Social Workers
Historically, the social work system has had anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, anti-LGBTQ+, and classist roots. Unsurprisingly, many caseworkers today still surveil, punish, and separate marginalized families.
Though they’re supposed to help, they frequently strip people of agency and blame individuals, failing to account for the systemic inequalities that lead us to require help in the first place.
Medical Professionals
We will always need healthcare. But public health workers still currently punish and stigmatize people in need, especially Black, low-income, and immigrant patients, and those with mental illnesses, drug addictions, HIV/AIDS, and other criminalized disabilities.
School Administrators and Educators
The school-to-prison pipeline isn’t just when punitive teachers, counselors, and other school workers call the cops on students. It’s also when they disproportionately punish, surveil, and devalue Black students, while often being underpaid and under-resourced by the state.
Us
Thankfully, we already have community violence intervention workers and organizers doing critical work. But we’re all also human.
From practicing better accountability to learning effective conflict resolution, a future of police alternatives means replacing the carceral behaviors we’re culturally expected to view as normal.
With and without police, we still need to solve the problems in our daily lives. And if we’re imagining that far, let’s advocate for a world where everyone gets what they need - and where policing is no longer a profession or a behavior.