Statement on
Soft Policing.
RJPMC understands that the system of policing cannot function without participation by other professions and industries. Drawing on the work and wisdom of Mariame Kabe, Dorothy Roberts, and many other BIPOC thinkers, RJPMC refers to systems and practices that feed into policing as “soft policing.” Some examples of soft policing are listed below:
Soft Policing Families:
Mandatory reporters such as social workers, teachers, and medical staff who report families to the state and facilitate the destruction of families and criminalization of parents.
Soft Policing Education:
School administrators, teachers, and other staff who criminalize students and facilitate the school to prison pipeline. These individuals are also mandatory reporters who engage in family policing.
Soft Policing Housing:
Government officials and third-party contractors who criminalize houselessness and facilitate “sweeps” of unhoused communities.
Soft Policing Medicine:
Medical professionals, administrators, and staff who criminalize mental illness and disability and facilitate the incarceration and institutionalization of disabled individuals. These individuals are also mandatory reporters who engage in family policing.
RJPMC believes that the only way to fully dismantle the police state is to also dismantle those systems that prop up policing.