Miriam Coretta Schulte

We need you with all your doubts 

A letter to a friend who doesn’t believe in alternatives to the police

Dear S,

Yesterday was a long night. We were already shaken up from witnessing yet another case of police brutality in the street, but it was probably the rest of the night that exhausted us even more: the long arguments that followed; all the wine we drank; and finally, at least for me, lying awake in bed and searching for answers to the questions and doubts that you had raised. Will there ever be an alternative to the police as we see it today? 

2024 was the year with the highest number of deaths through police brutality in Germany, while the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture also published a report expressing showing deep concerns about police in Switzerland, specifically the ongoing mistreatment of prisoners.

These developments are happening at the same time as many other authoritarian transformations worldwide, and I feel relieved that we had a moment yesterday where we could be sad and angry together: by allowing despair, we resist the normalization of these developments and politics - politics that wants to isolate us. They divide us by creating hierarchies from people’s lives. They pit minorities against each other. It becomes clearer every day: this is not the world we want to live in.

I agree with you, there are so many reasons that might stop us from thinking that there could be an alternative to policing as we see it today. We see more violence against peaceful protesters, border controls becoming harsher, while censorship and oppression are more commonplace. You and me, we both read about the racist stereotypes that are found in police training textbooks; we both know that most of the people who are killed by the police suffered from mental health issues. How can anyone trust an institution that is so resistant to criticism, when only 2% of cases filed against the German police actually reach the Courts?

I understand why it can feel paralysing, claustrophobic even, when you find yourself in the “belief that you’ve come to understand something awful and inescapable” (Kelly Hayes). I completely got it when you asked yesterday: “How can we continue working towards change if no police reform so far brings real transformation?”

Stretching the imagination

But lots of people are still working towards another future.

You also loved Ruha Benjamin’s Imagination: A Manifesto, so I looked up her question again: “Why can we imagine growing heart cells from scratch in a lab, but not growing empathy for other human beings in our everyday lives, and even more so in our institutions?”

What if we were able to imagine a world where the police is not needed, where we had systems of accountability that actually made everyone safe, regardless of social class or privilege? How would it feel to enter a bus where we all know about conflict solving, where we all assume mistakes and find solutions for different needs? How would it feel to walk through empty streets at night, when you know that everyone’s economic needs are met and that people aren’t struggling to pay for their rent or healthcare?

I believe that our imagination is restricted by the conditions we live in, narrowed down by a culture focusing of fear and distrust. Politicians, lobbies and the media are well-trained in playing with our emotions, using narratives that make us scream for “more security” - which due to a lack of alternatives usually just translates to „more police“. 

Look at the police’s annual statistics: they distort numbers by listing police activities instead of what has been proven as criminal; if the police decides to control a specific area more thoroughly, it will appear more often in the statistics, even if nothing illegal happened. The statistics only focus on short periods, and so hide positive long-term developments. If we compared Germany’s situation today with the one in the 90s, we would see how criminal offences are becoming less. Nevertheless, we are seeing alarming headlines - and with them, demands for higher police budgets.

You told me that sometimes you’re embarrassed that you have so many doubts: you wonder if you have “allowed yourself to be manipulated,“ that you didn’t resist enough those who want to fill our hearts with fear. 

I want to hold you and tell you that it’s okay to have doubts. In fact, they can be precious: they can express a gut feeling that something is not right, that something is not in line with what you’re looking for. 

Still, I’ll follow you. What if these doubts are indeed part of the politics of fear? Are there really no “realistic“ alternatives?

Existing alternatives and actual changes

There are many existing models that prove that the police and conflict-solving models can be different. 

Think of bobbies, the British police, where 95% of police officers carry out their tasks without carrying guns (with the sad exception of Northern Ireland); think of Marinaleda, a socialist municipality in Spain that functions without police (probably because property belongs to the community and where the disparity between social classes is small with housing being almost for free - at 15 Euro per month - and unemployment extremely low); think of Rojava where, despite the ongoing war in Syria, internal conflicts can be solved through mediation sessions in Women’s Houses or People’s Houses, so that the need for police and courts is much smaller.

And there are other important changes happening right now:

More than 20 big US-American cities decreased their annual police budgets due to the pressure of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. Austin is one of the strongest examples—they now only spend two-thirds of the previous police budget while the other third was moved into the social and community sector. Very recently, the parliament of the city of Lausanne has decided to disarm its police forces. But beyond these official decisions to strip away the budgets, tools and functions of police forces, thousands of grass-roots organisations representing minorities have been working for a long time to build their own safety networks—for many of them calling their local police is simply not an option. Instead, it is a threat.

A resting room for doubts

What does it mean to have these examples around us, but also all our doubts at the same time? How can we take our fears seriously, but not be discouraged or overwhelmed? Is it possible to play with focus, to sit with our fears and our sadness one moment and then focus on working towards change in another?

I think we can. And it helps me to remember who “we“ is, but also how powerful “we“ can become: “we“ is all of us who see the police pitting groups against each other, bringing more violence for everyone. We have different backgrounds, different privileges and engage in different struggles, but we all refuse to accept things as they are. We are many and we need you. We need you with all your doubts.

This in an invitation for you to come and bring your doubts along. We’ve prepared a nice cozy room where they can have a break, where they can mingle with others, chill and take a nap. And while they are having their own time, we can share a moment without them where we allow ourselves to imagine. 

What if we nurtured visions together of how we want to live and feel safe? What if we learn to listen to each other about our different needs, and inspire each other not only to form new ideas, but also to start putting them in practice? What if we suddenly realised how powerful our dreams are? What if we had weekly imagination sessions and made it a practice that becomes bolder and more creative with time?

After trying it out for a few minutes, a few hours, feel free to take back your doubts - or maybe you keep only some of them. Maybe you can bring them back to the resting room soon and start getting active in a project that works on something you want to trust in. 

In the end, we have nothing to lose if we try, but everything to lose if we don’t even try.

Take the time it takes. We will be waiting for you, warming up the doubt resting room,

Miriam

Miriam Coretta Schulte is a theater maker, holds a Bachelor’s degree in law, and works at the intersection of art and activism. For her, theater spaces are places where we can take the time to imagine alternatives to how we organize societies. As one of the LAB-artist in 2024/25, she works on a world-building game that envisions a world without police.