Purnell does a brilliant job of bringing to light what exactly felt off, and of highlighting the absurdity in the systems that our law is designed and instructed to uphold. When people hear about police abolition and dismiss it as abandoning neighborhoods and people to violence, she says, “…they tend to forget that often we are those victims, those survivors of violence.” Purnell’s proximity to this world jump started her awareness of state-sanctioned violence on the country’s poorest. Aspects of her life, from her father’s death and industrial toxins hanging over her childhood, to post-9/11 security checks and student resource officers in high school, and the murder of young men she knew and loved reflected something that she felt was off.

Louis after her father was killed in a work accident, her mom, siblings, and occasionally grandma shuffled between apartments in the same complex. Becoming Abolitionists is a personal window into the injustice of the police state on the world’s poor and oppressed, and a guide for those who want to understand its history, and work to abolish it. Incredibly convincing in its arguments, there’s an earnest warmth running through it that welcomes questions and celebrates the grassroots efforts of the people working toward change. An exploration of her journey toward accepting police abolition as an inevitable answer for safe communities, it is part memoir, part history lesson, and part invitation to join a movement.

Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom by Derecka Purnellīecoming Abolitionists is human rights lawyer, Atlantic staff writer, and community organizer Derecka Purnell’s debut book.

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