ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how the system of policing serves to further supply and entrench America’s mass incarceration machine, describes the failures of attempted reforms to policing, and outlines how the country could begin to take steps toward abolishing the police. It defines the concept of police abolition and helps distinguish between proposals that serve to further expand or legitimize police power and abolitionist steps toward reducing and addressing harm. Additionally, this chapter discusses how abolitionists plan to address violence without policing and how to begin building a world in which communities are free to pursue their own visions of safety and justice.
