P
olicing and incarceration are the muscles of financialization, using violence and the criminalization of marginalized communities—especially Black, Brown, and Indigenous—to sustain racialized capitalism and reinforce its structure. This system keeps wealth in the hands of a small group by making debt and poverty criminal offenses.
ACRE’s vision is a world without policing, incarceration, and surveillance. No corporation or individual should have the ability to profit from these industries, nor should these industries be monetized for municipalities. True public safety should be reparative, rehabilitative, and transformative, and the systems governing it should be democratically accountable and controlled by communities.
Related reports & projects:
- Read our September 2021 Medium post reflecting on the 27 years since the 1994 Crime Bill: 27 Years of Crime Bill Politics
- Check out the police budget tool we created to highlight the percentage of city budgets spent on policing in the United States’ 300 largest cities.
- Explore the project ACRE’s Campaign Director, Tracey Corder, is working on with Shari Davis of the Participatory Budgeting Project to bring together people from across the country through a series of workshops to build a New Black City. This project will create a blueprint for change that disrupts displacement, re-imagines safety, and unleashes the power of participatory budgeting.
- Read our April 2021 report on emerging surveillance technologies and how they harm our communities: 21st Century Policing: The Rise and Reach of Surveillance Technology
- Join our campaign to Stop ShotSpotter Gunshot Detection Technology from being implemented in cities across the country.
- Read our June 2018 report on the bond system that cities use to pay for settlements brought by victims of police brutality: Police Brutality Bonds: How Wall Street Profits From Police Violence