My interview for the Crimethinc podcast has been transcribed and issued as part of a free, downloadable pamphlet, titled Police/Policing and Life Without the Police.
Also, it’s not quite an interview per se, but I am quoted extensively in this article on police militarization, from Souciant.
Meanwhile, over at DCSC, we have a Christmas story from Leslie James Pickering, based on his examination of Oregon State Police files.
I’ll be in Northern California for two events in the coming days — Dec. 13 in Humboldt and Dec. 15 in Sacramento. (Details below.)
I will read short selections from my new book, Fire the Cops, followed by a more open discussion. In Manilla, I’ll discuss strategic questions and tensions between police accountability work and abolitionist goals. In Sacramento, I will talk about the repression of the environmental movement and put it in the context of everyday policing.
Saturday, December 13, noon-1pm
Manila Community Center
1611 Peninsula Drive
Monday, December 15, 7pm
1114 21st Street, Sacramento
hosted by Sacramento Prisoner Support
This month, I have a long review at DCSC, looking at Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman’s book Enemies Within. The book provides an excellent look (and trenchant criticisms) of the New York Police Department’s spy unit. However, I argue that its favorable depiction of the FBI’s operations is a bit misguided.
Also, I gave a wide-ranging interview to the folks at Humboldt Grassroots, covering torture, the social function of policing, restorative justice, call-out culture, and anarchism.
I am pleased to announce the publication of Fire the Cops!, a collection of articles on policing I’ve written over the past ten years, since the first publication of Our Enemies in Blue.
Individual chapters examine the relationship between violence and legitimacy (and crises of legitimacy), the cops’ class position and their interactions with the Occupy movement and the Wisconsin public employee strike, political repression and domestic counterinsurgency, and the tension between demands for accountability and the struggle for abolition. Illustrating the text are beautiful photographs by Bette Lee.
Fire the Cops! can be read as a supplement to Our Enemies in Blue, or on its own, as a series of attempts to apply historical lessons to events as they unfold.
The book costs $20, and if you order directly from me (that is, not from the publisher or though Amazon), I’ll send you both Fire the Cops and Our Enemies in Blue for $30.
UPDATE 12/9/14: OUR ENEMIES IN BLUE IS NOW OUT OF STOCK AND OUT OF PRINT. You can still order Fire the Cops! from me for $20.
Just send me a check, your mailing address, and a note as to whether you’d like the books signed: Kristian Williams, PO Box 11112, Portland OR 97211