Their End Is Our Beginning: Cops, Capitalism, and Abolition

brian bean in conversation with Melissa Gonzalez Hernandez

Chicago-based socialist activist, writer, and speaker brian bean discusses his new book and analyzes the connections between policing and capitalism, centering global lessons of revolt and resistance. Where do cops come from and what do they do? How did “modern policing” as we know it today come to be? What about the capitalist state necessitates policing? In his clear and comprehensive account of why and how the police—the linchpin of capitalism—function and exist, brian bean presents a clear case for the abolition of policing and capitalism.