We don't really need the Police

…and their friends, anyone really who associate themselves with these scum. We suppose they wouldn’t be flushing themselves in the toilet any time soon, so it’s up to us to call them out (at the very least) for the shitty people that they truly are.

Derecka Purnell observes:[^dp]

Police couldn’t do what we really needed. They could not heal relationships or provide jobs.

[…]

In a more serious note¹, “[i]n an empowered society, people do not need written laws; they have the power to determine whether someone is preventing them from fulfilling their needs, and can call on their peers for help resolving conflicts.

Never forget the victims

In the wake of police brutality, families of victims grieve for their loved ones lost to injustice.

So long as the power to “put in order” those who dare question, let alone defy, the law is concentrated on a select few, we will have more victims to grieve for.

Comrades from Hacktibista.ph has a growing list of PNP & AFP’s abuses, brutality, impunity, and human rights violations:

https://hacktibista.ph/abuses ²

What’s Next?

Rachel Herzing, co-founder of Critical Resistance, suggests:

Instead of “police reform” … we must find ways to shrink the role of police in our lives, striving toward the eventual abolition of the institution of police.³

Here in the Philippines, the passing of Anti-Terror Bill would further enable the incompetent yet power-hungry cops to do what they’re destined to do: to protect the interests of the State and Capitalists, usually violently. The Senate version “allows the police or military to perform warrantless arrests against suspected terrorists and detain them for two weeks.”⁴

For non-violence, we can can continue to document and expose the abuses made by the police. This won’t really stop their misbehavior, but in so doing, we let them know we’re watching, more so than they us.

For a more lasting, sustainable approach though, education is the way forward, starting with ourselves. Then, we should at least try imparting what we’ve learned on our friends and family. TNU