Oliver Bateman Does the WorkVerified account

The main reason I oppose "abolish the police" not just as messaging (bad & unpopular) but as a political concept is because the police still have some semblance of public accountability. That wouldn't be the case for the private contractors (AmazonCops) that would replace them.

I know that's obvious to most people that follow me but I think it's important to understand. Abolition of public institutions in favour of private ones that would inevitably replace them is neoliberal, & the left support it because they are unwitting defenders of neoliberalism.

None of this is to say that cops are held sufficiently accountable - they are not. But to do away with any semblance of public control over policing, as well as concepts such as due process and judicial oversight, is a horrifying and dystopian vision.

The left promotes ideas like police abolition because they can then ignore or dismiss the material roots of police brutality and over-policing generally (such as poverty), and the economic solutions they necessitate.

Thus the left is able to appear on the side of the people ("we oppose the existence of the police because they brutalise the poor!") while only offering neoliberal solutions (abolish public institutions) and ignoring the material basis of the problem.