A New Podcast Aims to Shift the Narrative on Police Abolition by Centering Movement Voices – YES! Magazine

The podcast, produced by the Detroit Justice Center, highlights how organizers are engaged in the hard work of abolishing police and prisons, and offers a counter-narrative to mainstream media reports.

More than a year after the mass uprisings against racist police brutality that roiled cities across the United States, many media outlets havedistortedor dismissed asunrealistic specific demands by racial justice organizers to divert funding from massive police budgets toward city services. Casey Rocheteau, communications manager at theDetroit Justice Centerand co-host of a new podcastFreedom Dreams, calls it a backlash in mainstream media when it comes to what people are seeing as a new demand to defund police.

In fact, calls to reduce police fundingcan be foundmuch earlier than 2020. One example isthis 2010 reportthat found a correlation between increased police funding and incidents of police brutality in Washington, D.C., that took place at the same time that funds for social services were cut. And, in the wake of the Ferguson uprising in 2014, some advocates for police reformsuggested cutting police fundsas a way to remedy state violence.

To remedy the misinformation in many corporate media outlets, Rocheteau, together with Amanda Alexander, founder and executive director of the Detroit Justice Center, decided to create a platform to share powerful and inspiring stories of how organizers are challenging the way police budgets are determined, demanding an end to state violence, and advocating for a significant reduction in incarceration levels.

When people are calling the police, the police are telling people, We cant help you because weve been defunded, says Rocheteau. Such an absurd claimshared by a Seattle-based organizer in a forthcoming episode ofFreedom Dreamsmakes the case for a podcast that sets the record straight. In fact, neitherSeattlenorDetroitpolice have been defunded.

Watch Rocheteau and Alexander explain why they created their new podcast.[EMBED VIDEO]

Coming at these issues from an abolitionist perspective that aims to dismantle policing and incarceration,Freedom Dreamsfirst episodespotlights an effort to close the Atlanta City Jail. It is an inspiring story of how a coalition of formerly incarcerated women, transgender and queer organizers, and undocumented activists have chipped away at the size of the jailed population from more than a thousand to just a few dozen.

The podcast creators, feeling that the story had not gotten nearly as much attention as it deserved, spoke with organizers Marilynn Winn and Xochitl Bervera about their campaign to replace the jail with a Center for Wellness and Freedom.

Its been important for us to think about not just what were tearing down in terms of policing and jails and prisons, but also focusing on what were building up, says Alexander.

Alexander describes her organizations communications strategy as intentional in spotlighting the problems and, more importantly, the movement builders who are already resisting, that we can be learning from.

Although the podcasts focus is on Detroit, where the hosts are basedprimarily because, as Rocheteau says, Detroit is a very fertile ground for this kind of [abolitionist] work, where social services arechronically underfundedthe creators make a concerted effort to draw connections between similar struggles and solutions in other cities, such as Seattle, New York, Los Angeles, and others.

Alexander hopes to attract young listeners, in particular who took to the streets last summer but have not yet taken the next step beyond protesting what we dont want, to asking the question, What can we learn from people who are building up what we do want?

Find out more about the Freedom Dreams podcasthere.

Not only do most reports of policing and incarceration miss stories like the closing of Atlanta City Jail thatFreedom Dreamshighlights, but Rocheteau worries there are also alternate narratives being presented that do a disservice to communities most directly impacted by policing and mass incarceration.

For example, mainstream media analysis of policing and mass incarceration often serves up dense facts informed by crime statistics and the complexities of city budgeting, all while making the assumption that policing is the only way to tackle crime.

A case in point is this extensive report in TheNew York Timesthat Rocheteau cites about the battle over police funding in Dallas, Texas. The reporters barely scratch the surface of what might becausing crime in the city of 1.3 million residents, and, subsequently, there is no effort to spark a conversation about why the abolition of police is a matter of racial justice. Instead, there are myriad statistics of how the number of homicides and police officers have changed over time.

Yes, its important to know those statistics, says Rocheteau. But presenting people with that information often leaves them in a position of feeling like, What do I do about that?

WithFreedom Dreams, Rocheteau and Alexander hope to inspire action by showcasing how people across the country are engaged in abolition work. In cities across the country, there is this move to say, We need to stop building jails, we need to understand why people are there, says Alexander. We need to start meeting peoples actual needs in other ways besides policing, and prosecuting, and jailing people.

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A New Podcast Aims to Shift the Narrative on Police Abolition by Centering Movement Voices - YES! Magazine