2020-09-18
A far less radical book than I was expecting, and more convincing because of it. I suspect a lot of people would be turned off or inflamed by the title, but the arguments inside seem like they would be entirely reasonable to most liberals concerned about police brutality.
Rather than calling for an end to the police, Vitale is calling for an end to policing as the only solution to societal problems. He argues that using the carceral state and policing to manage these problems is not only overly violent and immoral in most cases, but makes them worse by removing the rights of legal recourse from people.
Instead, he is pretty consistent in his thesis that better jobs and affordable long-term housing would solve most of societies problems. He offers up lots of examples of cheaper and evidence-based solutions to the problems that the police claim to solve. I don't think it would convince a die-hard neoconservative of anything at all, but might be very compelling to a broadly left person.