Both police and prisons are institutions set up to maintain a capitalist and racist social order. Whether it's the commission of inquiry into the SQ after the Oka crisis, or the one following the 2012 student strike, there are always recommendations to restructure organizations or re-evaluate the use of this or that type of weapon. While the list of victims of police services and prisons grows longer in Quebec and elsewhere, the idea of investigations and reforms is still being bandied about. Worse, some are calling for more training or technological gadgets like cameras, which would only increase police budgets. If the current American crisis has taught us anything, it's that cameras are useless: Ahmaud Arbery's death was filmed, but it was only when the public rose up against the police, prosecutors and judges who tried to sweep the case under the carpet that the murderers were arrested. George Floyd's death was filmed, but it was only after three days of protests that charges were laid, initially against just one of the police officers involved. The total impunity of the police and the massive injustice of the prison system will not be solved by yet another reform. This impunity must be addressed by abolishing these institutions.
