abolition

The massive wave of protests this past summer following the murder of George Floyd and other victims of police brutality—the largest movement in U.S. history—has renewed discussions on the role of police and prisons in our society and the interconnections between incarceration, policing, and systemic racism. In light of this movement, the demand to defund and abolish the police and policing entities has become more widely-felt than ever before, whether that involves reimagining Columbia’s Public Safety or dismantling police departments nationwide. But it has also been met with a litany of objections that above all, raises the question: “How will we deal with crime in a society without police?”