Artificial Insecurity

In this chapter the author draws on decolonial, feminist, abolitionist, and other critical perspectives to historicize and contextualize the state of policing and police reform efforts, linking the global to the local. Policing and police reform are inextricably linked with neocolonialism, racial neoliberal capitalism, and development in contemporary globalization. The chapter also introduces the concept of Artificial Insecurity as a critical framework to understand how the social forces contributing to artificial scarcity and inequality also create insecurity. Racial neoliberal capitalism artificially creates insecurity by weakening or removing social structures that promote safe, secure communities. People living in under-resourced, violent contexts are forced to seek protection from police and other carceral systems that abuse them, and their other alternative survival strategies are often criminalized. Just as racial neoliberal capitalism is sold by global policymakers as the only viable policy choice for improving quality of life and achieving upward mobility, people are socialized to see policing and other elements of the carceral state as the only ways order, security, and safety can be achieved. Artificial insecurity is an institutionalized form of racist, classist, and misogynist violence. The insecurity many around the world feel, however, is not necessary.