Coffee with Chuck

As we continue to call for abolition and the abolishing of the carceral police state many are not receptive to this message. Abolition is not digestible to the majority of the United States because U.S. citizens cannot imagine a world without policing. But the reality is, we do not need to imagine such a world because we have already seen a world without policing. Prior to the 1700s there was no such thing as police in the United States. However, then in the 1700s policing became a mission through the use of slave patrols. Slave patrols were groups of white men who were responsible for running down, capturing, retrieving, and beating runaway enslaved people as enslaved people were the property of their masters. In 1838 the first police department was created in Boston. The Boston police’s major objective was to protect businesses and property. It should be clear now that the system of policing has its roots in antiBlack violence as policing grew from the system of chattel slavery. While many may not see the validity or the feasibility of abolition it should be stated that policing only exists in America because of antiBlack logic. With that said antiBlack violence is parasitic and it infiltrates every fiber of the United States. AntiBlack logic and violence make the world irredeemable for Black folks. However, this should not deterrer the move for abolition. Black folks in America must continue to fight to see abolition as a viable option if we want to make this world livable for ourselves in a world that centralizes antiBlack violence through antiBlack logic. Abolition is not imagining a world without policing, it is a reimagining of the way folks are policed in this country. It reimagines ideas of justice. Justice as restorative rather than a barbaric idea of justice as punitive. Abolition is a call for recognizing that the law is not colorblind. Abolition is a call for freedom for those who are falsely accused and wrongfully convicted. Abolition is a call to free those who are only prisoned because they are poor and Black. Abolition is a call for true justice. Finally, abolition is a call to dismantle the logics and violences of antiBlack policing practices