Becoming Abolitionists, Derecka Purnell
Becoming Abolitionists, Derecka Purnell
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Becoming Abolitionists
Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom

Author: Derecka Purnell

Narrator: Karen Chilton

Unabridged: 14 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/05/2021

Synopsis

For more than a century, activists in the United States have tried to reform the police. From community policing initiatives to increasing diversity, none of it has stopped the police from killing about three people a day.Millions of people continue to protest police violence because these “solutions” do not match the problem: the police cannot be reformed.In Becoming Abolitionists, Purnell draws from her experiences as a lawyer, writer, and organizer initially skeptical about police abolition. She saw too much sexual violence and buried too many friends to consider getting rid of police in her hometown of St. Louis, let alone the nation. But the police were a placebo. Calling them felt like something, and something feels like everything when the other option seems like nothing.Purnell details how multiracial social movements rooted in rebellion, risk-taking, and revolutionary love pushed her and a generation of activists toward abolition. The book travels across geography and time, and offers lessons that activists have learned from Ferguson, Missouri, to South Africa, from Reconstruction to contemporary protests against police shootings.Here, Purnell argues that police cannot be reformed and invites readers to envision new systems that work to address the root causes of violence. Becoming Abolitionists shows that abolition is not solely about getting rid of police but a commitment to create and support different answers to the problem of harm in society and, most excitingly, an opportunity to reduce and eliminate harm in the first place.

About Derecka Purnell

Derecka Purnell is a human-rights lawyer, writer, organizer, and a columnist at the London Guardian. She received her JD from Harvard Law School and works to end police and prison violence by providing legal assistance, research, and training to community-based organizations through an abolitionist framework. Her work and writing has been featured in the New York Times, NPR, the Atlantic, the Boston Globe, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, The Appeal, Truthout, Slate, and many other publications.

About Karen Chilton

Karen Chilton is a multi-talented author, actor, and audiobook narrator, as well as a freelance writer, script writer, and librettist. She wrote the biography Hazel Scott about the trailblazing jazz pianist and coauthored I Wish You Love with legendary jazz vocalist Gloria Lynne. Her acting credits include It's Kind of a Funny Story and Half Nelson. She won a New Professional Theatre Writers award for her play Convergence and an Audiofile Golden Earphones Award for her narration of Karolyn Smardz Frost's I've Got a Home in Glory Land. She has also narrated Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow and Jennifer Berry Hawes' Grace Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sunny on February 16, 2025

Indispensable reading for anyone who loves St. Louis, social justice, and/or is interested in abolition and real solutions to police violence and racism. I’ve met Derecka Purnell before, and she is so smart and down to earth and full of empathy and solidarity and beautiful and her writing reflects a......more

Goodreads review by Ali on November 22, 2021

This book started out good, but then it got disjointed and hard to follow, with non sequiturs and typos. It seemed like she was rushed to finish it, without time to fully flesh out and connect some of her great ideas. Sometimes there were cherry picked statistics and remarks that seemed like gottem......more

Goodreads review by alexis on December 28, 2021

The back half of this book feels SO disjointed and weirdly underdeveloped, and eight pages from the end is waaaaay too laughably late to discuss socialism for the first time as your major solution, especially in a very “socialism is…when billionaires pay taxes :)” kind of way. Even if the foundations......more

Goodreads review by JK on July 01, 2022

I have been dreading writing this review: I like Derecka, I think she’s cool, and I’m sure she will do great things for the abolition movement! One might expect an author on abolition to be callous, bombastic, and uncompromising, but that couldn’t be further from who Derecka is: she is empathetic, c......more

Goodreads review by because_she_reads on April 10, 2024

I am in anger that this knowledge isn’t shared in our education system and more widely spread. I am in awe of Derecka Purnell’s pursuits to abolitionism; before reading this I wasn’t really sure what that entitled. Purnell did a brilliant and heartbreaking job detailing all the injustices she and he......more

Quotes

“Provides a blueprint for each of us to begin to run, dream, and experiment toward a just and livable future.” The Nation

“This book will open up your sociopolitical imagination and leave you optimistic about what is possible when we commit to safety for all.” Elle

“Makes the argument for why the new abolitionism—the push to end prisons and policing in the United States—ought to be the future of the country.” Essence

“Draws convincing parallels between the past and the present to demonstrate that today’s policing systems are vestiges of this oppressive framework…She is in such command of her material [that] even if you disagree with her, you are compelled to listen." The Guardian (London)

“An informed, provocative, astute consideration of salvific alternatives to contemporary policing and imprisonment.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“An inspiring introduction to a hot-button topic.” Publishers Weekly

“Through deft historical research, political analysis, and gutting prose, the book uses a variety of approaches to map Purnell’s complex and fulfilling political evolution.” The Cut

“A triumph of political imagination and a tremendous gift to all movements struggling towards liberation." Naomi Klein, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“An enlightening and inspiring book about a bold idea with great potential to change society." Seattle Book Review

“Becoming Abolitionists is essential reading for our times.” Michelle Alexander, New York Times bestselling author

Awards

  • Essence Magazine Pick
  • New York Times Book Review pick
  • Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books
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