Abolishing the Police

DEFENDING THE ‘LIBERAL-DEMOCRATIC ORDER’ THE STRATEGIC-POLITICAL LOGIC OF COUNTER-SUBVERSION Connor Woodman

When it comes to [...] the work that the government is doing, and has done for a considerable period of time – we are constantly looking at individuals, groups. That’s right and that’s proper. Priti Patel, UK Home Secretary107

n January 2020, a UK Counter Terrorism Policing document surfaced listing dozens of political organisations – including Greenpeace, Extinction Rebellion and the Stop the War Coalition – as potential ‘extremists’, worthy of inclusion under the Prevent strategy.108 A local error, the police initially insisted – even though the document was circulated to several government departments, nearly two dozen local councils, five police forces and Counter Terrorism Policing headquarters.109 69

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Abolishing the Police

Published on Mar 30, 2021

Dog Section Press

“This is the first time we are seeing… a conversation about defunding, and some people having a conversation about abolishing the police and prison state. This must be what it felt like when people were talking about abolishing slavery.” – Patrisse Cullors, Black Lives Matter. Abolishing the Police (An Illustrated Introduction) is both a contribution to this conversation and an invitation to join it. It provides rigorous and accessible analyses of why we might want to abolish the police, what abolishing them would involve, and how it might be achieved, introducing readers to the rich existing traditions of anti-police theory and practice. Its authors draw on their diverse on-the-ground experiences of political organising, protest, and resistance to policing in the UK, France, Germany, and the United States, as well as their original research in academic fields ranging from law to security studies, political theory to sociology to public health. Without assuming any prior specialist knowledge, they