Defying the police is a good policy, in fact

Suggestions for defuding police have awakened riots, but it is a wise and noble goal, argue two crime researchers.

When we both saw for the first time “Attack ”Ads placed by some combination of Sensible judgment confidence and the campaign companyWe cannot completely understand the framing of a “attack” in the context of posters that promote transformative social policy. Of course, it’s not Green Party Policy Representative – Just te pāti maori is eyeing towards the abolition of the prison In your policy books – so it is certainly a misrepresentation. But attack?

Although ads were certainly projected as such, our first instinct was: it seems a good change of what Social servicesLike this, Inability benefitsLike this, schoolsLike this, universities, Food for childrenLike this, Payment of job candidatesS, to look for, Subsidies for first home buyersLike this, medical assistance, public transportation and climate change initiatives.

The announcements were a response to the Green Deputy Tamatha Paul very light implication that people do not have the same experiences with the police. Hostility in response seems very disproportionate, especially as Paul pointedthat’s it National that is seeking to define parts of the police – although crucially is not in favor of community financing or public services.

We must reconsider and question our unique loyalty to the police as our only form of security and justice, particularly when this feeling is associated with the rapid passion of materials of our public services and a global rise of authoritarian policy inclined to the criminalization of poverty. We are undoubtedly living in a precarious and insecure world: climate and geopolitical crisesLike this, pandemics, man -made Humanitarian disastersLike this, increasing rentals and tax incentives for ownersLike this, right -wing populism and their commercial implicationsLike this, Lack of job opportunities and increased food prices (to name a few).

Not feeling safe and safe is a fair response to these conditions. But it is not, nor will it be, the police that fight for our collective security in the face of these inductors of fear and dread. We must understand the choices and political narratives that led us to where we are today and always work toward a world where we can be safe together. We must ask why The implication that the police may not keep everyone safe produces so vitriol and reaction of those who are in power, when the decimation of public services that to do Keep me safe does not receive this answer.

We need to ask why cuts in social services come alongside the plans to spend hundreds of millions in Building a “megaprison” and inflating even more and expanding the prison state. We must also consider those who experience the most active criminalization, which is at greater risk of police interaction and who It is experiencing the greatest danger, insecurity and violence of the state.

New Zealand police use the slogan “safer communities together”. This slogan evokes an idea of ​​collective and attentive communities who take care of themselves and places the police at the center of such vision. The only problem is that the police have not always made our communities safer. In the US context, often the front with calls to DEFUND POLICEModern policing originated from slave patrols. In Aotearoa, the Whakapapa of our police Today it is based on a long and violent colonial history. As a criminologist Emmy Rākete wrote in 2020“The earthly wars never ended, we started to call them war against crime.”

In their daily operations (along with all other parts of the justice system), the police ensure that the Maori compensate 52% of people in arrestsdespite being 15% of the general population. The police force is built in and perpetual structural racism: Maori is more likely to be stopped and sought without warrantMaori and Pasifika are more likely to have strength used against them in police interactionsand Rangatahi Maori They are illegally researched. In addition, the police avoid Crime or damage – the best, they respond to him and, at worst contribute.

ONE Recent report by Aotearoa Justice Watch speaks with various instances of damage and violations of human rights in the hands of those who operate within the criminal punishment system. Also, despite Reports describing How police can improve their response to intimate violence, theotearoa still has a discouraging history with prevention and response to sexual violence and Violence by intimate partner.

In this period of constant climate, political and humanitarian crises at local, national and global levels, we must put our money where there are mouths to feed. We have people who need urgent medical care and nurses and doctors who need urgent resources; We have people without houses, without a warm or safe place to live; People struggling to buy basic life needs. Defying the police It is a reasonable position, not radical,N, particularly at this time. Defying the police in favor of the social and community investment is the consideredLike this, unoccupies response to our current conditions.

Requests to define the police are asked to rearrange society in a way that ensures that people have what they need to survive and flourish. Building society in this way often prevents people from Contacting with the police or a broader criminal punishment system first. Be “hard with crime”, in reality, would be difficult in root causes Of more criminalized behavior: poverty, lack of hot and dry housing, intergenerational and psychic trauma, structural racism and sexism, an ever -growing cost of living. Instead of being hard with these crime roots and seeking prevention, not punishment, the government has put into practice an attitude of bar and burning in relation to programs that are vital to the good -being of the community.

Such cuts speak with a wide disrespect for people that they are supposedly responsible. However, in the name of cost efficiency, the FAILING THE WAVE of the -chave services continue, and we have the narrative that just With the police, our communities will be safe. We can reject it. We can prioritize and finance community projects, services and initiatives that minimize damage and make communities safer. Through the financing, creation and strengthening of such programs in the communities, we ensure that those around us are material, emotionally and spiritually care. We can keep safe and, if we do, us he can make the police obsolete, It doesn’t matter how “insane” The part of the act thinks that is it.