The Battles Ahead

From Bobby London

Advocating for police reform is like thinking you can regulate racism, you just can’t. When you hear about an officer killing a black person it should not be surprising, this is their job, this is the reason why they were created. The protect and serve motto has been and will always be for white people and white capital only. This being said, it is also important to acknowledge that by abolishing the police the problem is not eliminated, there will still be armed racists killing black people with impunity because we live in a white supremacist anti-black world.

This doesn’t mean that nothing should be done. By all means, for those who have the temperament to advocate for changes within the structure of the state for the abolishment or reduction of the police please go and do so. I have always been a diversity of tactics type of person, as long as those who want to attempt reform do not try to co-opt or intrude on those who seek tactics that may be for the destruction of the institutions that are being pleaded to. It is important to note that co-optation is a form of policing, and is a tactic that benefits the state. Not all cops wear uniforms, and in my experience with uprisings organizations can often take the role of the police in effort to control the protest, the people, and the narrative. It is important that while we talk about abolishing the police as a structure we must understand that the idea of policing is not only limited to one who holds a badge.

If the police as a public entity was abolished they would be replaced with private security forces, mercenaries, or white vigilante groups. Just the same as when America removes “boots from the ground” it doesn’t mean that the war is over, or that the US occupation has ended. All it means is that private companies like Blackwater, drones, and other foreign entities have contracted out soldiers who will now be taking over the operation. The goal is control, domination, and the maintenance of power and capital. This is why it’s important to understand that this is a larger conversation than just the police, this is about white supremacy, capitalism, and the state.

It is not enough to just say we need to abolish the police, we must abolish the state as well. The state since its creation has done nothing but institutionalize its violence towards black people and other communities of color. It is the state that gives police it’s legitimacy, it is the state that gives the police its protection. As well as providing protection towards white supremacist groups and white vigilantes.

As we are on a cusp of either a Clinton or Trump presidency we are guaranteed an increase in the power of the police. With Hillary’s backdoor arms deals we can be sure that the military’s old weapons will soon become your local police stations new favorite toys. So as we talk about alternatives to the police we can’t forget about all those weapons that aren’t going to simply disappear anytime soon (unless we’re talking about the “loads” of Pentagon issued weapons missing from more than a hundred state and local police departments).

With every year the state becomes more powerful, the empire becomes larger, and the tactics of the resistance remain the same. The dystopic future we’ve all feared is here, global fascism is rising, and globally, police are becoming more militarized. Why?

As global capitalism begins to phase into global fascism we are seeing an overall effort to repress and quell all forms of resistance. As wealth inequality continues to increase, the more the wealthy will depend on the police, as well as private security.

We need not wonder what the state’s next tactics will be, Israel has been the common force behind the militarization of the world’s local police. This could not be stated enough, the Israeli Defense Force is as embedded in our police departments as money is in our politics. The Israeli Defense Forces are who US police officers get their training from, so whatever crimes you choose to ignore being committed against Gazans you can expect here in the states, and elsewhere.

As black resistance continues to grow, we can not let our movement be limited to reforms and incremental measures. We have attempted the incremental approach for almost 500 years now and it is not working. We must fight not just for our right to live, but for our right to live autonomously.

Any individual black death is a result to a collective assault on black people world wide. As long as the United States government stands, there will always be racists murdering black people. Even if the State were to fall there would still be attacks on black lives, the only difference is, we would no longer be tied to the laws that have never served us.

By abolishing the state and capitalism we do not solve our problem with white supremacy but what we do allow for is a more even fighting ground for the battles ahead.