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To Stop Police Violence, We Need Better Questions — and Bigger Demands
It’s impossible to take the violence out of policing
Once again, there is justified outrage at police acting to kill with impunity. I understand the anger and also feel rage. The lack of concern for Black life, though unsurprising, remains gutting. And yet, I hope that we’ve finally arrived at a moment when more people interrogate why so many of us continue to demand that the police stop being the police.
“Why do the police keep murdering Black people and others with impunity?” simply isn’t a good question. Policing has to be racist, patriarchal, ableist, homophobic, and transphobic to meet its purpose. If you want to maintain a white supremacist, cis-hetero patriarchal, capitalist state, then particular groups have to be targeted, controlled, and contained. This leaves us with nowhere to go and very little to do.
We need better questions and better demands. Both are within our reach — and so is the possibility of achieving police abolition.
