I Decided To Try To Get Better At Reading
Like probably countless other people who had to survive school without the proper resources and accommodations for neurodivergence, learning difficulties, or any other additional needs for a healthy and fulfilling education, I struggled to develop an enjoyment for reading books.
Much of my time in English/literature lessons amounted to being completely distracted and checked out from the lesson, if it was even possible to stay awake for it. Tedious worksheets and assignments were half-assed with the heavy use of study guides and an occasional skim through the book in question to find the answers to questions that don't provoke any amount of pondering or reflection from the student.
It feels inaccurate to describe anything I did with books during school as "reading"; struggling with anxiety and undiagnosed ADHD, on top of dealing with all the other classes, resulted in me having no motivation to actually read books.
Recently, I decided to try to fix that a bit. I browsed the shelves at the library for a little while before A World Without Police by Geo Maher caught my eye. It's a little under 300 pages, the font isn't tiny, and it's an important topic I want to learn more about. Figuring it to be a decent but achievable exercise that wouldn't be difficult or overwhelming to complete, I decided to give it a shot.
It's been a slight challenge to commit to consistently and frequently taking some time to read, but I imagine this undertaking be much harder to complete with something larger. I'm sure it will get easier with time.
As of writing I'm a little under halfway through it, so I can't summarize or review the whole book. I couldn't write a good one even if I wanted to, anyway. That said, I can say I've found it very eye-opening and impactful thus far, and I'll share a little bit about it here.
Maher recounts the historical events and practices that influenced what policing is today both as a concept and practice, and pushes back hard on all the bullshit "reform" and "what about abusers/rapists/pedophiles?" rhetoric perpetuated by policing entities, governments, media, and pro-police public. Among his many other arguments, expressed with righteously unapologetic scorn, Maher elucidates how policing is white supremacist and oppressive in nature, exists to "protect and serve" the white and wealthy elite by keeping the poor, disempowered, and marginalized subservient and powerless, and contributes more to crime and violence than it supposedly prevents. Yet the very harm they cause is used to argue that society can't survive without them.
If Chicago is a code word for racist fear today, there is no better proof of policing’s colossal failure than that massively over-policed city, which has nearly twice as many officers per resident as Los Angeles. The Chicago Police Department has spared no degree of brutality - even creating a secret torture regime - in the name of law and order, and yet, despite everything, the city has seen dozens shot in a single weekend. While many see such crime statistics - and their own fear of becoming victims - as incontrovertible proof that the police are a necessity, the reality is that violence persists in Chicago and elsewhere despite policing. This speaks to a broader point. If someone robs your house or assaults you, the truth is that the vast policing apparatus of the United States - unmatched anywhere on earth - has done nothing to prevent that from happening. But by a bizarre sleight of hand, American police continue to cite their own abysmal failures as proof of their indispensability.
He also points out how policing also extends far beyond the official departments and agencies; police unions, private security, lynch mobs, racist vigilantes, militaries, the cooperation and complacency of other institutions and the general public, all perpetuate policing and its white supremacist agenda throughout society.
Hiring more black/female officers, so-called sensitivity and de-escalation training, "community policing" etc, they're all PR stunts that do not work and are not a solution. A deeply-entrenched system whose main goal has always been to enslave and imprison others cannot be reformed or fixed. The only way we can even begin to actually address crime and injustice is total police abolition and the reallocating of resources to efforts that actually help people and lift them up. Society can be better than this.
Anyway, enough of my rambling. I recommend you go read it and I'll keep doing so myself.
Fuck the police.
