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Resources for Abolishing Policing

Over the years, Critical Resistance has generated numerous organizing resources to resist policing. As an abolitionist organization, Critical Resistance supports abolitionist reforms to dismantle the systems of policing and works to create viable alternatives in our communities. From defunding strategies to building alternatives to community safety and defense, each anti-policing resource Critical Resistance has made bolsters the grassroots work of our chapters’ projects and campaigns, and materializes CR’s theory of change: dismantle, change, build. We hope our allies and movements partners find these resources useful and are used to amplify wins against policing, for prison industrial complex abolition around the world.

Below will you find a list of featured resources for resisting policing from Critical Resistance. You can also search for more anti-policing resources that Critical Resistance has in our arsenal on our resource hub here.

Please check back for resources as we update this page.

View all anti-policing resources here

Featured Resources from Critical Resistance on Resisting Policing

Critical Resistance’s Definition of Policing:

Policing is a social relationship made up of a set of practices that are empowered by the state to enforce law and social control through the use of force.  Reinforcing the oppressive social and economic relationships that have been central to the US throughout its history, the roots of policing in the United States are closely linked the capture of people escaping slavery, and the enforcement of Black Codes.  Similarly, police forces have been used to keep new immigrants “in line” and to prevent the poor and working classes from making demands. As social conditions change, how policing is used to target poor people, people of color, immigrants, and others who do not conform on the street or in their homes also shifts.  The choices policing requires about which people to target, what to target them for, and when to arrest and book them play a major role in who ultimately gets imprisoned.

– Critical Resistance, Definition of Policing

Events & Webinars

On the Road With Abolition: Assessing Our Steps Along the Way

What: An anti-policing webinar to discuss steps toward abolition featuring

  • Dean Spade of Big Door Brigade & No New Women’s Prison Campaign
  • K Agbebiyi from Survived and Punished NY
  • Kamau Walton & Woods Ervin from Critical Resistance
  • Mariame Kaba from Project NIA and Survived & Punished

To guide us in this moment, we need to hold central that Abolition is both a vision and a political strategy.  Part of this strategy is recognizing and actualizing that we cannot call for reforms that further entrench and legitimize policing in any form as a solution to social, economic or political problems.

As prison industrial complex abolitionists, the reforms we call for in our demands must be aimed at diminishing the political power of policing. How can we assess which proposals to support or to oppose in our organizing? What are some abolitionist proposals?

We encourage you to study the webinar, rewatch it and share it with your communities, networks, organizations, collectives and coalitions.

PRESENTATION SLIDES: Mariame Kaba’s introductory presentation slides are available for you to study. Click on image (right) to view or use this link here. 

Repurposing Our Pedagogies: Abolitionist Teaching in a Global Pandemic

What: webinar for educators hosted by CR and Education for Liberation’s K12 Abolitionist Educator’s Network

  • Stephanie Cariaga
  • Bettina Love
  • Sagnicthe Salazar
  • Carla Shalaby
  • Marylin Zuniga
  • Facilitated by: Farima Pour-Khorshid and Chrissy A. Z. Hernandez
Hosted on Education for Liberation’s youtube page here. 

Toolkits, Organizing Tools, Workshops & Political Education Resources

Critical Resistance’s Abolish Policing Organizer Toolkit

This 55 page toolkit includes CR’s definitions of policing and abolition, notes on key terms from a PIC abolitionist perspective, sample talking points on defunding policing, as well as multiple campaign tools for organizers to develop strong grassroots campaigns to resist and ultimately abolish policing. 

Want to have Critical Resistance train your organization on how to use the toolkit? Request a Workshop with Critical Resistance by submitting this form on our website here.

Download, read, share and use today! 

Critical Resistance’s Abolition of Policing Workshop

Included in the workshop is a facilitator’s guide, definitions, our “Origins of Policing Timeline,” and resources that we hand out at the end of our workshop. Contact us if you have any questions or would like more information on the workshop.

Want Critical Resistance to facilitate this workshop for your your organization or coalition? Request CR’s “Abolition of Policing Workshop” on our form here.

Read and download the workshop materials from our resource hub here.

Abolitionist Reforms in Policing Charts

What
A chart that discusses reforms that expand policing vs reforms that reduce the role of policing in our lives and its violence.

For Who
Organizers, community members, & anyone grappling with ways to demand practical steps towards ending the violence of policing.

Format
View the PDF online or email crnational@criticalresistance.org for a print version. You can also print this one on 11×17 paper yourself.

CR Reform vs Abolition of Policing ChartDownload

Abolitionist Reforms in Policing Chart: For Campus Policing & Militarization

In collaboration with Dissenters, CR’s Abolitionist Educators Workgroup adapted the organization’s abolitionist steps to policing chart (above) for organizers working for abolition on school campuses.

Know Your Options: Healthcare (Toolkit & Workshop)

What
A toolkit that shares basic health skills and emergency response practices, geared towards reducing reliance on policing and to buffer against the harms of law enforcement arriving with other 911 emergency response teams. Based on workshops and materials developed by the Anti-Policing Healthworkers Cohort of The Oakland Power Projects.

For Who
Organizers, community members, or health workers who want to skill up and reduce the harms of law enforcement. Also a great primer on policing!

Format
View the PDF online or email us for a print version. You can also print this one on 8.5×11 paper yourself.

Want to Know Your Options and understand the connections between healthcare and the prison industrial complex? See more news and resources about uncoupling health and mental health care from policing and prisons on this Oakland Power Projects resource list

More Quick Links

Connecting Policing to Imprisonment:

For Addressing Interpersonal Conflict and Harm:

  • Critical Resistance and INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence statement, view here.
  • Creative Interventions extensive Toolkit (over 500 pages!) of how to stop interpersonal violence without relying on the prison industrial complex (including the use of policing, imprisonment, surveillance, criminalization or Child Protective Services): http://www.creative-interventions.org/tools/toolkit/

Articles & Reports for Analysis & Study for Abolishing Policing:

  • Problems with Community Control of Police & Proposals for Alternatives, by CR Members, Community Advisors, and friends (PDF): Check list & fact sheet here.
  • “From BART to SWAT: Reflections on Anti-Policing Organizing in Oakland” by former Critical Resistance members Rachel Herzing and Isaac Ontiveros on the Oscar Grant Movement and origins of today’s anti-policing movement (in Left Turn, July 1, 2009): http://www.leftturn.org/BART-to-SWAT

For Educators, Healthworkers, Emergency Service Providers, Social Workers, and more…

“Policing is a Public Health Issue” Organizer Pamphlet + Worksheet

In November 2018, Critical Resistance (CR) was proud to be amongst health workers and anti-policing organizers as we achieved a huge victory at the American Public Health Association (APHA) annual conference.  Voting representatives of the APHA, a body of over 25,000 public health professionals, overwhelmingly adopted a policy statement that identifies the violence of policing as a public health issue, and consequently advocates for decriminalization measures, divestment from law enforcement, and alternatives to policing.

What
This pamphlet shares ideas about the action steps, organizing talking points, and a worksheet for implementing the APHA statement where you are. Check out and share media coverage on the Ending Police Violence website (see sidebar)!

For Who
Bring this worksheet to your community groups and organizations to learn about this win and to put it to use in your campaigns!

Format
View the PDF online or email us for a print version. You can also print this one on 8.5×11 paper yourself.

Decoupling Policing from Emergency Preparedness

What
A report that explores the real emergencies that communities of color in the Bay area face and recommendations for people-centered emergency preparedness programs.

For Who
Organizers, community folks, anyone grappling who wants to think about skilling folks up without relying on miltiarization and policing.

Format
View the PDF online. You can print this one on 8.5×11 paper yourself.

People First! ReportDownload

VIDEOS

Breaking Down the Prison Industrial Complex video project

What is Policing? How Does Criminalization Work?

(Kamau Walton)

When the Prison Industrial Complex Masquerades as Social Welfare

(Ruthie Gilmore)

It’s Not “Police Brutality”

(Dylan Rodriguez)

Shaping Our Trajectories

(Andrea J. Ritchie)

Police Killings are the Tip of the Iceberg

(Craig Gilmore)

Suppressing Political Dissent

(Jose E. Lopez)

More videos:

Gang Injunction Videos:

  • CR’s Vimeo Page has lots of videos from the Stop the Injunctions Coalition talking about the impacts of the injunctions and policing more generally by lots of members and allies: http://vimeo.com/user4903354/videos
View all anti-policing resources here