![]() ![]() ![]() Then I was pushed by my editor to talk more about my political evolution. It wasn’t until the organizer got to law school that she began to adopt the abolitionist perspective that would later characterize her first book, Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom, out now from Penguin Random House.ĭean Spade: Who did you write this book for and who do you hope it reaches?ĭerecka Purnell: Before writing the book, I thought I was making something primarily for organizers to think through some concepts around abolition, as I was learning them. For much of her life, she viewed law enforcement as a better-than-nothing option in fighting the violence that took place in St. Though now one of the nation’s more visible abolitionists in the tradition of organizers like Angela Davis and Mariame Kaba, Purnell did not always believe in getting rid of the police. A co-founder of the #8ToAbolition campaign, Purnell built her following with a combination of grassroots organizing, viral tweets, and blistering op-eds that challenged reformist approaches to mass incarceration and police brutality. During the summer of 2020, when calls to “Abolish the Police” swept the United States, a then-30-year-old organizer named Derecka Purnell became one of the country’s most galvanizing voices. ![]()
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