The book is packed with history that traces our young country’s dependence on genocide and slavery to one that’s evolved to be characterized by “militarism, policing and a concentration of wealth for a few.” She builds the reader’s understanding of the many intersections of racial violence through chapters on sexual violence, ableism, and environmental justice.
Purnell expounds on policing as a system rooted in oppression all over the world from Ferguson, to South Africa and the Caribbean. Much of the book is spent in clear, thorough examinations of these anecdotes, which are fleshed out at times to humanize the oppressor as well the oppressed. From taking children away from parents for poverty-related offenses and then responding by increasing funding for foster parents, to George Zimmerman’s acquittal under a law that makes shooting an unarmed teenager permissible, the book is filled with examples of these inconsistencies. Purnell does a brilliant job of bringing to light what exactly felt off, and of highlighting the absurdity in the systems that our law is designed and instructed to uphold. When people hear about police abolition and dismiss it as abandoning neighborhoods and people to violence, she says, “…they tend to forget that often we are those victims, those survivors of violence.”
Purnell’s proximity to this world jump started her awareness of state-sanctioned violence on the country’s poorest. Aspects of her life, from her father’s death and industrial toxins hanging over her childhood, to post-9/11 security checks and student resource officers in high school, and the murder of young men she knew and loved reflected something that she felt was off. Louis after her father was killed in a work accident, her mom, siblings, and occasionally grandma shuffled between apartments in the same complex. Becoming Abolitionists is a personal window into the injustice of the police state on the world’s poor and oppressed, and a guide for those who want to understand its history, and work to abolish it.
Incredibly convincing in its arguments, there’s an earnest warmth running through it that welcomes questions and celebrates the grassroots efforts of the people working toward change. An exploration of her journey toward accepting police abolition as an inevitable answer for safe communities, it is part memoir, part history lesson, and part invitation to join a movement.
Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom by Derecka Purnellīecoming Abolitionists is human rights lawyer, Atlantic staff writer, and community organizer Derecka Purnell’s debut book.
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