Police & Prison Abolition

History of Police

• Origins of Police by David Whitehouse
  • • Content Warning: The original version of this article has a gratuitous use of the N-word near the end of the article. Here is an alternative version that we are hosting on our server,  but we have edited out the unnecessary sentence, and provided some critical commentary. 
• The RCMP Was Created to Control Indigenous People. Can that Relationship be Reset? by Jane Gerster
• The History of Police in America and the First Force by Olivia Waxman
• The Racist Roots of American Policing: From Slave Patrols to Traffic Stops by Connie Hasset-Walker

Who gets Policed? What factors impact who gets policed?

• Black and Indigenous People
  • • Policing Black and Indigenous Lives in Canada: A Digital Teach-in hosted by the BC Civil Liberties Association
    • Desmond Cole speaks about policing and security at SFU Spry Memorial Lecture 2021
    • The Black Lives Matter: A Timeline of a Movement
    • A Timeline of the George Floyd and Anti Police Brutality Protests via Aljazeera
    • Breonna Taylor: A Timeline of Events via Aljazeera
    • Why Are Indigenous People in Canada So Much More Likely to be Shot and Killed by Police? by Ryan Flanagan
    • “We Have No Justice”: Are Native Americans the Forgotten Victims of Police Brutality? by Nora Mabie
    • The Police Killings No One is Talking About by Stephanie Woodard
    • Canada: Police Fail Indigenous Women in Saskatchewan by Human Rights Watch
• Disabled People
  • • Up to Half of People Killed by Police are Disabled by Brittney McNamara
    • Disability is a Hidden Side of the Police Violence Epidemic by S.E. Smith
    • Black, Disabled and at Risk by Abigail Abrams
    • Justice for Ethan: A Brief Summary of the Story
    • Disability Justice and Abolition by Katie Tastrom
• Deaf People
  • • When Police Officers Don’t Know about the ADA by Amiel Fields-Meyer
    • Police Brutality and Deaf People by Talila A. Lewis
• Drug Users

  • • Decriminalization Done Right: A Rights-Based Path for Drug Policy by Pivot Legal Aid Society

• Migrants
  • • Criminalizing the Most Vulnerable: Migrant Surveillance in Canada by Lital Khaikin
    • Canada’s Immigration Detention Practices and Why They Should be Abolished by Gerami Law
    • Migrants are Dying in Detention Centres: When Will Canada Act? by Petra Molnar and Stephanie J Silverman
    • Abolishing Police Includes Abolishing ICE and Border Protection by A. Naomi Paik
• Queer & Trans People
  • • How the Fight Against Police Brutality Helped Ignite the LGBTQ Rights Movement by Suyin Haynes
    • The Gay Community Has Long Been Over-Policed and Under-Protected. The Bruce McArthur Case is the Final Straw by Tom Hooper
• Poor People –– class as a factor that informs who gets most policed
  • • We are Learning More About the Relationships Between Race, Class, and Police Brutality by Meagan Day
    • Ugly Laws by Susan M. Schweik and Robert A. Wilson
• Sex Workers
  • • Hands Up: A Systematized Review of Policing Sex Workers in the U.S.  by Fabian Luis Fernandez
    • Policing Sex Work by INCITE!
    • Movement to Decriminalize Sex Work Explained by Anna North
    • Why Sex Work Should Be Decriminalized by Human Rights Watch
    • Evaluating Canada’s Sex Work Laws: The Case for Repeal by Pivot Legal Aid Society
    • Report: Canada’s sex work laws have led to sweeping criminalization of sex workers by Pivot Legal Aid Society

Police and Wellness Checks

• Cops Keep Killing People During Wellness and Mental Health Calls by Mack Lamoureux
• Video Emerges of Kelowna Mountie Dragging Woman, Stepping on her Head During Wellness Check by Tiffany Crawford
  • • Note there is a video of the incident that is hard to watch, take good care of yourselves
• People with Mental Illness are More Likely to be Victims of Violence –– Not Perpetrators by Laura Hensley
• Decarcerating Care: Taking the Police Out of Mental Health Crisis Response hosted by Institute for the Development of Human Arts
• Mental Health Professionals are not the Solution to Racist Police Violence by Edward Hon-Sing Wong
• Social Workers Reject Calls for Them to Replace the Police by Mia Sato
• Psychiatry Isn’t the Perfect Alternative to Policing that Some Claim by Nour Abi-Nakhoul
• Abolition Must Include Psychiatry Sex Work Should Be Decriminalized by Stella Akua Mensah

Defund and Abolish Police

• Reform, Abolish or Defund the Police –– Explained by N. Jamiyla Chisholm
• Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police by Mariame Kaba
• Violent Crime has Faded in Our Cities, Replaced by Fear and Distrust by Doug Sanders
• More than 900 Scholars and Layers Call on Government to Defund Police
• Here’s Why We Can Abolish Most of the Criminal Justice System Now Without Endangering Public Safety by Jeff Shantz and Eva Ureta
• Six Ideas for a Cop Free World by José Martín

Resources and Alternatives to Policing

• Fireweed Collective
• BEAM: Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective
• Project LETS
• Anti Police Terror Project
• Restore Oakland
• Critical Resistance
• Film the Cops / the Cop Watch Movement
  • • Video: Policing the Police: the Cop Watch Movement
    • Vancouver’s Cop Watch
    • Policing the Police: How the Black Panthers Got Their Start
    • The Black Panthers Lessons for Jamaicans on Police Violence by Ajamu Nangwaya
    • Rose City Copwatch, Portland Oregon – Alternatives to Police 
    • In Seattle: A Project Towards a Cop Free World by Ian Morse

Other Resource Lists:

• MPD150.com –– Resources on Prison and Police Abolition
• Abolition Study Document, created and maintained by Ashanté Reese and SA Smythe