8 to Abolition

Overview

8 to Abolition is a police abolitionist campaign, which rose to prominence following the 2020 George Floyd Protests against police brutality and racism. A direct criticism to the 8 Can't Wait police reform campaign, 8 to Abolition offers an eight-point plan to removing police from society and replacing police departments with community-oriented solutions that aim to rehabilitate people, improve social systems and reduce police-related deaths to zero.

Background

On May 30th, 2020, several days after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody after a former Minnesota police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes, sparking protests throughout the United States, Campaign Zero, a police reform campaign, launched the 8 Can't Wait website.^[1] The site states the group's demands, "Data proves that together these eight policies can decrease police violence by 72%."

Following the announcement and spread of the campaign, many criticized the effort as not reacting strongly enough to the problems in policing. On June 4th, Twitter ^[2] user @SFath, for example, criticized 8 Can't Wait by tweeting, "Okay, I've seen a number of people on social media share this #8cantwait campaign. I wanted to put my thoughts (and those of others) together to explain why this campaign is a bad idea. I want to first start by addressing each of the 8 policies. (Bear with me, thread follows)." The initial tweet in the thread received more than 12,000 likes and 10,000 retweets in less than five years (shown below, left).

On June 6th, the website 8toAbolition.com launched.^[3] The following day, Twitter^[4] user @theleilaraven tweeted, "Abolition can’t wait. Building off the work of Black feminist theorists + abolitionist organizers, we're putting forward 8 actionable steps to move us closer to a world without prisons or police. http://8toabolition.com #8toAbolition." They included a graphic that condenses the points of the campaign:

Defund the police
Demilitarize communities
Remove police from schools
Free people from prisons & jails
Repeal laws criminalizing survival
Invest in community self-governance
Provide safe housing for everyone
Invest in care, not cops

Developments

Online Reaction

People online began sharing the points shortly after they were posted online. For example, on June 7th, the Instagram ^[5] account for the Asian American Feminist Collective posted about the campaign. The post received more than 860 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Some responded positively to the campaign. For example, Instagram^[6] account @thesweetfeminist posted about the campaign. They wrote, in part, "I want to talk about the difference between police reforms and abolition! First: reforms funnel more money to policing. If we funnel more $ to police depts, it strengthens their power & reach AND makes sure that we can’t use that $ on anything else! An absurd amount of $ is already spent on policing: in NYC, the police budget this year is $6 *billion*, in LA it’s $3 billion, in DC it’s >$500 million. That is SO much $. We could be spending that $ on community services: like support for people experiencing homelessness, mental health crises, domestic violence, & sexual violence." The post received more than 24,000 likes in less than two days (shown below, left).

However, the "Conservative Cops" Facebook ^[7] group reacted negatively to the campaign. They wrote, "So… who’s going To respond to all of those shootings and gang calls? From the land of unicorns and rainbows, their stunning and brave response" (shown below).

Search Interest

External References