my family and community were forced to struggle and survive
in, in addition to the harsh conditions that our foremothers and
fathers were determined to survive, I know without a shadow of a doubt
that this has all been a set up. There is no way public safety as we
have been taught is going to bring about safety in a real and
meaningful way. The reality is that we have lived this lie long enough
and public safety must be redefined and reimagined in order to
consider the totality of the people who inhabit the public sphere, not
just the properties that make for a good skyline. To reimagine public
safety requires a sober assessment of the current order of the day and
be honest about who it’s hurting, what is being kept safe, and what
isn’t.  

The truth of the matter is that what makes people safe is as varied as
the gender spectrum. As humans we have the capability of compromising
each other's ideal of safety at every turn. But to think militarized
police in tacky polyester uniforms is the best way to address it will
leave us all doomed. I know for a fact that had my family and
community had meaningful work that they had control over, we would
have had a taste of safety. If we’d had the services necessary to
address the wicked state-sanctioned crack epidemic, we would have been
able to get a sense of safety. Instead of “Officer Friendly” and
the weird human dressed like a dog, had a caring community-led group
that looked and sounded like the adults who were raising me had come
to our classroom and offered a safe space to talk about hard things in
our life, that would have offered me and my little stomach some
safety. Ultimately, had colonizers not kidnapped Africans and brought
them to stolen Indigenous lands to dehumanize, maim, kill, and rape
us, only to later pretend they could protect us, that would have made
me feel safe.  

History cannot be undone, but we know that it can be repeated if we
aren’t willing to steer the ship of our future in a different
direction. For years, colonized Africans in this country and other
exploited people have relied on the very institution that has been
responsible for our suffering to address human harm, often for lack of
options or the fact that they are an occupying force in our daily
lives. Our aims must go beyond reforming this rotten institution but
to be visionary in crafting new ways of addressing harm and better
yet, resetting our values on human life all together. 

For example, Portugal 
[[link removed]]has
realized that taking an approach to drug use that decriminalizes drug
use and providing harm-reduction methods to addressing unhealthy
relationships to drug use has minimized the crimes associated with it,
in addition to doing public education that provides a scientific
approach to understanding the impacts of it’s usage. Organizations
like Crescer [[link removed]] have created
community-based institutions that support folks who are in their
addiction by providing cafes and recreational facilities that allow
folks an alternative to drug consumption. They are also working to get
safe consumption places to prevent the spread of diseases, prevent
overdoses, and educating people on safe usage.  

Here in the U.S., community-based organizations like the Violence
Interrupters
[[link removed]] were
literally doing what the police have not proven they have the ability,
nor will, to address active violent interactions. They are community
members who put their lives in the middle of violent interactions,
only armed with the cultural wherewithal to make the interventions
that bring people back to their humanity in a moment of life and
death. This organization is no longer active, due to allegations of
sexual violence against the women inside of the organization. I raise
this example because much like the humans that put on the blue
uniform, the interrupters are humans that must be charged with the
transformation that they were seeking to bring about. A Black queer
feminist approach to interrupting violence must be part of the alchemy
that creates the life-saving work they embarked on. The model they
have offered us is still one that we should take the best of and leave
the rest to continue to bring about the world we want to see. These
are just two examples, but can you imagine what could be possible if
these programs were funded as well as the institution that has been
trained to kill us?  

We can’t get rid of policing as we know it if we continue to value
one person’s time and labor over another’s, which is a requirement
of racialized capitalism. We must fight like hell to break isolation
and mediocrity which nurtures capitalism and fear. 

This may seem like a tall order. However, if we exert the same amount
of force and energy that has been used to instill fear, make mass
consumption an art form, shred the social safety net, lie and
manipulate the public to support war and exploitation to instead
imagine and build alternative systems of public safety, then I believe
we can do what must be done to turn the world right side up again.

_Mary Hooks is a Prism Senior Fellow focused on Black and LGBTQ+
liberation in the South. A Black lesbian, feminist, and mother, Mary
is co-director of Southerners on New Ground (SONG).
[[link removed]]_

_Give today to double the impact of your donation!_

_THE TIME IS NOW. BIPOC-LED JOURNALISM LIKE OURS HAS NEVER MATTERED
MORE. If you want to read more of Prism’s reporting—reporting
that centers the people, places, and issues currently underreported by
national media—please consider making a tax-deductible donation
today. Readers like you can play a key role in keeping our newsroom
strong._

_FROM NOW THROUGH DECEMBER 31, WE’RE PARTICIPATING IN NEWSMATCH—A
NATIONAL MATCHING-GIFT CAMPAIGN THAT WILL MATCH EVERY NEW MONTHLY
DONATION TO PRISM 12X, AND DOUBLE ANY ONE-TIME DONATION UP TO $5,000._

_Donate Now →
[[link removed]]_

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
* [[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web [[link removed]]
Submit via email
Frequently asked questions [[link removed]]
Manage subscription [[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org [[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]