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

When Movements Embrace Police Abolition, the Rich Resurrect “Reform”
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
09 Mar 2021
🖨️ Print Article

Margaret Kimberley · When Movements Embrace Police Abolition, the Rich Resurrect “Reform”

“As soon as movements emerge that identify the normal operations of the police” and other capitalist institutions as the problem, the regime directs the language of the debate towards reform, said Dylan Rodriguez, professor of medica culture at the University of California at Riverside. “People are no longer tolerating anti-Black police terror,” said Rodriguez. To change the subject from police and prison abolition, the system’s defenders pretend the debate is centered on preservation of these institutions, through reform.

Police Repression

Related Podcasts

BAR Radio Logo
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio January 23, 2026
23 January 2026
In this week’s segment, we cover state repression and regime change efforts.
ICE Protest
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
ICE Domestic Repression in Minnesota
23 January 2026
Mnar Adley is the founder and director of MintPress News, an independent media outlet.
Ilyasah Shabazz
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Shabazz Family Lawsuit Against the FBI and NYPD
03 October 2025
The investigation of the 1965 assassination of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, Malcolm X, was compromised by the NYPD and the FBI from the very beginning

More Stories


  • Green Party is “Vital” to Growth of Grassroots Movement
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Green Party is “Vital” to Growth of Grassroots Movement
    13 Jul 2020
    The movement against police oppression “is long overdue, but it needs political organization in order to create lasting change,” said Margaret Kimberley, longtime Green Party
  • Movement for People’s Party Aims to Unseat Duopoly in 2024
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Movement for People’s Party Aims to Unseat Duopoly in 2024
    13 Jul 2020
    “We have to do more than just create a new party,” said Nick Brana, national coordinator for the Movement for a Peoples Party (MPP).
  • Black Caucus Protects Cops, Not the People
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Caucus Protects Cops, Not the People
    13 Jul 2020
    Most of the Congressional Black Caucus are “opportunists” who have “joined the neoliberals to derail any real attempt at challenging the devastating power of the police,” said Clarence
  • Don’t Let the Democratic Party Bury the Movement
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Don’t Let the Democratic Party Bury the Movement
    09 Jul 2020
    The Black movement will be asphyxiated by the ubiquitous fingers of the Democratic Party if it does not build independent nexuses of people’s power.
  • Freedom Rider: The Police Defunding Con Game
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: The Police Defunding Con Game
    08 Jul 2020
    Cutting police budgets without establishing public control over their behavior doesn’t solve the problem, and invites politicians to shuffle budget numbers around like a three-card monte swind
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us