And anarchists, no matter the labels they go by, remain aggressively stupid people. For fuck's sake.

Many of these ideas have a lot in common with anarchism but aren’t nearly radical enough to solve the problem: It’s not just the police and prisons that need to be dismantled, it’s government itself that must be abolished because government is the driving force behind police oppression. In the 20th century, governments killed about 200 million innocent people, using gangs of thugs ranging from town constables to the Gestapo and NKVD and technologies ranging from cavalry lances to A-bombs.

All governments are dictatorships to one degree or another—government interferes in our private lives, government takes away our freedom to achieve our potential, government robs us of the fruits of our labor, government empowers legions of other oppressors such as transnational corporations, government slaughters us at a whim. Replace government with voluntary, local, face-to-face communities (like some profiled in the article), communities in which all people step up to exercise responsibility for themselves and for the whole community, in which all people have an existential interest in making the community work and in protecting all members of the community. That’s the way to make government, with all its intrusiveness and oppression, a relic ripe for the dustbin of history.

And here comes "anarch" to make my point. His/her concept of human nature is a lot more optimistic than mine or anything suggested by history. For fuck's sake.

Really nice story, though. Thanks.

"n the 20th century, governments killed about 200 million innocent people, using gangs of thugs ranging from town constables to the Gestapo and NKVD and technologies ranging from cavalry lances to A-bombs."

Sure, but you neglect this truth: In many of those and similar incidents, the government, in one way or another, reflected the popular will. Nazis gained initial power via elections and much citizen cooperation at all levels, from farmer to industrialist. Mao harnessed the power of the peasantry, first in the fight against the Japanese and then against the Nationalists. American popular/political will led directly to the atomic bombings of Japan.

In short, what on earth makes you think that via anarchy and its mechanics, the popular will or whatever you want to call it will suddenly become benign and positive? Talk about utopian bullshit ...

You are spouting nonsensical slogans, "anarch." And you have little knowledge of human nature. For fuck's sake.

Despite all the propaganda to the contrary, anarchism—which is centered on voluntary, local, face-to-face communities—can and does work. For some powerful examples, just look at the Amish, the Mennonites, and Orthodox Jews. All these groups have significant anarchistic features. The key to their renowned success as communities is arguably culture. Each has a strong culture that holds it together, in these cases ethnic identities interwoven with religious ideologies. Because membership in these communities is voluntary, any adult can walk away. Some do leave of course, though not too many judging by these groups’ burgeoning numbers and their prosperous communities.

Note that all these groups are to a greater or lesser degree separate from the wider world. That’s the flip side of group solidarity and community strength, but members don’t seem to see separateness as a hardship. Indeed, they’re more likely to view it as a virtue because it preserves their individual and group interests, preserves their communities and their identities.

Note too that all of these groups have faced intense, bloody persecution in the past, and even some continuing discrimination today. It’s no surprise that the wider world with all its lust for power and blood has often reacted to these peaceful non-conformists by trying to isolate, despoil, and destroy them. It has been suggested that as terrible as such persecution was, it has served in the long run to strengthen these groups. Now, it looks like African-Americans are beginning to realize that voluntary, local, face-to-face communities could do for them what they’ve done for other marginalized and despised groups. And let’s face it, the current system just isn’t working for a big percentage of African-Americans—so why not try some radical alternatives?

"For some powerful examples, just look at the Amish, the Mennonites, and Orthodox Jews."

Yeah. They are very small, very limited, extremely homogeneous communities. You want to translate that into national and even global mechanics. I give you credit for at least noting that fact, but you seem to gloss over it at the same time.

I don't mind trying new stuff, and while I think the group described in this fascinating story is more than a bit wrong-headed, they do have some interesting ideas that may--may--work on very small scales. But that's as far as it goes. "Anarchy," if it ever works at all, cannot work at scales bigger than small and extremely like-minded groups. It's like a very specialized tool that works only for very specific and relatively rare jobs--at best.

"so why not try some radical alternatives?"

That's a pretty glib attitude when it comes to matters of life and death. Easy to say from, say, the safe space of a graduate seminar, or among a dozen or so like-minded friends. Harder to support when we are talking about an entire city, state or country. I will assume you are young and give you the benefit of the doubt that your enthusiasm has not yet been tempered by reality or a fuller accounting of human nature.

""so why not try some radical alternatives?""

I will note that similar questions preceded nearly all the atrocities you described in your first post. A knee-jerk desire for "radical alternatives" was a prime motivation for many murderous totalitarian and/or authoritarian movements. Hell, it's a big thing that is fueling the Trump movement.

I think you have an honest heart but I also think you are so very, very naive about human nature and history.

Anarch: I didn't mean to be rude by assuming you are young. That came off as condescending. I apologize. No harm intended.

"Another useless tale by the Chicago Reader as it swirls the dead tree media toilet bowl into oblivion!"

Yet you don't seem to realize that in this digital age, silence means more than commenting about not liking a story. Idiot.

"When I listen to the abolitionists, what I hear is that it is possible to build a world without prisons or policing."

This is a truly bizarre conclusion to draw if you haven't spent your entire life on an ashram or a Quaker colony or something. I agree that US police are way too militarized and that police training focuses far too much on responding to potentially violent situations with aggression, as opposed to tactics intended to diffuse violence. Read second city cop for awhile and it's impossible to ignore that a lot of these guys see themselves as an occupying army, apart from everyday citizens. And having been inside a number of prisons, I could never argue that our "corrections" system isn't an ethical atrocity in many respects.
Having said that, here are a few things we'd need to completely extinguish from humanity before it would make sense to exist without any police or prisons:

murder
rape
child abuse
spousal abuse

Let me know who has the feasible global plan to eliminate these scourges which, anarchist fantasizing aside, have been present in homo sapiens as long as they have existed, long before the first centralized government, church, military or any other external boogeyman the far left might want to name. There will never be a utopia that includes humans not because of the man keeping us down but because of what humanity is -intelligent animals of varying degrees of rationality, all carrying various psychological scars and impulses, behaving in ways that are not possible to predict, and which are sometimes horrifically violent. There was no Adam and Eve, nobody put the violence in us, it was there from the start and will always be present to some degree.

And "Duuude" for the win.

"Let me know who has the feasible global plan to eliminate these scourges which, anarchist fantasizing aside, have been present in homo sapiens as long as they have existed, long before the first centralized government, church, military or any other external boogeyman the far left might want to name."

If you're wondering if I agree: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgbbCW9s6uo

I am from southwest side chicago and to give you my 2cents, politicians from chicago are ultra corrupt,taxing for there own pockets and dont care about you peasants. when will you chump democraps and englewood abolition idiots realize this.i dont like the chi police being trigger happy but at the same time you black mofos kill each other over dope and nickel bags.criminals have no respect for human life let alone you peasants. you ignorant people keep squabbling over what the news media feeds you, where is your hillary corrupt clinton, where is your obamacare(playing golf) to help,where is white boy daley who sold the chicago meters? or king jew gangster rahm where art thou? nowhere but saving his own white ass...in the end it is the chicagans that get robbed if not by the local government criminals raping your wallet, its the damn scumbag theiving crimnals who rob you of your daughters, oh yea you idiots keep preaching gun control, disarm yourselves so the nazi government can stick you in a oven like they did in world war II

"prison industrial complex" was coined by Mike Davis in 1995, not Angela Davis in 1998.

the author deleted my comment LOL because its the truth and they cant handle it
I am from southwest side chicago and to give you my 2cents, politicians from chicago are ultra corrupt,taxing for there own pockets and dont care about you peasants. when will you cdemocraps and englewood abolitions realize this.i dont like the chi police being trigger happy but at the same time you black mofos kill each other over dope and nickel bags.criminals have no respect for human life let alone you peasants. you ignorant people keep squabbling over what the news media feeds you, where is your hillary corrupt clinton, where is your obamacare(playing golf) to help,where is white boy daley who sold the chicago meters? or king jew gangster rahm where art thou? nowhere but saving his own white ass...in the end it is the chicagans that get robbed if not by the local government criminals raping your wallet, its the damn scumbag theiving crimnals who rob you of your daughters, oh yea you idiots keep preaching gun control, disarm yourselves so the nazi government can herd the sheep into camps for fun

Author deleted my comments because there is no freedom of speech here, they want only democraps and morons to respond here, NOT the truth

NO freedom of speech here author deleted comments cause there bought out sold out

im from chicago and im a idiot cause i love taxation

In a perfect world, where we all knew and loved our neighbors, and there were no rapists, wifebeaters and gay bashers...and where people liked going to long "healing circle" meetings with their neighbors every time they had a dispute, this MIGHT work

In a real world, where we live in big cities surrounded by strangers and commute far from home every workday, and where real monsters walk among us....this will never work

We need to talk about demilitarizing and radically reforming the police, transforming the judiciary and the prosecutoriat, reforming the laws and downsizing the prison system

This utopian fantasy gets in the way of that hard work

Mennonites and the Amish. Both communities with serious issues with child molestation and agency for women. Brilliant fucking examples.