New Poster: THE POLICE

July 9, 2010 at 10:33 am · Filed under Hot Off the Presses, posted by

In heartbreak and rage over the murder of Oscar Grant and the institutionalized hypocrisy of a system that kills black men by the dozen while excusing the killings as accidents, we present this poster. We hope it will appear on telephone polls alongside burning police stations all around the US and the world.


Color Version [PDF, 1.5 MB]

Black and White Version [PDF, 1.4 MB]

THE POLICE

The ones who beat Rodney King, who gunned down Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo and Oscar Grant, who murdered Fred Hampton in his bed. The ones who broke Víctor Jara’s hands and Steve Biko’s skull, who disappeared dissidents from Argentina to Zaire, who served Josef Stalin. The ones who enforced Apartheid in South Africa and segregation in the United States. The ones who interrogated Black Panthers and Catholic Workers, who maintained records on 16 million people in East Germany, who track us through surveillance cameras and phone taps. The ones firing tear gas and rubber bullets whenever a demonstration gets out of hand, who back the bosses in every strike. The ones who stand between every hungry person and the grocery shelves stocked with food, between every homeless person and the buildings standing empty, between every immigrant and her family.

In every nation, in every age, you tell us you’re indispensable, that without you we’d all be killing each other. But we know well enough who the killers are. You won’t fuck with us much longer.

POLICE EVERYWHERE, JUSTICE NOWHERE
www.crimethinc.com/police

malakhgabriel» Blog Archive » We Know Well Enough Who The Killers Are said,

July 9, 2010 @ 11:27 am

[...] Full text and downloadable PDF posters available on CrimethInc. [...]

lexingtonky said,

July 9, 2010 @ 2:55 pm

I think listing ‘really bad’ things done by police is pretty shallow and doesn’t get to the root of the problem at all. Many who defend police and policing would (and do!) oppose the things on your list.

The problem with police is not that they have done ‘bad things’ (we could come up with similar lists of ‘bad things’ for a lot of professions: drugs dealers, doctors, social workers, etcetera). The problem with police is more fundamental than that. They are armed agents of the state who enforce capitalist social relations with violence.

It should also be noted that most of the forces in violent conflict with the police (drug cartels, mafia, guerrillas) carry out similar atrocities and that police are not everywhere. Many places in the world have little or no police presence, and those places don’t seem to be any better than the policed areas. And sometimes ‘the people armed’ is just as horrifying as the state armed. During the xenophobic riots in South Africa in 2008, immigrants sought shelter in police stations and churches. What is the appropriate radical response to that? I don’t know. The world is complicated.

Even when the police are not fucking with us (or not there), we’re still probably fucked.

b. traven said,

July 9, 2010 @ 5:27 pm

Ah, my critical friend! I’ll indulge you for a minute…

First, you’re wrong to say the poster text doesn’t present a structural critique of the role of the police. Did you read all the way to the end of the paragraph? I would argue that it begins with specific misdeeds and “pans back” to take in the structural role they play, ending by debunking the myth that they are necessary at all.

As for the abuses and violations carried out by “non-state actors,” the poster doesn’t imply that they don’t exist, or that all enemies of the police are comrades.

On reflection, it’s my impression that you don’t like most posters designed to serve as “conversation starters” with a general audience about anarchist issues. When the novel version of this poster comes out, exploring all the tragic ways that human beings carry out freelance oppression alongside state employees, I imagine it will be more to your taste. In the meantime, please be patient with the limitations of the poster as a medium, which tends towards sloganeering even in the best hands. In my view, those conversations are worth starting, even if they shouldn’t end where the poster text does.

Stop Police Brutality « Social Theory & Private Affairs said,

July 9, 2010 @ 10:42 pm

[...] honor of Oscar Grant (and in response to CrimethIncThis’s way too wordy contribution) I decide to remake a poster I originally made back in the day for the UCLA Taser incident. It’s [...]

sanspeur said,

July 10, 2010 @ 10:12 am

Lex,

While you are absolutely right, traven is correct with the function of this poster. It’s not intended to be a perfect representation of detailed anarchist thought, or to be hung in a radical bookshop, but rather in the streets. It welcomes the interest of those who don’t recognize phrases like “the violence of the state” or “enforce the status quo and capitalist tyranny.” It’s a conversation starter, but it also attacks the common notion that the-police-are-your-friend. It’s not perfect, but it has its place.

lexingtonky said,

July 10, 2010 @ 1:07 pm

I am not opposed to posters necessarily, but if this is intended as a conversation starter, I’m not sure what conversation it intends to start. What sort of conversation is possible with someone who doesn’t already know that police do bad things?

Actually, the ending is written as if the poster is addressed to the police (“you tell us…”, “you won’t fuck with us…”). The “you” being addressed is the police. Would it not make more sense to use “they”?

And I made my own poster! Here it is: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v486/yoshomon/mypoliceposter.jpg

Can I put this image in the comment field here?

lexingtonky said,

July 10, 2010 @ 1:18 pm

“debunking the myth that they [the police] are necessary at all.”

Necessary for what? The police are absolutely necessary for reproducing advanced capitalist economies. The fact that they are necessary is precisely why we are opposed to them.

b. traven said,

July 10, 2010 @ 1:29 pm

I meant “the end of the paragraph,” not the bottom of the poster. But you’re free to misunderstand me, so long as it results in you being galvanized into producing your own posters!

I unfortunately have no idea how to put an image in the comment field, but I hope everyone will click on yours.

And permit me to give you a little critique in return! First, you’ve misspelled “occasionally” by adding an extra S. Your use of comic sans is obviously provocative, intended to send other designers into hysterics, so I won’t object to that. On the other hand, your thing about the police being “allowed to act outside the law” makes it seem–in a vacuum–like you view that as a violation, rather than understanding that as the other side of the coin of law. Ah, the limitations of the poster as medium.

As for whether life is shit everywhere in the world, I think that’s pretty silly. The domination of state and capital take many forms, but I think they also are more or less intense in different places–there are some areas of the world where they have little influence, though I imagine most of those are far away from Lexington, Kentucky! Declaring that life is shit EVERYWHERE, including places you’ve never been to or met anyone from, reveals your assertion to be something more like a religious tenet than a conclusion based on evidence.

But I love your exhortation at the end. Dear gadfly, whatever else we may disagree on, we’re on the same team.

As for whether the police are necessary, the point is that state and capital are not necessary–therefore the police are not either. To rephrase this for you: some people think that we’d all be killing (or exploiting) each other without centralized power (police, government, etc.), but all the evidence shows that centralized power maximizes killing and exploitation.

lexingtonky said,

July 10, 2010 @ 1:47 pm

Sorry, I didn’t intend the ‘actually’ in my second paragraph to read as a response to what you said about the end of the paragraph. I did not misread you! I just changed the subject.

Yes, the misspellings and horrible font face are a provocation (don’t you think one should write ‘ass’ whenever possible, even if it means masspelling words? That’s how I feel today). I was inspired by the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who recently denounced Lebron James in a beautiful letter written in Comic Sans.

But so if there is a place in the world that is not shit, please tell me where it is! We can move there and argue with each other in person*!

*Hey, sort of like the Convergence! I’m bummed that’s not happening this summer…

lexingtonky said,

July 10, 2010 @ 2:10 pm

I also encourage everyone reading this to create their own poster about police using the original poster as a template. Once we have 5-10 posters, we can put together an informal experiment to see which ones provoke the most interesting conversations.

b. traven said,

July 11, 2010 @ 12:49 am

I second Lex’s motion that everyone make their own versions of the poster. I hope that happens!

kudzu said,

July 11, 2010 @ 6:30 pm

“You won’t fuck with us much longer”

This line seems awkward based on the prevailing slang I hear (East Coast “ghetto” vernacular). “To fuck with” means “to endorse” or “to associate with”, which sort of reverses the intended meaning of the line. In fact, often people will say stuff like “i don’t fuck with the police” to mean that they are against the cops and will have nothing to do with them.

I’m sure everyone can still figure out what the sentiment is, but I thought I’d point it out since maybe the designer didn’t know.

ret marut said,

July 11, 2010 @ 10:16 pm

The word “fuck” has been used to express just about everything under the sun–it’s a really charged word, with all the ambiguity that entails.

On this poster, I read it in the sense of “DON’T FUCK WITH ME.” Do people still say that, or is that a generational thing?

strangers said,

July 12, 2010 @ 9:10 am

In response to the second poster… life isn’t shit. I mean, it’s the fundamental realization that life is fucking awesome that drives me, and a lot of people I know and read about, to resist against the state, fascists, ecocide, etc.

Life is really, really good. Derrick Jensen has a good quote about this somewhere, about how we need to learn to accept this duality, that the world is filled with absolute horror, yet at the same time, life is fucking awesome.

Weird for me to advocate a posi attitude, but I mean it regardless.

mlh295 said,

July 12, 2010 @ 12:34 pm

In a way, the police are victims of capitalism as well. The average policeman is not getting rich off of the labor of others. The average policeman has to struggle to make ends meet and support families just like the rest of us. The police are regular people being used by the rich elite to protect their exorbitant wealth, while not being allowed to share in that wealth. Although many policemen are racist thugs, many are good people trying to stop the violence and hatred caused by the inequalities of capitalism. Ironically, of course, their efforts only serve to perpetuate that violence and hatred.
I’m not saying we should pretend that policemen are our friends or that we shouldn’t confront and fight them. But we should remember that in the end, they are not our real enemies, but rather tools of the people who are the actual beneficiaries of capitalism.

b. traven said,

July 12, 2010 @ 6:52 pm

In contrast to orthodox Marxists, we might say that at least some of the contradictions inherent in capitalism contribute to perpetuating it. Capitalism produces poverty in proportion to its production of wealth–”poverty” is relational and doesn’t exist prior to tremendous inequalities in ownership of resources. And what job opportunities are available for the poor? Careers in the police, military, and private security: jobs repressing other poor people.

But attacking the police, either in word or otherwise, can be seen as a kind of propaganda in which poor people discredit policing work as a legitimate activity, and thus discourage their fellows from getting involved in it.

So maybe in some ways it makes more sense for poor folks to circulate anti-police material and sentiments, since there’s less likelihood of other poor folks choosing to become CEOs than choosing to get jobs as police.

Iola said,

July 12, 2010 @ 7:04 pm

I think the poster is perfect, especially in light of Oscar Grant. And especially for the communities most effected by police brutality in the U.S.A.
In communities of color growing you are always told we (people of color) are wrong even if we do right by are economic circumstance. And police are right even when they do wrong. No one ever says policing is wrong and its bad and its fucked and even if you do it to just make a living you are the infantry of capitalism. Without the police state , particularly in communities known for dissent, there cannot be the functioning capitalist and nation state.
All this poster says is these are the small list of crimes of the police state and that policing is wrong it sucks and stop fucking with us.
Also police are more of a function of totalitarian states , so you can have a socialist, capitalist state, what ever you want to call and still have a fuck the police attitude because the main argument is we don’t need you for security.
What the left needs to figure out is how we provide for our own security independent of the police state. Anyways I’m ranting, but Lex honestly you revision of the poster is so patronizing it doesn’t engage the audience its meant to engage. Whether it’s leftist or folks of color , people know what the poster is talking about in the narrative presented because it has cultural reference points that makes sense.

The Police (via crimethinc.com) « Thinking Aloud said,

July 14, 2010 @ 5:02 am

[...] Original @ crimethinc.com [...]

That person over there said,

July 18, 2010 @ 7:41 pm

Well, my computer’s officially too slow and problematic to handle the ad’s on Photobucket. Office Space’s printer scene comes to mind. So I’ll just give you the text of my cheesy rewording of the poster:
—

You say you’re here to protect and serve me.
So why the questions? Why do you look suspicious before I open my mouth?
Why “serve” me tickets I can’t afford? Why “serve” me a notice that you’re taking my car I need for work, to pay off a debt I can’t meet?
Why the racial profiling? If my skin is brown, will you “protect” people with IDs, against me? Did they ask for your protection? Why?
Why did you throw my cousin into a prison, where he is in danger every day from his own fellow prisoners? Now we cannot serve or protect him.
Why do I hear you raped my sister from the barrio, and beat my brother from the ghetto? Were you protecting them too?
Most of all, why didn’t you come when I did need you?
Just who are you serving anyway?

The bottom reads:
You tell me you’re indispensable and I’m ungrateful. Without you, we’d all be killing each other.
The only thing I kill is my paycheck on your department budget. I’m still waiting for a reason I should.
[Insert name of local Cop Watch chapter and contact info']

—
If you want to use this, just shorten it to fill any sizing you’d like.

lexingtonky said,

July 19, 2010 @ 5:55 pm

lola.

You’re right. My poster is patronizing. I will try again and try to express myself in more personal terms, like the commenter above me.

I made a new one:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v486/yoshomon/thepolice.jpg

b. traven said,

July 19, 2010 @ 7:03 pm

Lex–Somewhat off the subject of the poster, but perhaps in line with your thoughts, here’s a quote I think you’ll enjoy. I find the author misogynistic and reactionary, just like Nietzsche, but otherwise similarly gifted:

“You may say that to fight against somebody may be terrible, but to fight for something is noble and beautiful. Yes, it is beautiful to strive for happiness (or love, or justice, and so on), but if you are in the habit of designating your striving with the word “fight,” it means that your noble striving conceals the longing to knock someone to the ground. The fight for is always connected with the fight against, and the preposition “for” is always forgotten in the course of the fight in favor of the preposition “against.”

-Milan Kundera, Immortality

The “always” strikes me as a religious conviction rather than a conclusion based on a coolheaded tabulation of experience, and it’s ironic that Kundera breaks out the big guns to take a stand against fighters by accusing them of being “against.” Myself, I think salvation is mysterious, and waits for us around unexpected corners–even around the corner of “fighting” sometimes.

But perhaps this brings up some of your concerns? That simply fighting against the police doesn’t cut to the root of the matter, which is human viciousness itself, and the deep-rooted structures that foster it?

lexingtonky said,

July 20, 2010 @ 1:00 pm

My concerns are two-fold. Yes, fighting police doesn’t cut to the root of the matter at all. Every modern revolution demonstrates how the supposed revolutionary force constitutes a new police force or army, whether it was the anarchist CNT in Spain or the Bolsheviks in Russia. Or, currently existing forces that are powerful enough to fight and win again the police take on the role of police in areas where they push out the state (see guerrilla groups, cartels, and the like).

My second concern is that those who fight against the police end up internalizing the logic and values of their opponent, irregardless of good intentions. I think that reflective article by the former member of Os Cangaceiros speaks to this. ‘The Unseen’ speaks to this too.

We are left at a dead-end because the destruction of this society will inevitably involve conflict with the state, but war with the state seems to destroy any possibility of a better world emerging from it. It is a Bonapartist problem of losing even when you win. Of course, this is not a problem that can be ‘worked out’ or solved on paper.

lexingtonky said,

July 20, 2010 @ 3:29 pm

Also, real and extended conflict makes coolheaded tabulations of experience difficult or impossible. When in conflict with the state, one can be drawn in so far one can no longer just step away, even when the situation is hopeless or one wants to do something else.

Conflict with the state seems like a distraction. No, distraction is the wrong word, because this conflict means billy clubs and prison sentences and bullets to the head. But even when entire police forces or armies or governments or types of government are overthrown or defeated, the underlying social relationships of capitalism seem to stay constant.

During the miner strikes in England in the 1980′s, the union actually pushed miners into confrontations with police as a means of defeating the strike. This is the sort I thing I worry about.

New Anti-Cop Poster On Streets | People Of Color Organize! said,

July 23, 2010 @ 1:32 am

[...] love to the Crimethinc squad for its latest poster, challenging the [...]

@dam said,

July 23, 2010 @ 1:21 pm

I love this discussion. Good points being brought up by all. What strikes me as most overlooked, however, is much simpler. The very fact that we are ruled poses a major roadblock to discussing the ills of capitalism with people. Whether it’s in our social relationships, at work, directly or indirectly via the government or police–our power is abdicated away. We must first learn to harness power in healthy ways individually and collectively while confronting the forces that strip it from us on a daily basis–regardless of it’s relation to the “big picture”.

Using the police(a visible force, not some ideological abstraction) as a target is just as good as any and can provide some context and direction for those in communities who might not be at the point of thinking about things in the way that we are discussing here. That is to say, not everyone has studied or has any interest in insurrectionary politics. We need to find ways to introduce alternative models of LIVING before people are going to be open to discussing theoretical remedies for capitalism itself.

I find this poster to be empowering and informative, connecting all the right dots–even if it doesn’t bring people to the penultimate conclusions we’d like to see.

puneta said,

July 26, 2010 @ 5:16 am

“But we know well enough who the killers are”

The band?

b. traven said,

July 30, 2010 @ 8:05 pm

Here’s an entertaining story about people attracting attention with these posters in Ohio:

http://theotherpaper.com/articles/2010/07/29/front/doc4c518778d3139630507036.txt

Of course, this isn’t the first time CWC posters about the police have attracted this kind of attention:

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20061003103905831

Cops come visit Random Row a week before the bookfair | Charlottesville Anarchist Bookfair said,

March 9, 2011 @ 8:25 pm

[...] The Police – a poster from Crimethinc. This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. [...]

CrimethInc. Far East Blog » Police Poster Available in Bulk said,

October 25, 2011 @ 5:06 pm

[...] to understand why this is necessary. In response, we’ve prepared a bulk newsprint version of our poster stressing the structural role the police play in maintaining [...]

RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.