‘Defund the Police’ UK: Mobilising against institutional racism in a hostile environment
Résumé
It is sometimes argued that calls to ‘defund the police’ are not relevant to the UK which is characterised by ‘policing by consent’ and is untainted by a history of racial segregation. This paper seeks to debunk the notion of British exceptionalism in policing, demonstrating that calls to defund the police are just as relevant on this side of the Atlantic where repeated attempts to reform the police and tackle institutional racism have failed. The paper then moves on to examine how abolitionist perspectives might bring about fundamental change, highlighting the key issue of power. As key figures in the BLM argue, reforms can only succeed if they are grounded in a broader project of radical or ‘abolition democracy’. The paper concludes by highlighting the significant challenges to realising this objective in a context of ongoing budgetary austerity and a hostile political environment that denies the existence of racism whilst stoking racial divisions in the context of the so-called culture wars.