Defund Fear

Safety Without Policing, Prisons, and Punishment

De: Zach Norris, Van Jones - introduction

Narrado por: Adam Lazarre-White

A groundbreaking new vision for public safety that overturns more than 200 years of fear-based discrimination, othering, and punishment

As the effects of aggressive policing and mass incarceration harm historically marginalized communities and tear families apart, how do we define safety? In a time when the most powerful institutions in the United States are embracing the repressive and racist systems that keep many communities struggling and in fear, we need to reimagine what safety means. Community leader and lawyer Zach Norris lays out a radical way to shift the conversation about public safety away from fear and punishment and toward growth and support systems for our families and communities. In order to truly be safe, we are going to have to dismantle our mentality of Us vs. Them. By bridging the divides and building relationships with one another, we can dedicate ourselves to strategic, smart investments—meaning resources directed toward our stability and well-being, like healthcare and housing, education and living-wage jobs. This is where real safety begins.

Originally published in hardcover as We Keep Us Safe: Building Secure, Just, and Inclusive Communities, Defund Fear is a blueprint of how to hold people accountable while still holding them in community. The result reinstates full humanity and agency for everyone who has been dehumanized and traumatized, so they can participate fully in life, in society, and in the fabric of our democracy.

Essential Reading

An important book for our times: The Criminal Punishment system is not good for building a strong society.

Great read

Appreciate the perspectives and insights offered by the author. He does a great job of being both realistic and offering solutions.

Social contract for REAL Democracy

The idealism expressed by Norris is a radical departure from the demonization reflected in our current policies. The real -ism keeping true democracy from being born is radical capitalism. The heartbeat of radical capitalism is greed. Norris does a superb job exposing the demonization that thwarts the development of a caring democracy. The fallacy of scarcity undergirds our inhumane treatment of others. Thank you Zach for your blueprint to a better society.

Great content, I recommend a higher speed playback

the information this is great, however, the narrator has a very low-key, steady tone, which can be hard for those of us that are easily distracted. so I recommend turning the speed up on this playback. the information in this book is well worth making the effort.