Join us to imagine a world beyond policing.
As a Reproductive Justice organization, URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity understands that dismantling white supremacy is key to true Reproductive Justice and liberation. Through URGE’s Beyond Policing artivism project, we invite you to be inspired by the vision these young artists of color have created and challenge you to imagine what community-based public safety and transformative justice can look like.
Policing and the criminal justice (which we think of as criminal punishment) system is based in systemic white supremacy and anti-Blackness. Because of this, police cannot offer safety to the very communities they oppress. We invite each of you to envision what a world beyond policing would look like, and how your own community could be safe and take care of one another without the threat of police violence.
Click here to learn more about the deep connections between white supremacy and policing in America.
Police violence in Black communities was on full display in 2020. We now have a rare opportunity to make real change at the state and federal level by demanding accountability of our elected officials who made addressing police violence against BIPOC communities a highlight of their campaigns. Learn more from URGE’s Defund the Police Fact Sheet.
Now is the time to tear down the structures and disempower the agents of white supremacy, prioritizing true justice and community restoration, instead. It’s time we envisioned a world beyond policing and hold our elected officials accountable by demanding they pass legislation that helps make that vision a reality.
Why art? What is “artivism”? Art + activism = “artivism”. Artivism as a concept has its roots in the work of Chicano artists from Los Angeles and the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico. Rooted in the communities we center and widely accessible, artivism projects like Beyond Policing offer new insight and perspective into issues that impact our communities, igniting hope and encouraging us to translate vision to action.
It’s not enough to simply call for an end to policing, we must inspire one another and work together to develop a new vision for safety and justice in our communities. Join us to envision what a world beyond policing would look like, and how your own community could be safe and take care of one another without the threat of police violence.
Real World Examples and Inspiration:
- Click here to learn how restorative justice and innovative city planning helped reduce the need for policing in Canada
- Read about how an Office for Neighborhood Safety dramatically reduced homicide rates in Richmond, CA
- Learn more about alternatives to incarceration
- Vox has some ideas about how we can replace the police
- The Kinder Institute for Urban Research discusses who should respond when we call 911
- Five Days Without Cops: Could Brooklyn Policing Experiment be a ‘Model for the Future’?
- Human Rights Watch Offers A Roadmap for Re-imagining Public Safety in the United States
