fuck the police

Fuck the police coming straight from the underground

A young nigga got it bad cause I'm brown

And not the other color so police think

They have the authority to kill a minority

Fuck that shit, cause I ain't the one

For a punk motherfucker with a badge and a gun

To be beating on, and throwing in jail -NWA

The dominant story around police in society is that they are the guardians of the public – they exist to protect us from harm, from ‘the bad guys’. Just look at the narrative that is portrayed on TV every night with shows like CSI, Law & Order, Criminal Minds, Highway Patrol etc.

The role of Police has expanded over time and now fulfills a number of roles in society. Every society has some societal policing mechanism. Saying ‘fuck the police’ is equivalent to saying ‘fuck the public transport’ - it seems at odds with the reality. However we can fundamentally question the role that policing has taken in our society even if we agree it is too simple to say ‘fuck the police’.

Too broadly break down the role of police we can see a number of separate roles:

-       First responders; this is shared with the firefighters and the ambulance service. Strangely enough we do not say ‘fuck the firefighters’ or ‘fuck the EMTs’. 

 -       Reactive Actors of Justice. Yes part of their role is catching the ‘bad guys’. Importantly someone only becomes a ‘bad guy’ once they have done something ‘bad’. As we know from the numerous American shootings, until the ‘bad guy’ starts killing innocents they have done nothing wrong. 

 -       Behavior Enforcement and regulation of Spatial Merit. This role takes on a darker narrative, one that is well known to anyone who has lived or worked in marginalized communities. Police exist to enforce the rules that govern which bodies may occupy which spaces, and the ways in which bodies interact with each other within space.

The major issue is that the police institution itself is founded upon oppressive policies that uphold a social hierarchy; it is no wonder that people of colour, homeless people, and the mentally ill are so often on the receiving end of a baton.

One is hard-pressed to name a social justice movement that has not been opposed by deployment of the police. How can the police not be brutal, violent, racist and oppressive? That is the job they are forced to fulfill.

I think that a key issue is that we have lumped too many different roles on the police. Certainly we can shift the roles that the police have from them to broader society. While a complete abolition of the police system would require a change in social order, some alternatives to the current police system set out to empower people to keep their communities safe, while encouraging everyone to live lives that are free of violence and oppression. A society with little or no policing requires strong community organizations to mediate and react to conflict when it does occur.

Communities need to embrace a proactive, problem-solving approach that focuses on prevention, where it is everyone’s job to promote safety.

Ward Clapham, Vancouver’s retired police chief, proposes a new paradigm or mind-set that is made up of three ideas: initiative, partnership, and prevention. This concept of societal responsibility is in line with the original concept of modern policing put forward by Sir Robert Peel.

The police are the public and the public are the police and the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it. – Sir Robert Peel

What we need to do is question what is illegal and why it is so. Are our sentencing and our laws in line with a system that maximizes well-being? Why not limit the police force to crimes against someone's freedom (e.g. robbery, assault, identity theft, rape, etc.).

The other part of the equation is to fundamentally question what role we are happy for the police to take. Should they be the first point of call for rape victims? Abused wives? Noise complaints? Cats stuck in trees?

Community-based sexual assault centres are valuable alternatives to police. Anti-crime design is another such method; creation of public spaces that actively prevent crime. 

When society acquiesces to saying that the government has the monopoly on force we legitimize any brutality that is brought back against us. It is one half of an answer to these questions to protest police brutality. The other is to invent and embrace alternatives, to imagine an option other than handcuffs and batons. We should be deeply questioning who we allow to use force? Why do we allow this at all? Are there non-violent mechanisms for resolution?

I know this article raises more questions than it answers, work for another day methinks. So let me sign off...

… Fuck the police


note: An law school professor and former criminal defense attorney tells you why you should never agree to be interviewed by the police.