Abolition of police and prisons
Abolish is to flourish! Against the prison industrial complex and for transformative justice.
See Critical Resistance's definitions below:
The Prison Industrial Complex
The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.
Through its reach and impact, the PIC helps and maintains the authority of people who get their power through racial, economic and other privileges. There are many ways this power is collected and maintained through the PIC, including creating mass media images that keep alive stereotypes of people of color, poor people, queer people, immigrants, youth, and other oppressed communities as criminal, delinquent, or deviant. This power is also maintained by earning huge profits for private companies that deal with prisons and police forces; helping earn political gains for "tough on crime" politicians; increasing the influence of prison guard and police unions; and eliminating social and political dissent by oppressed communities that make demands for self-determination and reorganization of power in the US.
Abolition
PIC abolition is a political vision with the goal of eliminating imprisonment, policing, and surveillance and creating lasting alternatives to punishment and imprisonment.
From where we are now, sometimes we can't really imagine what abolition is going to look like. Abolition isn't just about getting rid of buildings full of cages. It's also about undoing the society we live in because the PIC both feeds on and maintains oppression and inequalities through punishment, violence, and controls millions of people. Because the PIC is not an isolated system, abolition is a broad strategy. An abolitionist vision means that we must build models today that can represent how we want to live in the future. It means developing practical strategies for taking small steps that move us toward making our dreams real and that lead us all to believe that things really could be different. It means living this vision in our daily lives.
Abolition is both a practical organizing tool and a long-term goal.
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Two boys were rushed to hospitals on Wednesday after they were shot by a gunman on their rural school campus in Northern California. The authorities say the suspect had a history of crimes and mental illness.
A wooden sign in front of a school campus reads “Feather River School, Seventh-day Adventists.” The authorities believe the gunman may have targeted Feather River Adventist School because of its affiliation with the Seventh-day Adventists.Credit...Andri Tambunan for The New York Times
Published Dec. 5, 2024Updated Dec. 6, 2024, 12:25 a.m. ET
The two kindergartners were on their way to the restroom during lunchtime on Wednesday, in what was supposed to be a simple trip before heading back to class at the Feather River Adventist School.
Instead, a short time later, they were shot and badly wounded by a gunman.
The boys, Roman Mendez, 6, and Elias Wolford, 5, were soon whisked away from their small campus near Oroville, Calif., one by ambulance, the other by helicopter, and both rushing to hospitals with no time to spare.
“It’s horrible,” said Vanessa Diaz, who has been visiting her brother Roman in the intensive care unit where he remains unconscious. “It’s just heartbreaking.”
On Thursday, the boys had improved to “critical but stable” condition, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office announced, offering a glimmer of hope to this rural community about 60 miles north of Sacramento that has endured an unusual amount of heartache in recent years. Residents were already trying to organize fund-raisers, hold vigils and pull together money to support the victims and their families, just as they had done in the past in this agricultural region.
Six years ago, residents here suffered through the Camp fire, which killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise about 20 miles up the road. And a year before the blaze, everyone in Oroville had to toss their belongings into a vehicle and scramble out of town one night, fearing that the towering Oroville Dam would erupt at any minute.
In Wednesday’s shooting, the authorities believe the gunman, identified as Glenn Litton, 56, had targeted the parochial school because of its affiliation with the Seventh-day Adventists, a Protestant Christian denomination. He later killed himself.
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