Alex S. Vitale

Last updated

Alex S. Vitale is an American author and professor of sociology at Brooklyn College. He is also the coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College. [1] [2] His writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Nation , The Appeal, USA Today , Vice News , and other media outlets. [3] [4] Vitale is the author of The End of Policing (2017), which argues for the abolition of police. [5] [6]

Contents

Biography

Alex S. Vitale is originally from Houston, Texas. [7] In 1989, he received his Bachelor's in Urban anthropology from Hampshire College. [1] From 1990 to 1993, he served on the staff of the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco, where he directed civil rights policy for the organization. He also worked on health care programs and social services programs.

While in San Francisco, Vitale witnessed a national backlash against homelessness. In San Francisco, Mayor Art Agnos attempted to address homelessness with aggressive ticketing. This was followed by Police Chief Frank Jordan, who became mayor with a platform to aggressively police the homeless. As Vitale later wrote, "Despite these aggressive efforts to restore order, the number of people without a place to live continued to increase and public order remained impaired..." [7] [8]

In 1993, Vitale moved to New York City to attend CUNY Graduate Center. [9] During this era, he was able to observe the transition from the administration of Mayor David Dinkins, which Vitale viewed as politically liberal, to the administration of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, which Vitale viewed as neoliberal. He observed aggressive policing and scapegoating of the homeless population under the Giuliani administration. [9] In 2001, he received his PhD in Sociology from CUNY Graduate Center. [1]

Work

In 2009, City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics (NYU Press) was published. In the book, Vitale focuses on the drive to improve quality of life in New York City and other American cities. In particular, he argues that, in the 1990s, New York City politics focused on restoring moral order, which included the "zero tolerance" campaign of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and an overhaul of prostitution, graffiti, panhandling, and homelessness in the city. This marked a shift toward prioritizing the needs of the middle and upper classes. The book examines how such changes impacted various New York neighborhoods, the NYPD, and city politics. [10]

In 2017, The End of Policing was published. In the book, Vitale argues that the United States should radically reconsider policing, rather than simply reforming it. [11] He argues that the rise of policing in the world was rooted in three primary forms of economic exploitation: colonialism, slavery, and the rise of industrialization in the 19th century. [12] As such, police forces have historically enforced inequality, suppressed workers, and micro-managed black and brown lives. [13] He wrote, "The problem is not police training, police diversity, or police methods. The problem is the dramatic and unprecedented expansion and intensity of policing in the last 40 years, a fundamental shift in the role of police in society. The problem is policing itself." [14] [15] The End of Policing was met with mixed reception, with positive reviews praising his writing style and detail in research, [16] [17] [18] and negative reviews arguing that Vitale's proposed solution is too extreme or not extreme enough. [19] [20]

Following the George Floyd protests, Vitale's work received wider public interest. [21] He has been interviewed on alternatives to policing, as well as the movements to defund or abolish the police, by media outlets such as NPR , [22] the Intercept , [23] Jacobin , [12] the Nation, [24] The Indypendent , [25] Democracy Now , [26] and The Daily Show . [27] In one interview, he explained, "Part of the problem is that for decades now, communities have been told that the only resource they can have to address their community problems is more policing and more incarceration... Our job is to lay out what the alternatives would look like and give people a sense that they have the power to ask for what they really want." [12]

Related Research Articles

City University of New York Public university system in New York City

The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven professional institutions. While its constituent colleges date back as far as 1847, CUNY was established in 1961. The university enrolls more than 275,000 students, and counts thirteen Nobel Prize winners and twenty-four MacArthur Fellows among its alumni.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudy Giuliani</span> American attorney and politician (born 1944)

Rudolph William Louis Giuliani is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 1983 and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1989.

Mayor of New York City Head of the executive branch of the Government of New York City

The mayor of New York City, officially Mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property, police and fire protection, most public agencies, and enforces all city and state laws within New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Dinkins</span> 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993

David Norman Dinkins was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th Mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993, becoming the first African American to hold the office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herman Badillo</span> Puerto Rican politician

Herman Badillo was an American politician who served as borough president of The Bronx and United States Representative, and ran for Mayor of New York City. He was the first Puerto Rican elected to these posts, and the first Puerto Rican mayoral candidate in a major city in the continental United States.

In modern politics, law and order, also known as the war on crime, is the approach focusing on harsher enforcement and penalties as ways to reduce crime. Penalties for perpetrators of disorder may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, three-strikes laws and even capital punishment in some countries.

Crime rates in New York City have been recorded since at least the 1800s. They have spiked ever since the post-war period. The highest crime totals were recorded in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the crack epidemic surged, and then declined continuously through the 2000s.

Ninfa Segarra is the last President of the New York City Board of Education. She served as President of the Board from 2000 to 2002 when the Board was abolished by the State of New York and power of the city schools was transferred to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York Police union for NYPD police officers

The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York (PBA) is the largest police union representing police officers of the New York City Police Department. It represents about 24,000 of the department's 36,000 officers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Adams</span> Mayor of New York City since 2022

Eric Leroy Adams is an American politician and former law enforcement officer serving as the 110th mayor of New York City since January 1, 2022.

Mayoralty of Rudy Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from January 1, 1994 until December 31, 2001.

Brad Lander American politician

Bradford S. Lander is an American politician, urban planner, and community organizer who currently serves as the New York City Comptroller. A member of the Democratic Party, Lander is a progressive politician, and has been described as "one of the most left-leaning politicians in the city."

Joe Lhota American politician

Joseph J. Lhota is an American public servant and a former politician who served as the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and was also a former deputy mayor of New York City. He was the Republican nominee in an unsuccessful bid for the 2013 election for Mayor of New York City. In January 2014, he became senior vice president, vice dean, and chief of staff at NYU Langone Medical Center. In 2017, he returned to the chairmanship of the MTA, but would not run the authority day-to-day. He resigned from that position in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1993 New York City mayoral election</span> American contest to be Mayor of the City of New York

The 1993 New York City mayoral election was held on Tuesday, November 2. Incumbent Mayor David Dinkins ran for re-election to a second term, but lost in a rematch with Republican Rudy Giuliani.

Lyda Krewson Mayor of St. Louis, Missouri

Lyda Krewson is an American retired politician who was the 46th mayor of St. Louis, Missouri. She is a member of the Democratic Party and St. Louis's first female mayor, serving from 2017 to 2021. On November 18, 2020, Krewson announced that she would not seek a second term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Police abolition movement</span> Political movement in the United States

The police abolition movement is a political movement that advocates replacing policing with other systems of public safety. Police abolitionists believe that policing, as a system, is inherently flawed and cannot be reformed—a view that rejects the ideology of police reformists. While reformists seek to address the ways in which policing occurs, abolitionists seek to transform policing altogether through a process of disbanding, disempowering, and disarming the police. Abolitionists argue that the institution of policing is deeply rooted in a history of white supremacy and settler colonialism and that it is inseparable from a pre-existing racial capitalist order, and thus believe a reformist approach to policing will always fail.

Defund the police Slogan supporting reallocation of public safety funds away from policing

"Defund the police" is a slogan that supports divesting funds from police departments and reallocating them to non-policing forms of public safety and community support, such as social services, youth services, housing, education, healthcare and other community resources. Activists who use the phrase may do so with varying intentions; some seek modest reductions, while others argue for full divestment as a step toward the abolition of contemporary police services. Activists who support the defunding of police departments often argue that investing in community programs could provide a better crime deterrent for communities; funds would go toward addressing social issues, like poverty, homelessness, and mental disorders. Police abolitionists call for replacing existing police forces with other systems of public safety, like housing, employment, community health, education, and other programs.

<i>The End of Policing</i> 2017 non-fiction book

The End of Policing is a 2017 book by the American sociologist Alex S. Vitale. In it, Vitale argues for the eventual abolition of the police, to be replaced variously by decriminalization or with non-law enforcement approaches, depending on the crime. Vitale argues that the function of police is to uphold inequalities of class, gender, race, or sexuality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Police abolition movement in Minneapolis</span> Political movement in the U.S. state of Minnesota

In the U.S. state of Minnesota, a police abolition movement in Minneapolis emerged after the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man, by Derek Chauvin, during an arrest incident on May 25, 2020. A bystander's video of Floyd's murder showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck as he struggled to breathe; this led to in prolonged local unrest and worldwide protests. In Minneapolis, the city's third police precinct station was destroyed during heavy rioting on May 28, 2020, as demonstrators lit the building on fire and the police abandoned it.

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association Riot, also known as the City Hall Riot, was a rally organized and sponsored by the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York (PBA) held on September 16, 1992, to protest mayor David Dinkins' proposal to create a civilian agency to investigate police misconduct. Approximately 4,000 NYPD officers took part in a violent protest that included blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge and jumping over police barricades in an attempt to rush City Hall. Rioters were observed to be openly drinking, damaging cars, and physically attacking journalists from the New York Times on the scene. Rioters also chanted racial epithets towards the African-American Mayor Dinkins. The nearly 300 uniformed on-duty officers did little to control the riot.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Alex Vitale, Brooklyn College Faculty Expert". www.brooklyn.cuny.edu. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  2. ↑ "Alex S. Vitale". The Nation. August 18, 2014. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  3. ↑ "Verso". www.versobooks.com. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  4. ↑ "Author". The Appeal. Retrieved June 17, 2020.{{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  5. ↑ "The Deep Roots—and New Offshoots—of 'Abolish the Police'". POLITICO. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  6. ↑ Varagur, Krithika (July 17, 2020). "After George Floyd, Who Will Police Minneapolis?". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  7. 1 2 "Faculty Profile". www.brooklyn.cuny.edu. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  8. ↑ Vitale, Alex S. "City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York City Politics" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on April 6, 2015.
  9. 1 2 Vitale, Alex S. (March 2009). City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics. NYU Press. ISBN   978-0-8147-8818-9.
  10. ↑ "City of Disorder". NYU Press. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  11. ↑ Donnella, Leah (June 3, 2020). "How Much Do We Need The Police?". Code Switch . Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  12. 1 2 3 Uetricht, Micah (June 8, 2020). "Policing Is Fundamentally a Tool of Social Control to Facilitate Our Exploitation". Jacobin . Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  13. ↑ ""We have to articulate a different vision of justice": Alex S Vitale on why the police should be abolished". www.newstatesman.com. June 17, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  14. ↑ Rich, Jamal (November 4, 2019). "Topic at coming West Coast gathering: Imagining a world without police". People's World. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  15. ↑ Green, Ben (April 9, 2019). The Smart Enough City: Putting Technology in Its Place to Reclaim Our Urban Future. MIT Press. ISBN   978-0-262-03967-3.
  16. ↑ ""The End of Policing" (Book Review)". Kirkus Reviews . July 12, 2017. Retrieved July 10, 2020.
  17. ↑ Nijjar, Jasbinder S. (October 2018). ""The End of Policing" (Book Review)". Race & Class . 60 (2): 127–129. doi:10.1177/0306396818795387. ISSN   0306-3968. S2CID   150344592.
  18. ↑ Seigel, Micol (2018). ""The End of Policing" (Book Review)". Social Justice . 45 (1): 127–129.
  19. ↑ Yglesias, Matthew (June 18, 2020). "The End of Policing left me convinced we still need policing". Vox . Retrieved July 10, 2020.
  20. ↑ Woodman, Connor (April 27, 2018). "The End of Political Policing: why riots, the far-Right and shoplifting shouldn't be policed". Verso Books . Retrieved July 10, 2020.
  21. ↑ Gray, Emma (June 4, 2020). "American Policing Has Always Been About Enforcing White Supremacy". HuffPost. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  22. ↑ Shapiro, Ari (June 11, 2020). "Defunding The Police: What Would It Mean For The U.S.?". All Things Considered . Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  23. ↑ Kumar, Rashmee (October 15, 2017). "Envisioning an America Free From Police Violence and Control". The Intercept. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  24. ↑ Siegel, Zachary (June 4, 2020). "'Starve the Beast': A Q&A With Alex S. Vitale on Defunding the Police". The Nation . Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  25. ↑ "Interview: Alex Vitale On Shrinking The NYPD To Smallest Possible Size" . Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  26. ↑ Goodman, Amy (June 8, 2020). "The End of Policing: Alex Vitale on How Cops & Their Unions Cover Up Inequality, Exploitation". Democracy Now . Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  27. ↑ Vargas, Chanel (June 10, 2020). "Trevor Noah and 5 Activists Break Down What It Truly Means to Defund and Abolish the Police". POPSUGAR News. Retrieved June 17, 2020.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.