“Abolition is about presence, not absence. It’s about building life-affirming institutions.” -Ruth Wilson Gilmore
No Cops on Campus (NCoC) is a collective of students and staff from across SFU campuses with a shared goal of growing, dreaming, and advocating for something beyond a status quo that relies on policing and security.
SFU relies on security largely because of a misunderstanding that colonial policing is the only way to keep people “safe” on campus. Yet, this form of safety does not extend to those who are traditionally targeted by policing systems including BIPOC communities, Muslim peoples, disabled peoples, queer peoples, and low income or houseless community members. We support and encourage those within educational institutions who are imagining futures with non-violent and inclusive community safety instead. Our work is built on decades of work by students across North America who similarly push for the implementation of these life-affirming alternatives to policing.
We as a student and workers collective are working toward the elimination of police and policing presence on all SFU campuses.
What is Police Abolition?
Abolition refers to building systems, practices, resources, and cultural values that will make it possible for policing structures to no longer exist.
Abolition is a commitment to:
- care, not cops
- building relationships and skills in our communities
- resisting systems that ask us to criminalise poverty and drug use
- re-directing monies away from harmful systems and into our communities.
Share Your Thoughts on Campus Safety!
NCoC is currently gaining an understanding of how students experience and think about safety on campus through a public survey. What you share will guide NCoC in what is needed for education, the creation of resource, as well as drive advocacy and campaigns. You can take the survey here.