Reducing harm, which is the supposed goal of proponents of “law and order,” requires a radically distinct approach to the issue in which the vindictive, racist, and failed logics of policing and jailing are ended and replaced.
Published on the centennial of the city and its police force, Dogged and Destructive: Essays on the Winnipeg Police is a short collection of critical and deeply researched essays about the history, violence, and costs of the Winnipeg Police Service (WPS). It argues that policing in Winnipeg should be studied and understood regardless of where one lives due to the city’s particular dynamics of settler-colonialism, enormous police budgets, and concerns about violence. The book provides a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to the WPS and advocates for the imagining and pushing for alternatives to police power in Winnipeg and Canada. Part of ARP Books’ Semaphore Series of short polemics on contemporary issues.
Read an excerpt here.
About the Author
James Wilt is a writer and PhD candidate based in Winnipeg. He is the author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Cars? Public Transit in the Age of Google, Uber, and Elon Musk and Drinking Up the Revolution: How to Smash Big Alcohol and Reclaim Working-Class Joy. His writing has appeared in many publications including The Walrus, The Guardian, Canadian Dimension, The Narwhal, and Briarpatch.
Table of Contents
• Introduction
• The WPS doesn’t keep us safe
• Years of violence, abandonment, and self-preservation
• Parasitic solidarity
• The dead-end of police reforms
• A Winnipeg beyond police