Archive of Policing the Planet

The police have always been used as a tool for the social control of minority populations and to protect the power and property of the elite. A reading list that puts the call for the abolishment of the police in historical context.

The elite fear the destruction of their property, yes, but even more they fear the destruction of the social relations that make private property possible. And so they fear a world without police.

"What separates a martyr from an ally lies in who calls the shots, who does the grunt work, who gets the glory and who decides, in the aftermath, how the story of the uprising is told." Audrea Lim reports on this week's protests against racist police violence in New York City.

A recent history of broken windows policing with Joo-Hyun Kang, director of Communities United for Police Reform.

Books that challenge the notion of empire and offer a history of anti-colonial, anti-racist struggle.

A reading list inspired by black radicalism, featuring Julius Scott's The Common Wind as well as Angela Davis, Manning Marable, and W.E.B. Du Bois.

A reading list of US politics books on what to learn from the Bernie Sanders campaign, the legacy of Henry Wallace, the emotion driving members of the US Communist Party in the mid twentieth century and more.

Fundamental reading on race, ethnicity and anti-colonialism.

Challenge your imposed reading.

Our selected reading on Race for the academic year ahead.