Last night concluded the Urban History Association’s trio of virtual panels in response to the recent wave of Black-led urban uprisings against racist police brutality and renewed conversation about defunding and abolishing police. The Metropole’s Disciplining the City editors Matthew Guariglia and Charlotte Rosen moderated a discussion with historians Johanna Fernández, Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Marisol LeBrón, Dan Berger, Alex Vitale, and Stuart Schrader about “Imagining Alternatives to Modern Policing: Past, Present, and Future.”

If last week’s panel evoked the lyrics of Stevie Wonder’s “Living in the City” and “Higher Ground,” this week’s discussion hewed more closely to a third song on Wonder’s seminal Innervisions:

People hand in hand
Have I lived to see the milk and honey land?
Where hate’s a dream and love forever stands
Or is this a vision in my mind?

The law was never passed
But somehow all men feel they’re truly free at last
Have we really gone this far through space and time
Or is this a vision in my mind?

I’m not one who make believes
I know that leaves are green
They only turn to brown
When autumn comes around
I know just what I say
Today’s not yesterday
And all things have an ending

But what I’d like to know
Is could a place like this exist so beautiful
Or do we have to find our wings and fly away
To the vision in our mind?

Panelists reflected on who is “free” in a state where policing is historically rooted in the protection of capitalism and maintenance of white supremacy, the challenges of dismantling systems of exploitation and policing, and how “could a place like this exist so beautiful” in reality and not just as “a vision in our mind.”

Their discussion lit up Twitter.

And we’re off, @mguariglia “The reason why reforms don’t work is because police departments are doing what they were designed to do.”

— UHA (@UrbanHistoryA) July 16, 2020

Emphasizing idea of community control, @marisollebron says “we need to actually ask communities what they need and what the resources they want.” @UrbanHistoryA

— Ana Rosado (@CarminRosado) July 16, 2020

.@danberger discusses importance of establashing communication with long term prisoners to better understand brutality of carceral system and the “brutal devastation it enacts.

— UHA (@UrbanHistoryA) July 16, 2020

it’s been a theme in @UrbanHistoryA’s policing panels, but tonight’s presentations are (so far) underscoring just how urgent it is that we reject liberal reformism in responding to crises of capitalism. As @stschrader1 just noted, #DefundPolice gets at the heart of the problem.

— Will Tchakirides (@willtchak) July 16, 2020

Talking about the power of the historical narrative when discussing police abolition, @klytlehernandez says “history is the most compelling evidence police cannot be reformed–it is a fool’s errand–and it must be abolished” @UrbanHistoryA

— Ana Rosado (@CarminRosado) July 16, 2020

.@avitale World without policing has to be a world without regimes of exploitation? I don’t imagine a world of uniform equality in all matters, but i think about a process organized around a set of principals: how do move toward reducing exploitation and how system stands in way https://t.co/2h3B8Rhhlf

— UHA (@UrbanHistoryA) July 16, 2020

Prof. Johanna Fernandez points out the fact that imprisonment is the 3rd largest employer in the country, which makes things harder for us to imagine alternatives to policing. @UrbanHistoryA

— Daniel Vázquez Sanabria (@DanielVzqz07) July 16, 2020

the way this session is stacked…… i’mma stan

— elmo 🌿 (@elmotumbokon) July 16, 2020

“Defund the police,
Fund the public good.”

-Johanna Fernadez in this amazing @UrbanHistoryA webinar on “Imagining Alternatives to Modern Policing: Past, Present and Future”

Live now here: https://t.co/k3E0eHp1DO

— Madeline Brozen (@Maddz4planning) July 16, 2020

Fear not if you missed it: the panel is archived and available on YouTube alongside the first panel from July 1, “Police Violence: How Did We Get Here?,” and the second panel from July 7, “Urban Uprisings Against Racist Police Terror in Historical Context.”

Please share the links with folks who might be interested in learning more about the history of policing, incarceration, uprising, and abolition — like moderator Charlotte Rosen’s mother.

apparently, my mom has been rewatching the past week’s @UrbanHistoryA panels and TAKING NOTES 😭😍. The bar has been set for everyone else, ngl. See you shortly for our final mega-panel! https://t.co/xBuzsselUG

— ➿Charlotte Rosen➿ (@CharlotteERosen) July 15, 2020

The Urban History Association extends gratitude to Charlotte and Matt Guariglia for their dedication and hard work on this series, a hearty mazal tov for pulling it off so successfully. Our thanks also go out to the 14 historians who volunteered their time to share their scholarship and expertise with fellow UHA members and the public.

I’ve still got no clue how @UrbanHistoryA was able to pull off three straight weeks of 🔥🔥 — but hats off to @mguariglia and @CharlotteERosen for all of their work in making it happen! #blktwitterstorians #twitterstorians pic.twitter.com/nc9wj0dS4n

— Carl Suddler (@Prof_Suddler) July 16, 2020