Defund, Dismantle, Abolish: Why Policing Must End
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On July 24, 2016, right here in Ottawa, a thirty-seven-year-old Somali-Canadian man named Abdirahman Abdi was sent into fatal cardiac arrest after being severely beaten by two police officers. Abdi suffered from severe mental health issues and had been causing a disturbance at a nearby coffee shop, allegedly groping a female patron. Instead of the incident being de-escalated by a crisis management team of trained mental health professionals, the staff at the coffee shop did what we have all been conditioned to do when confronted with a social emergency: they dialed 911. In death, Abdi has, like countless Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC), unfortunately become a symbol of a struggle against not only racist police practices, but also against the institution of the police itself.
In the year of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, as well as so many others killed by the armed wing of state control, many have begun to question the need for police at all.
To understand police abolition, we must first understand the reasons the police exist.
Sir John A MacDonald founded the RCMP when the Prime Minister was inspired to create a Canadian equivalent to the Royal Irish Constabulary, a British paramilitary force used to quash dissent in Ireland. Instead of suppressing the Irish people’s freedom, MacDonald wanted his own armed guard to control Canada’s Indigenous population. The RCMP was founded to solely separate people from their ancestral land and to violently enforce colonial rule, something they continue to do to this day as witnessed by the recent aggressive engagements in Wet’suwe’ten and Land Back Lane 1492 in Caledonia, ON.
In the United States, one of the first police forces was the paramilitary Watch and Guard of Charleston city. An armed outfit of white mercenaries, the Watch and Guard was charged with the duty of catching runaway slaves and violently stamping out any hints of Black rebellion. The current police force of the city of Charleston is the direct descendant of the Watch and Guard.
Policing protects property, whether that property be stolen land or human bodies. Two-thirds of all crimes are property related. The police, and the violence they represent, are the state’s way of reminding us that, in a capitalist system, your lives are worth less than a few store windows. Anyone who suffers from the unequal distribution of property in our society is likely to have repeated encounters with the police.
The police represent the state’s capacity of violence, and nothing else. They are the threat of physical harm that awaits anyone who dares to break the laws. Try to continually refuse even the most routine demand from a police officer long enough and you will surely feel this violence in some form.
Why, then, do we continually call the police? Does the situation require violent intervention? And especially where BIPOC are concerned, is it worth the risk of sentencing someone to a brutal death?
Ejaz Choudry, Chantal Moore, Regis Korchinsky-Paquet. All murdered in Canada in 2020 by police on “wellness checks,” mental health crises which, for some unfathomable reason, necessitate intervention by the purveyors of state violence. Where was the specialized team of crisis intervention workers, trained in conflict de-escalation and community support? Why did Abdirahman Abdi face brass-knuckled thugs instead of empathetic outreach responders?
The police reinforce the inequality and inherent racism of our colonial, carceral-capitalist environment. It is not something that can be reformed. Not something that body cams, or even a reduction in budget spending can fix. When Wet’suwe’ten activists blocked the rails in solidarity earlier this year, the hashtag #shutdowncanada was trending (meaning something very different in those pre-COVID times). To achieve true, meaningful reconciliation with this country’s horrific past, we must dismantle the current system entirely. Canada isn’t a matter of fact. It is a country operating under the shared assumption of validity, enshrined by laws and treaties which are enforced by violent policing of its citizens. If we want to see a society of compassion, of empathy, sharing and equality we must envision a world without the need for a single cop.
Matthew Smith
Matt is a writer, musician and actor based in the unceded Algonquin territory commonly known as Ottawa. He loves dogs, hates cops, drinks too much tea and overthinks everything.
Twitter: @Squabbleronline
