On today’s show host Allen Ruff speaks with brian bean about their timely new book, Their End is our Beginning: Cops, Capitalism, and Abolition. As police forces act with impunity against civilians and immigrants, bean’s book is an argument for getting rid of the institution of police and replacing it with community-focused services.

bean argues that the police can’t be reformed because they are a violent institution that serves the class interests of the elite. bean wants people to understand the connection between the police and the system of capitalism. They describe how crime is both defined and enforced based on elite interests. For instance, world-threatening pollution, internment camps, and war are legal, whereas vagrancy and informal economies are considered illegal. 

Finding better, more effective, and safe solutions to social problems will help us arrive at a more just world in which democracy and equality are valued, says bean. They envision a classless, stateless society, where people have democratic control over their lives instead of society’s resources going to a few.

bean will give a reading at A Room of One’s Own on Tuesday, November 18.

brian bean is a Chicago-based socialist organizer, writer, and agitator originally from North Carolina. They are one of the founding editors of Rampant magazine. Their work has been published in Truthout, Jacobin, Tempest, Spectre, Red Flag, New Politics, Socialist Worker, International Viewpoint, and more. They coedited and contributed to the book Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, and wrote Their End is Our Beginning: Cops, Capitalism, and Abolition, both from Haymarket Books.

Featured image of brian bean’s book, Their End Is Our Beginning: Cops, Capitalism, and Abolition by Haymarket Books.

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