Research & Reading List: The Economics of Abolition

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Season 1, Episode 117: The Economics of Abolition

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Description: “Defund the police” became a rallying cry in the summer of 2020 as demonstrators flooded streets across the United States to demand an end to police brutality in the wake of the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd at the hands of the police. In the months since, hundreds of city councils nationwide have voted to reallocate what amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars away from law enforcement to a broader array of services that support public safety. But these shifts amount to only a fraction of the money we spend on law enforcement—not to mention incarceration and the military. Will the new abolition movement succeed in transforming how we invest public resources? And what really are the economic underpinnings of the system this movement aims to change? Laura investigates the economics of abolition in conversation with historian Vijay Prashad, Black Lives Matter Los Angeles co-founder Dr. Melina Abdullah, Los Angeles City Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson, and prison abolitionist Andrea James.

Guests:

• Vijay Prashad, Executive Director, Tricontinental Institute for Social Research

• Dr. Melina Abdullah, Professor, Department of Pan-African Studies at CAL State LA

• Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Councilmember, City of Los Angeles

• Andrea James, Executive Director, National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls

Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes:

• Decarceral Politics, Abolition, and R-Entry: The Women’s Building NYC

• Forward Thinking: Minneapolis Model to Abolish Police, Arianna Nason

• Linda Sarsour: We Can’t Be Bystanders

• Public Safety in Public Hands: The Newark Model

• Self-Determination Arising from Resistance, Dr. Priyamvada Goal

• New Justice: A World Beyond Prisons

• Special Report: Self Governance - The Southern Movements’ Way

Related Articles and Resources:

• People's Budget L.A.:  Defund The Police, Reimagine Public Safety

• Newark Community Street Team 

• A People's Orientation to a Regenerative Economy, New Economy Coalition

• A Tsunami of Change’: How Protests Fueled a New Crop of Prosecutors by Tim Arango, New York Times

• Defund-Police Organizers to Biden: “We’re Not Going Away” by Samantha Michaels, Mother Jones

• BLM Activists Demanded Police Accountability. In City After City, Voters Agreed. by Madison Pauley and Samantha Michaels

• How a Deadly Police Force Ruled a City by Shane Bauer, The New Yorker

• Exclusive: Read Elizabeth Warren’s Scathing Report on “Corrupt” Prison Audits  Madison Pauley, Mother Jones

• America Is Letting the Coronavirus Rage Through Prisons by The Editorial Board, New York Times

Featured ‘Music in the Middle’ of the Podcast:

“Big Man” by Captain Planet featuring Shungudzo, from his album No Visa, courtesy of Bastard Jazz Records. Listen and Read More