Chapter 1 from The End of Policing by Alex S Vitale
Channel: Adrestia's Revolt
Date: 2020-06-02

Note about the book: I can't in good conscious endorse this book's proposed solutions to policing. The book probably shouldn't be called "The End of Policing", since it merely proposes to shift policing into other areas of government and state sponsored programming under the guise of social work. Certainly I can see the appeal in this response in the immediate, but we know that this type of reformist proposal merely changes the outside appearance of how the state addresses problems of poverty, mental illness, and racism in the short term, while still enforcing the conditions causing these issues. It's not an actual solution, it's merely a sometimes kinder approach in the short term but often it's not even that. The book is lacking any critique of capitalism and it leads to poor conclusions and inadequate solutions that often don't actually make much sense. However, I do think much of the information being provided about how particular reforms have not worked is very useful in helping to understand some of the overarching problems of the institution itself, and for that purpose, this book has some value. It is simply a highly liberal take that fails dramatically because it lacks any real critique of capitalism, which is imperative to understanding the institution of policing fully. 

Text available here (ebook is currently free): https://www.versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing