The End of Policing
Published on 18. September 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-1-78478-292-4 (ISBN)
Description
Recent years have seen an explosion of protest and concern about police brutality and repression-especially after long-held grievances in Ferguson, Missouri, erupted in months of violent protest following the police killing of Brown. Much of the conversation has focused on calls for enhancing police accountability, increasing police diversity, improving police training, and emphasizing community policing. Unfortunately, none of these is likely to produce results, because they fail to get at the core of the problem. The problem is policing itself-the dramatic expansion of the police role over the last forty years.
This book attempts to jog public discussion of policing by revealing the tainted origins of modern policing as a tool of social control and demonstrating how the expanded role of the police is inconsistent with community empowerment, social justice-even public safety. Drawing on first-hand research from across the globe, Alex Vitale shows how the implementation of alternatives to policing, like drug legalization, regulation, and harm reduction instead of the policing of drugs, has led to reductions in crime, spending, and injustice.
This book attempts to jog public discussion of policing by revealing the tainted origins of modern policing as a tool of social control and demonstrating how the expanded role of the police is inconsistent with community empowerment, social justice-even public safety. Drawing on first-hand research from across the globe, Alex Vitale shows how the implementation of alternatives to policing, like drug legalization, regulation, and harm reduction instead of the policing of drugs, has led to reductions in crime, spending, and injustice.
Reviews / Votes
Offers a convincing argument that the traditional roles played by police forces have been largely counter-productive. * Morning Star * "The End of Policing is that holiday argument book, the relatively brief stack of facts you can hand to a relative who still talks about those nice guys who helped out with the flat tire and doesn't see why any lives have to matter more than they already do. A thorough rinsing of the American criminal justice system." -- Sasha Frere-Jones * 4 Columns * "Vitale's amassing of trenchant facts into an enticing intellectual framework makes The End of Policing a must-read for anyone interesting in waging and winning the fight for economic and social justice." -- Michael Hirsch * Indypendent * "An extremely vital book on policing. Should be assigned at all police academies. If only the Philando Castile jurors had read this." -- Jeffrey Fagan, Director of Columbia Law School's Center for Crime, Community, and Law The End of Policing offers a compelling digest of the dynamics of crime and law enforcement, and a polemic against the militarization of everything. Vitale calls for a dismantling of our very notion of the police: a sprawling, untethered bureaucracy permitted to use lethal force and unaccountable to the people. -- Tom Carson * Bookforum * A welcome challenge to reformist thinking and a powerful argument against social and economic injustice, inequality and racism. * LSE Review of Books * [The End of Policing] suggests a radical alternative that, on the one hand, abolishes corrupt and lethal police policies designed to contain the racialised poor and, on the other, develops and sustains safer communities * Race & Class * A compelling critique of modern policing. -- Peter Stauber * Counterfire *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 135 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-78478-292-4 (9781784782924)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Person
Alex S. Vitale is Associate Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College. Before joining academia he was on the staff of the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness. He is the author of City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics. He consults with both police departments and human rights organizations internationally, is Senior Policy Advisor to the Police Reform Organizing Project in New York City, and is on the New York State Advisory Committee of the US Commission on Civil Rights. He has written recent pieces in the New York Daily News, The Nation, and The New Republic.