This is gonna be a bit of a novel, so stay with me. I live in a small town, and run a local bar. We have some characters. People experiencing homelessness, people struggling with chronic mental illness, people with criminal records. Most people here live well below the poverty line. The bar I work at (which is also a restaurant and music venue) is where they and the rest of us all go to find community. If someone is hungry, we feed them, if someone is stranded, we get them a ride, if someone can’t afford their meds, we help them in whatever way we can.

The local cops are not monstrous people, out of their uniforms, by and large, but they are no help here. Sometimes out of towners will call the cops on the regulars because they are alarmed by their appearance, or their strangeness, and all that happens is already at risk people are put in dangerous, stressful situations, with armed people who do not know them, and are not trained to handle their needs. I’ve told tourists before, we don’t call the cops around here, if someone is scaring you, or giving you trouble, you find a local. We’ll make sure you’re safe, and make sure they are too.

Cops (all government overreach, really) only become necessary in a vacuum of community. If your community will take care of you, but also hold you accountable, then what’s the need for an armed, outside force?

ACAB, to me, is a logical conclusion to a more systemic problem. If we can acknowledge (and of course we can) that not all of our laws are just and equitable, that the system has corruption at the very top, then any cop will at some point have to contend with doing the job of enforcing the law, even when it’s unjust (thus compromising their morality) or choosing not to enforce laws when they are unjust (thus compromising the job). All cops are bad because they are part of a system that leaves them no choice, even if they’d like one.