choke holds – ABOLISHmke

Defunding MPD, a primer

Protest outside the Bucks’ “badge night” on Feb 28, 2020.

[edit: this article originally stated that the October 4 public hearing would be at common council chambers. The common council has decided to do the meeting virtually, due to the ongoing pandemic numbers.]

Defunding and abolishing police have become a national conversation since the burning of the 3rd precinct in Minneapolis, but abolitionists and organizers in Milwaukee were fighting to defund police for years prior to that, and with some success. This year we need everyone involved to keep up the fight!

Why we need to defund MPD

Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) has consistently proven itself to be violent, racist, and ineffective. Each year, Milwaukee residents spend nearly $300 million dollars on policing, which represents approximately 45% of the city budget. Elected officials have divested in our communities to expand police funding. It seems they are resigned to surveillance and incarceration as the primary means for addressing social problems.

Ep. 19- Defunding MPD, a primer

This is an audio version of “Defunding MPD, a primer” published at ABOLISHmke.com on September 26, 2021.

Dear amerika (by Tommie Carter)

Kenosha police protecting businesses during the uprising.

Imposed PDF of this article available for printing here.

It is easy for a person to cry out for revenge until they, themselves, have to promenade in the shoes of the one being murdered. I give everyone fair warning, further reading of this article will result in perceptual disturbance….

The “war on crime” really translates to a war on black and brown people as well as poor people in general. Such a profound contradiction you find in this type of society: the act of waging a “war on crime” when you create, through your chosen means of production, the conditions that create and harbor crime. And when you force these conditions on sections of people through government policy and through consequential machinations of the capitalist system, you’re essentially criminalizing whole sections of people, in this case Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans.