Ok, I'm white and I'm struggling with whether to stay in my lane or call in my people. But I'm gonna try to call in my people here.

White ppl on my feed keep insisting Defund The Police is a bad slogan and I ask: Who are you talking to and what are you hoping to accomplish?

As far as I know, no politician ran on that slogan. It's something said by activists and protestors.

So to start with, you're not talking to politicians, right? You're talking to the normal regular everyday people who are being...killed and beaten and raped by police.

If I'm being killed and beaten and raped by an organization, I'm going to reasonably be upset, yes? I'm going to reasonably want folks to stop funding that organization! Even IF that organization has benefits for the people it isn't brutalizing.

A lot of you are worried about winning elections and you're afraid this slogan will lose elections. Because police are popular and defunding them isn't (yet).

But Planned Parenthood and public schools are popular, and Republicans win even as their base clamors to defund those.

The media, and the Republicans, are going to characterize every politician with a D next to their name as hostile to police no matter the truth. That ship has sailed and it won't come back even if you convince people to adopt another slogan of your choice.

If you really want to win elections, and I do, I recommend you stop policing the words of people who've been brutalized by police and instead do the work to enable them to vote in numbers larger than the Republicans.

Because NO slogan is going to win over Republicans.

When we have an organization that was created to brutalize Black people and is still doing that, it's really inappropriate to shout down the Black voices calling for its dismantling.

Gonna wrap up here that: Not every Black person agrees the best way to proceed here, obviously! But this is a discussion for activists to have among themselves, and not one for white people to barge into--and I see ppl doing so while admitting they haven't read up on abolition!

Some of you were happy enough to scold folks for wanting to be spoonfed Biden's and Clinton's policy websites, but now complain that a 3-word slogan doesn't tell you everything you need to know about police and prison abolition! You need to go read. This is our responsibility.

White people have benefited tremendously from anti-Black policing and prison labor. The least we can do is educate ourselves on the abolition movement rather than just making assumptions or demanding "well, without police how will..." when those answers exist and are out there.

Anyway. I'm white too and if I need to be called in for anything in this thread, please tell me. And/or I can redact it with apologies. But it feels like some folks won't listen unless another white person says it.

If you're responding to say "X would be a better slogan because defund implies getting rid of police", yes, I want police defunded and gone. The slogan has accurately communicated the goal to you and is therefore good.

If you're responding to ask "but without police, how will you handle [scary violent situation]", that is already answered in the abolition theory I've asked fellow white people to read up on and I am not answering each possible hypothetical one by one on Twitter.

I guess I should link these threads. https://twitter.com/AnaMardoll/status/1326957479515873280?s=19