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Colin Kaepernick is once again speaking out for those in the community, this time he’s calling for the overall abolishment of police due to the system’s roots in white supremacy and racism.
On Wednesday (Oct. 7) the former NFL star turned activist detailed his desire for the country, while also giving a clear idea of what true criminal justice reform looks like to him in his latest essay for LEVEL. Kaepernick points out the need for the system of policing to abolished, along with the eradication of the prison system noting the current U.S. police system has “roots in white supremacy and anti-Blackness.”
“It’s been four years since I first protested during “The Star-Spangled Banner.” At the time, my protest was tethered to my understanding that something was not right, Kaepernick wrote. “I saw the bodies of Black people left dead in the streets. I saw them left dead in their cars. I saw them left dead in their backyards. I saw Black death all around me at the hands of the police. I saw little to no accountability for police officers who had murdered them. It is not a matter of bad apples spoiling the bunch but interlocking systems that are rotten to their core.”
In the essay, which serves as a part of his new publishing series, “Abolition For The People” on the online platform, Kaepernick also states that the problem with policing in the U.S. is not about “reform” which many argue would be the more simple approach, pointing out the need for a complete overhaul because reforms “just don’t work.”
“F**k reform, reforms have done nothing to stop the actions that force us to #SayTheirNames. Despite the steady cascade of anti-Black violence across this country, I am hopeful we can build a future that imagines justice differently,” Kaepernick continued. “Abolition is the only way to secure a future beyond anti-Black institutions of social control, violence, and premature death. A future without the terror of policing and prisons. A future that prioritizes harm reduction, redemption, and public well-being in order to create a more just and humane world.”
Although Colin Kaepernick made his vision of what the total abolishment of the police process would like to him, he also added his plan to ensure public safety without police precincts existing, which includes diverting funds normally invested into those budgets to instead service the communities that need it most which include communities of color, the homeless and those who suffer from mental illness, along with providing access to education, job creation as well as “community-based methods of accountability.”
