"Wherever we are on our abolitionist journey-whether an experienced organizer or freshly on the path-there is something to take away from Purnell’s powerful story, even something as intangible as hope." Kendi, bestselling author of How To Be An Antiracist " Becoming Abolitionists by Derecka Purnell, blew me away with its compassion, introspection, research, stories and clear sighted case for abolishing our criminal punishment system and radically reconstructing our society to address the root causes of harm and violence." Becoming Abolitionists shows that abolition is not solely about getting rid of police, but a commitment to create and support different answers to the problem of harm in society, and, most excitingly, an opportunity to reduce and eliminate harm in the first place. Here, Purnell argues that police can not be reformed and invites readers to envision new systems that work to address the root causes of violence. The book travels across geography and time, and offers lessons that activists have learned from Ferguson to South Africa, from Reconstruction to contemporary protests against police shootings. Purnell details how multi-racial social movements rooted in rebellion, risk-taking, and revolutionary love pushed her and a generation of activists toward abolition. Calling them felt like something, and something feels like everything when the other option seems like nothing. Louis, let alone the nation. But the police were a placebo. She saw too much sexual violence and buried too many friends to consider getting rid of police in her hometown of St. In Becoming Abolitionists, Purnell draws from her experiences as a lawyer, writer, and organizer initially skeptical about police abolition. Millions of people continue to protest police violence because these "solutions" do not match the problem: the police cannot be reformed. From community policing initiatives to increasing diversity, none of it has stopped the police from killing about three people a day. And in the end, Purnell makes it clear that abolition is a labor of love-one that we can accomplish together if only we decide to."įor more than a century, activists in the United States have tried to reform the police. " Becoming Abolitionists is ultimately about the importance of asking questions and our ability to create answers. Named a Kirkus Reviews "Best Book of 2021"
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