Minneapolis: The Abolition Of Law Video

“[W]henever property is protected, it is protected for white supremacist ends… So the protection of property is something that we need to attack explicitly.” – Idris Robinson, “How It Might Should Be Done“

Taking up Robinson’s proposition, we offer this video edit on the counter-insurgency tactics used to crush the Minneapolis uprising this summer. In it you’ll find a variety of voices, which span the political spectrum from far right to left, claiming to support the “cause” while in fact attempting to suppress the actions that gave rise to the uprising they imagined themselves participating in. This paradox was solved with the latest update to the classic ‘white outside agitator’ narrative: the white supremacist outside agitator. By locating white supremacy in small groups of extremists, its true whereabouts in the heart of civil society remain hidden, and the protection of civil order is given an anti-racist facade. The creation and success of this narrative emphasizes the need to clarify the terms of abolition. The law itself must be our target, for anything less will just put new faces on the same order of anti-Blackness and domination.

This video was inspired by a recent Liaisons letter titled “Warning,” and a subsequent essay published at Ill Will titled “Imaginary Enemies: Myth and Abolition in the Minneapolis Rebellion.”

For more video of the rebellion, see Unicorn Riot’s “Reporter Reflection” series, and All Gas No Brakes’ coverage.