Police are becoming ever more militarized and routinely commit transgressive acts of intimidation, coercion, and violence. Cognizant of the dangers that policing poses to the general public, the sheer number of violations in the contemporary moment, and the fact that brutality has been an intrinsic part of policing since its origin, Towards Anti-policing: Prefiguring Possibilities beyond the Thin Blue Line establishes that communities should be ever vigilant of the potential for abuse and harassment. Offering a diagnostic global perspective on police brutality, this edited collection raises critical questions about whether policing is needed at all and what underlying purpose it actually serves. In this post-pandemic era, where the grip of authoritarianism has only tightened, Towards Anti-policing positions radical grassroots activism as a first line of critical defiance against the ‘Fear Terror Paradigm’ of policing logics and the pervasive brutality that this form of community control represents.

Contributions by: Martín Arias-Loyola, Will Boisseau, Andrea Brock, Manuel Callahan, Levi Gahman, Carissa Honeywell, Christos Marneros, Cara Mattu, Natália Baldessar Menezes, Annie Paradise, Antonio Pele, Tom Raue, Johannah-Rae Reyes, Ian Senjury, Shelda-Jane Smith, Simon Springer, Nathan Stephens-Griffin, Conn Tenchis, Rhon Teruelle, Dana M. Williams, Richard J. White, Piotr Zuk