Colin Kaepernick calls for police and prisons to be abolished

Former San Francisco 49ers' quarterback and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick has called for the abolition of the police and prison institutions as part of a new essay series.

The argument was put forward in a new series titled Abolition for the People: The Movement for a Future Without Policing & Prisons, created via a partnership between Kaepernick Publishing and the Medium publication Level, which as per its website, was created to build on the rich tradition of Black organizing and freedom-fighting.

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The debut essay is titled The Demand for Abolition, and in the document, which was published on Thursday, Kaepernick wrote: "Over the next four weeks, we will publish 30 essays from political prisoners, grassroots organizers, movement leaders, scholars, and family members of those affected by anti-Black state violence and terrorism."

The essays are set to tackle a number of subjects including police and policing, prisons and carcerality, and abolishing the police.

The civil rights activist then explained these subjects and how they will be approached in the series.

"Reform, at its core, preserves, enhances, and further entrenches policing and prisons into the United States' social order," Kaepernick wrote. "Abolition is the only way to secure a future beyond anti-Black institutions of social control, violence, and premature death."

Earlier this year, Kaepernick launched a COVID-19 relief fund for black and brown communities:

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The 32-year-old said that he would ultimately like the police to be replaced with "transformative and restorative processes that are not rooted in punitive practices.

"By abolishing policing and prisons, not only can we eliminate white supremacist establishments, but we can create space for budgets to be reinvested directly into communities to address mental health needs, homelessness and houselessness, access to education, and job creation as well as community-based methods of accountability," he wrote.

The former NFL quarterback is hoping that the publication of the essays will help their readers to understand the "white supremacist underpinnings of policing and prisons and the state-sanctioned oppression, destruction, and execution of Black and Indigenous people and people of color."

"Another world is possible, a world grounded in love, justice, and accountability, a world grounded in safety and good health, a world grounded in meeting the needs of the people," he concluded. "Abolition now. Abolition for the people."