Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Many Blacks Would Welcome Police Exit from Their Communities
Glen Ford, BAR executive editor
10 Dec 2019
🖨️ Print Article

“The whole battlefield array of weapons is now deployed in Black and brown communities.”

Donald Trump’s Attorney General, William Barr, is a comedian. He must have been joking when he warned certain communities that they better start showing more “respect and support” for the police. Otherwise, said Barr, these communities “may find themselves without the police protection they need.”

Well, there are lots of people in Black communities that would like nothing better than to see the cops withdraw back to their suburban enclaves and never return. Black folks know that calling the police to help with a family problem is rolling the dice with death. Attorney General Barr has got to be joking, when he pretends that the cops just might withdraw their so-called “protection” from the Black community if folks don’t start giving them proper respect. But, why should anyone respect an occupation army whose mission is to incarcerate and terrorize the community. We need protection from THEM, and will ultimately have to provide that, ourselves. 

The movement for community control of the police is gaining ground, working towards abolishing the police altogether, and creating new and democratic ways of providing community security.

Mass Black Incarceration

Related Podcasts

Involuntary Servitude in the Prison System
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Involuntary Servitude in the Prison System
24 June 2022
Savannah Eldrige is the founder of Coaliton to Abolish Slave
White Capitalist Law vs “Uncontrollable Blackness”
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
White Capitalist Law vs “Uncontrollable Blackness”
01 September 2020
The United States “criminalizes Black Americans,” but Black men “are not looking to be controlled” by this racist system, said Douglas
 Getting Out the Word: #PrisonsKill
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
Getting Out the Word: #PrisonsKill
25 August 2020
The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, IWOC, “is committed to the militant organizing of prisoners that takes its leadership and focus from

More Stories


  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Mastering the Universe: the Obscene Wealth of the Ruling Class
    13 May 2026
    Rob Larson's Mastering the Universe: The Obscene Wealth of the Ruling Class, What They Do With Their Money, And Why You Should Hate Them Even More is a fiercely pleasurable polemic. 
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    The Similar Praxis of Jim Crow and Lord Voldemort (Or, Why the Democrat Party Ain’t Harry Potter)     
    13 May 2026
    Democrats keep telling us that Jim Crow is a ghost of the past, but the Supreme Court's latest ruling proves otherwise.
  • Mark P. Fancher
    If Iran has the Strait of Hormuz, What Can Black People Use for Leverage and Power?
    13 May 2026
    Tennessee just erased its only majority-Black voting district. Anger is justified but the deeper question is what Black people can do to gain and hold on to real power.
  • Sumona Gupta
    Race to the Bottom: Prison Labor Exploitation in the South
    13 May 2026
    Two car companies are being sued for continuing the southern tradition of exploiting incarcerated workers in Alabama and Georgia factories.
  • Reynoldson Mompoint
    Outsourced: Chad as the armed wing of a low-visibility American strategy
    13 May 2026
    The Chadian troops arriving in Haiti are the visible arm of imperialist intervention in which the United States projects force without putting its own boots on the ground.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us