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


  • Racial Capitalism and COVID-19
    Zophia Edwards
    Racial Capitalism and COVID-19
    17 Mar 2021
    States continue to reproduce inequalities based on race and citizenship through their COVID-19 relief and welfare programs.
  • Mumia Abu-Jamal's Health Emergency: The Only Treatment is Freedom
    The Jamal Journal staff
    Mumia Abu-Jamal's Health Emergency: The Only Treatment is Freedom
    17 Mar 2021
    An interview with Ricardo Alvarez, Mumia’s “movement” doctor. “The most important point of advocacy is for the release of all our elders in COVID prisons.”
  • More Surveillance Won’t Stop White Supremacy -- It Will Target Activists of Color
    Anoa Changa
    More Surveillance Won’t Stop White Supremacy -- It Will Target Activists of Color
    17 Mar 2021
    Violence from people of color and other marginalized groups – or even simply fear of such violence -- is dealt with immediately and with the harshest of consequences.
  • The Somali Election Impasse in Historical Context
    Abdirahman A. Abdalla
    The Somali Election Impasse in Historical Context
    17 Mar 2021
    Somalia’s current corruptionist comprador bourgeoisie has no independent socio-political base and is therefore totally beholden to Western imperialist interests.
  • Who’s Afraid of Hugo Chávez? Race, Empire, and Chavismo’s Revolutionary Subjectivity
    Lucas M. Koerner 
    Who’s Afraid of Hugo Chávez? Race, Empire, and Chavismo’s Revolutionary Subjectivity
    17 Mar 2021
    What is it about Chávez and the national-popular movement bearing his name that is so threatening to the US Empire to this day?
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us