What is deemed to be “crime” has more to do with criminalizing specific populations i.e. Black and poor people (and not others). Even when something is labeled a “crime,” cops choose to focus enforcement on some while ignoring others, e.g. shoplifting baby formula is punished; wage theft is ignored.
This. White-collar crime has more of a social and financial toll than any other type of crime, but it gets passed over to lock up minorities, the poor, and people with mental health issues.
Our co-founders talk about this more in their book No More Police: “Enforcement of criminal law ends up facilitating control over systematically under-resourced communities and racialized populations, while protecting wealthy white people from accountability.”
We also talk a bit about the construction of crime, stats, etc. in our 2021 resource Cops Don’t Stop Violence—still very relevant! Crime means different things to different people—for some, it means something or someone(s) considered a nuisance or “suspicious” i.e. existing while Black or unhoused.
Re: that AP article/headline—journalists and media are often actually just spreading copaganda instead of doing journalism, especially when covering topics around “crime” and policing. Here are some tips for how to *not* do that: bit.ly/NoCopaganda
If you’re a journalist or media maker who has questions or is looking for support around issues like challenging copaganda, shifting harmful narratives, and covering issues of safety, incarceration, etc. responsibly, we offer Abolition Media Office Hours with IC Fellow @lewispants.bsky.social:
It's what happened in Russia, criminalise everything and selectively prosecute.
*stares in 13th Amendment* Need that compliant workforce with a knife held over their head. We're already back to convict leasing.
White progressive Dems could change the world if only we considered the extent to which we buy into this propaganda of whose version of crime gets told.