The problem is not police training, police diversity, or police methods. The problem is the dramatic and unprecedented expansion and intensity of policing in the last forty years, a fundamental shift in the role of police in society. The problem is policing itself.Alex S. Vitale starts the book "The End of Policing" with this summary. In fact, it appears on the cover, not just inside the book!
The central thesis of Vitale's book is that policing itself has been a failure at dealing with societal problems. After an introductory chapter on the history of policing, which traces how the earliest police forces in the US were formed not to combat crime but to brutally break worker strikes and intimidate and capture black slaves and freedmen after the Civil War, the remaining chapters of the book address a number of "case studies," specific issues that have not been addressed by increased policing or harsher punishments.
The first police forces in the US, especially in the northern states, were used to break striking workers during the Gilded Age. Business developed close ties with government and elected officials, who hired police and deputized private security forces to effectively allow them to legally assault workers. The violence was blamed on the workers, and used as an excuse to arrest workers and break up strikes and unions. A lot of this occurred actually right here in western Pennsylvania and the region, since it was the site of early coal and steel strikes that resulted in more militant unions (and events like the Battle of Homestead in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, where unions clashed with the Pinkerton private detective agency). In fact, the first US state police force was the Pennsylvania State Police, and was modeled on military occupation forces in the Philippines after the US captured the territory from Spain, so right from the beginning police have been militarized and cultivated to look at themselves as occupiers more than anything else. It's an eye-opening read that shows that unfortunately this isn't just a recent trend, but a continuing theme among police forces.
A number of issues are brought up as social problems. The author looks at the problems, or at least the perceived problems by the elite, and discusses how "reform" has already been tried and largely failed for each of these issues, then proposes some alternatives to addressing the issues without the need for police or the court system.
- Schools -- Policing in schools has been a failure, only growing the "school-to-prison" pipeline by criminalizing student misbehavior that traditionally was settled outside of the courts. The growing placement of full time officers in schools contributes to schools feeling more like prisons than places of learning, and emphasizes punishment over teachable moments. Vitale suggests police should be removed from the schools, and the schools should receive more funding and resources to hire the needed counselors and support staff to work with students. A shift toward restorative justice for managing behavior issues needs to occur, one that emphases learning and contributing to the community, rather than the typical policing behaviors of control and punishment.
- Mental Health -- Individuals with various mental health disorders may act "disorderly" and even commit some crimes, but the police response has been disproportionate due to a lack of understanding of mental health. Too often these encounters end in the police severely injuring or killing the individual, and even when that doesn't happen, individuals become stuck in a court system that does not have the mental health resources necessary to help the individual. Vitale suggests that while police definitely need more training on de-escalation and mental health, that isn't enough. We need to massively overhaul our mental healthcare system to ensure more resources are devoted to helping people early on, before any "disorderly" conduct even occurs. We treat it as a health problem, not a criminal problem.
- Homelessness -- Many homeless people are actually mentally ill (so see above), but many others are the result of economic problems and the unaffordability of housing costs. Unfortunately, policing only puts homeless people into a court system and gives them criminal records that make it hard to ever find a job again, creating a cycle of poverty and homelessness. While some reforms tried to create "Homeless Courts" to help, these courts still criminalize poverty and do not have the appropriate resources to help people out of homelessness. Vitale suggests providing long-term housing (not just emergency shelters) and jobs (not just job training) to homeless in order to end the problem, not policing.
- Drugs -- The criminalization of drugs can largely be traced to institutionalized racism. Most drugs were legal until the early/mid 1900s. Opium (and derivative opiods) were first criminalized as a reaction to increased immigrants from China that set up opium shops in the US. Blacks were given cocaine regularly as slaves and servants to keep them working even when hungry, and so after slavery ended, cocaine was used as an excuse to harass and raid Black families. Similarly, cannabis (marijuana) was criminalized after an influx of immigrants from Mexico, as well as it becoming popular among Blacks in the jazz era, and many White leaders looked for a reason to keep the races from mixing. Cannabis was also used as an excuse to investigate anti-war activists during Vietnam. There is large evidence that criminalization has encouraged police to become drug dealers themselves. Instead, Vitale argues for the need for decriminalization and establishment of needle exchanges and clinics to help those that are addicted. In other words, we treat drugs largely as a health problem and not a criminal problem.
- Sex Work -- Sex work has been criminalized since a moral panic swept through the country in the early 1900s. The US has used its position to push for criminalization of prostitution worldwide ever since. The result has been a confusion between prostitution and human trafficking, which are not the same thing. Religious moral arguments always frame criminalization, and even more liberal attitudes like the "Nordic model", as a way to save women from "degrading" work, but that is a poor characterization when many sex workers are actual consensual and enjoy the work. For example, many women in Asian countries prefer sex work to the alternative "dignified" work under the capitalist model, which is long hours for low pay doing hard, tedious work at factories. Police arrest sex workers then push them into a court system that forces them to get "job training" and push them into capitalist work that they don't want to do. Vitale suggests that sex work should be decriminalized so that sex workers can form their own unions and companies that would provide healthcare, retirement, etc., without fear of police raids.
- Gangs -- Gang suppression became more common as a moral panic spread that the youth were involved in drugs and violence. Police developed violent suppression tactics and use of SWAT forces to combat gangs described as "hoodlums". However statistics show that most gang members join the gang for economic reasons; gangs provide a sense of security between jobs, and most members peacefully quit after a couple of years when a job opens up. Vitale suggests that the best way to eliminate gangs is not with police, but with greater economic opportunity in poor neighborhoods.
- Immigration -- Historically, the US was a near open border, only enforcing basic customs rules on international commerce and trading. A concern about policing immigration effectively started in the mid 1800s during a large wave of Chinese immigrants. Many of the border policing language referred to the "Mongolian hoarde" and was aimed at using immigration laws to prevent Chinese immigrants from being able to own property or become involved in government. The idea also spread to the Mexican border and targeted Mexican and Central/South American immigrants. So the beginnings of border security started with racist goals, then became about continuing the drug war (see above about drugs). New policing organizations like ICE were created and given authority over "constitution-free" zones near borders where all sorts of human rights violations occur. Vitale suggests that the proper way to handle immigration is by working with other nations to form not "free trade" but "fair trade" agreements that reduce economic inequality and violence, the main reasons for the influx of immigrants. Immigrants that wish to come should be put into a proper pathway to citizenship.
- Politics (protests) -- Many police forces, including the FBI, essentially started as forces to monitor political dissent. In particular, in the early days it started with surveillance of "anarchists", "socialists", and "communists" but evolved into environmentalists and social justice protesters in the modern era. Police still use surveillance to track protesters and even infiltrate political groups under the guise of "anti-terrorism". Police have evolved a focus on "controlling" protests by setting rules on when, where, and how people can protest, and the intimidating protesters into obeying the rules with riot gear and aggressive tactics. Vitale suggests that the rules for protests and permitting be taken away from police departments and put into local governments, where there will be transparency and opportunity for people to speak in favor or against proposed policy; while not perfect, it would protect 1st amendment rights much better than letting the police bureaucracy privately decide and police those rules. Vitale also suggests that any concern over protests would be minimized by creating a truly democratic system responsive to citizen concerns; most protests are driven into the streets by a government that does not listen and a distinct lack of choice on the ballot.
I've outlined the major arguments but the book is full of really great discussion as well as a lot of statistics and facts that back up all of these assertions.
I've always known we needed to change our criminal justice system, but I am now sold on the idea that in most cases, we don't even need policing in the first place. What we need is a fair and just economic system and real democracy, and most crime won't even exist.
