The advent of formal policing in the US, @SimonBalto reminds us, was NOT driven by an interest in protecting or promoting public safety, but in controlling specific people and their behaviors. #reinventingpolice

Chicago is often upheld as an example of why we need more policing - historically, @SimonBalto says, it is actually an example of why we don't. #reinventingpolice

The language of reform, says @Anna_Lvovsky, is often the language of the courts - and so we must consider the courts in our debates about the costs and benefits of police reform. #reinventingpolice

Rhetoric about expertise and specialized knowledge about crime on the part of police officers was central to arguments in favor of professionalization- and training-based reforms, says @Anna_Lvovsky. #reinventingpolice

A trend in deference to police judgment drew directly from the court's experiences with police witnesses. Even IF these attempts to recast police as experts may not have changed policing on the ground, they played a significant role in court. @Anna_Lvovsky #reinventingpolice

Now @stschrader1: US police expertise, innovation, and reform have never been fully domestic in character. The prosecution of the Cold War in other parts of the world was architected by reformists, and the material violence that policing produced sprung from these reforms.

Police reform has been central to the US bid for global power and influence. @stschrader1 #reinventingpolice

. @kathleen_belew sums up a question ab police identification with the job. @SimonBalto points out that rank-and-file officers revolt against internal investigation in part because of professionalization - they embrace the power and reject the accountability. #reinventingpolice

In response to my question about cultural representation: these representations of police, @stschrader1 says, have been profoundly shaped by the police themselves. Such cultural networks are extensive and transnational.

The Thin Blue Line TV show, for example, further implanted an image of the police as protecting civilization from anarchy. This "copaganda" doesn't just happen - the police play an active role. @SimonBalto #reinventingpolice

Is policing so embedded in other histories of violence, oppression, empire, racism, that it cannot be redeemed? There are things we can do (like fund public defenders), but even positive reform efforts are often "tinkering around the problem," says @Anna_Lvovsky.

It's important to think locally when it comes to this question, @SimonBalto says, especially in terms of radically imagining a world without police. Still, the conditions of this moment & the localized conditions of policing are unique, but the struggle is not. #reinventingpolice

Also want to mention (because I was so excited about it!) that @Anna_Lvovsky pointed to my dear friend @CharlotteERosen's recent piece on the violence of reform as essential reading. Here it is for those interested: #reinventingpolice https://www.radicalhistoryreview.org/abusablepast/abolition-or-bust-liberal-police-reform-as-an-engine-of-carceral-violence/