Nina-Bytes: Murderpigs, Class War, and Abolition Over Reform

 

Editor's note: Nina-Bytes is a weekday blogging series that features short analysis and commentary on articles from around the web.

 

Diversifying the Police Force Won’t End Police Violence

At this point, I don't think it will surprise anyone to hear that I am not a fan of ongoing efforts to "reform" policing; or for that matter, a so-called American justice system that grinds civil rights protesters and antifascists to paste, while letting nazi murderers walk with a pat on the head. As I discussed in a recent Quickshot Quotation, the plain truth is that most folks, particularly Americans, have no idea what the real role of policing is in our society. Indeed, a careful study of American history, such as that found in books like "Badges Without Borders" by Stuart Schrader, or "Our Enemies in Blue" by Kristian Williams, reveals that pretty much every prior round of "police reform" has only further empowered police to repress protestors, activists, and anyone who would harm the objectively fascist socioeconomic order in the United States. 

Unfortunately, and despite these objective truths, even some folks on the left continue to insist that cosmetic reform measures will make a measurable difference in the behavior of fascist murderpigs whose job is basically to conduct class warfare on behalf of capital. Today on Nina-Bytes then, I'd like to turn your attention to a November 17th, 2021 Op-Ed written by abolitionist Reina Sultan over on Truthout, to provide a concrete example of why this approach is doomed to failure. 

While the author's main focus is debunking the ridiculous notion that you can reform police by ensuring more brown faces are doing the actual racialized oppression, the fact is that virtually every argument she puts forward to do so, speaks to the larger misjudgment of the police's function that beleaguers most Americans. As Sultan notes, the funny thing about hiring more diverse police officers is at the end of the day, you're still hiring more police officers and those officers are still the enforcement arm of a brutal, white supremacist, openly neofeudalist socioeconomic order that currently dominates life throughout the Pig Empire. More importantly however, the author hits the nail on the head by noting you really can't "reform" a system that's working exactly as it was designed to function:

"Because policing and incarceration are inherently violent and racist institutions, prison-industrial complex abolitionists have been working to dismantle them in the hopes of creating a safer and more just world. Without the prison-industrial complex, abolitionists argue that we can divert resources to life-giving resources and services, rather than death-making institutions.

Prison-industrial complex reformers and preservationists generally argue that the system is “broken” — that it has problems that are ultimately solvable, but that maintaining its existence is imperative for public safety. The truth is that the prison-industrial complex is functioning exactly as it is meant to; its creation was never intended to provide justice, but instead it was born of the desire to maintain white supremacy and racial capitalism. When we reframe our understanding of the prison-industrial complex, it becomes clear that it is accomplishing its intended purpose."

 

Obviously, you don't really need me to tell you that American policing is out of control; anyone who tuned on the nightly news during the George Floyd protests knows that. I fear however that the real scope of the policing problem, and its role in the ongoing class war being conducted by billionaire supervillains against, well essentially the rest of us, is being lost in the noise. In the war against neofeudalist mass murderers, and an oncoming Pig Empire slide into overt fascism, violent reactionary murderpigs will be the machine's first and favorite response to anyone who doesn't want to go gently into that good night so Elon Musk can escape to Mars.

Not only is it impossible to reform police, but if we intended to dismantle capitalism and save all life on earth, abolishing them as quickly as possible is imperative; the survival of the species might just depend on it.

nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

Nina-Bytes: Little Pig Power Plays in the American Police State

 

Editor's note: Nina-Bytes is a weekday blogging series that features short analysis and commentary on articles from around the web.

 

The bigger problem revealed by a viral fight between NYC police and subway riders

Like many left wing analysts, I spend a lot of time studying and writing about violent, racist, and fundamentally reactionary policing in America. Although widespread police brutality against everyday people protesting the murder of George Floyd has opened some eyes about the violence and racism inherent to U.S. policing, there remains precious little discussion in the mainstream about the institutional power police wield in our society. Protected by qualified immunity, aligned with reactionary political power, and armed to the teeth, American cops have become a "troopified" overseer class that exists above the law, and by extension, above the peasantry.

Well, if this October 24th opinion piece by Matthew Guariglia on NBCNews.com is any indication, the public at large is starting to notice. Yes, you read that correctly, NBC News. Using a viral video of a man having his rights violated for asking two New York cops why they aren't wearing masks on the Subway platform as a starting point, the author asks tough questions about authority and oversight that no police reform advocate wants to touch. Although Guarariglia focuses on covid prevention regulations, his prose makes it quite clear he's talking about larger questions of power and control in our society; as does the video. From the article:

"It’s bad enough that mask mandates seemingly do not apply to the officers often tasked with enforcing them. But the altercation in New York City highlights a deeper problem: The way police seek to penalize or harass anyone who dares question the unofficial and ultra-legal privileges of being an officer.

Mask mandates are a canary in the coal mine. If there is no plausible way to get all officers to wear a small strip of fabric that does quantifiable good for the public, what does that say about the institution as a whole? Who really controls police?"

Hot damn, now we're cooking with gas! Of course, the answer is that nobody really controls police; even politicians that want to remove violent cracker cops are terrified of police unions and the political consequences of feuding with armed reactionaries who exist above the law. Furthermore, it's still very much taboo to talk about the nexus between policing, reactionary vigilante violence, and fascist street politics, in the public discourse; you certainly won't find anything about that it in Guariglia's article here. Did you know that on the night Trump lost, New York cops literally rioted on behalf of their favorite fascist failson? Apparently, neither does the mainstream media. 

Look, I'm not going to pretend an opinion piece on NBC is the blow that turns the tide against bootlickers and appeasement-loving police reformers. You can't reform an institution built to suppress and segregate marginalized people on behalf of capitalist exploiters; there's nothing good there to reform. But as long as we're still talking about bad apples, and worthless body cameras instead of the institutional power police command and represent, few people will truly understand why abolition is the only answer. If articles like this one take us one baby step forward, I'm all in favor of that.

 

nina illingworth

Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst. 

You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”