"As the scale and scope of state violence against migrants and the neighbors and community members who protect them-including the murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis and of Keith Porter and Silverio Villegas González by ICE in Los Angeles and Chicago-has rapidly escalated over the first year of the second Trump administration, so have the familiar calls for quick fixes for state violence."
"The proposed "reforms" advanced in the face of mounting calls to defund and abolish ICE are simply a rogue's gallery of the usual suspects trotted out whenever the violence of law enforcement shocks the public conscience. As discussed in detail in No More Police: A Case for Abolition, a book I cowrote with Mariame Kaba, they have been touted and tried over and over for decades, and in some cases, centuries, without changing the fundamental nature and practices of policing."
State violence against migrants and those who protect them has escalated, including murders by federal agents and ICE in multiple cities. Political proposals offer modest "guardrails" such as banning masks, requiring identification, body cameras, uniforms, and citizenship checks prior to detention. These measures normalize continued detention of non-citizens and fail to confront the underlying systems and agencies responsible for state violence. Small reforms would facilitate political support for increased funding of enforcement agencies. Historic and repeated attempts at such reforms have not altered the fundamental nature or practices of policing. Body cameras and similar fixes can increase surveillance while failing to prevent violence.
Read at The Nation
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