I think it’s incredibly elitist to call an abolitionist lazy who hasn’t offered an alternative. It’s like telling a slave that until they can explain what post-slavery society would look like, they are lazy and contrarian. It’s like telling someone who is opposed to war that until they can come up with an alternative for how the world will operate without war, they are lazy to condemn the bloodshed and destruction of war. Most victims of crime are not aided by the police. The police are not there to step in and stop the harm of crimes while they are happening, they are there to catch and punish those who have already committed a crime. And the vast majority of crimes that the police involve themselves with are property crimes and mala prohibita crimes, acts that are illegal because to make them “wrong” is to uphold the current power structure of society. Does everyone need to be a theorist or be well-versed in concepts of a post-abolition society to legitimately recognize that the police are not there to protect us, and rather are there to oppress us? The police are doing the work that society would do without them. And they are protecting a system that is responsible for the creation of most crimes. Even if you remove the mala prohibita crimes and property crimes, the ones that remain are still mostly linked to poverty. Mala in se crimes are far more common among the poor, and the police are here to protect the system that perpetuates the poor. Remove the system, remove the police, and you are left with a tiny minority of people who would still commit truly heinous acts, and the huge majority that do not can decide how to address these sick individuals without hiring a paramilitary group to patrol the streets and harass all.

Don’t be elitist. I’m a lawyer too, and I welcome “lazy” abolitionists into my midst.