Rhetoric of “the war on crime” is not simply symbolic. Police have become increasingly violent, waging a war not on the root causes of crime but on the people we label as “criminals.” The militarization of police has not led to greater protections of our communities, but more violence against the most marginalized members.
Authoritarians create imagined threats out of people not like “us” to justify the surveillance and militarization of minority communities. The creation of the “other” prevents us from recognizing the commonalities of our experiences. It obscures class interests and sows division among marginalized people.
American foreign policy has bled into domestic life. We are able to detach ourselves from the ultra-violence of warfare in the Middle East and Latin America because we have so thoroughly dehumanized their citizens. It is not only the police that are the problem, but our approach to the military as well.
Our capacity to dehumanize those we perceive as threats to the nation state has led to the deaths of millions domestically and internationally. Our disciplinary systems are systematically destroying communities across the world. It is also destroying our ability to recognize one another’s humanity.
We need to end this country’s blind adoration for law enforcement.
There are undoubtedly police officers who are nice, as many people will point out when you wage even the mildest critique against police, but that does not change that they are active participants in a system of immense violence against marginalized people, particularly black people and immigrants.
Militarizing the police is another step in America’s move toward authoritarianism. We have too much faith in institutions designed to oppress the masses. The police are too heavily militarized, and the military act as the world’s police. Our carceral logic has a body count.
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