Abolition as the Solution: Redress for Victims of Excessive Police Force

Abstract

This Essay examines the historical and present-day interpretation of a single federal criminal statute — the Civil Rights Act of 1866, a part of which became 18 U.S.C. § 242 — to argue that white supremacy prevents the criminal legal system from delivering justice to individual Black victims of state violence. This Essay argues that Black victims of state violence should instead seek abolitionist remedies to address and prevent systemic harm to Black communities. These arguments are part of a larger shift away from traditional criminal legal reform toward an anti-racist, anti-carceral, and anti-capitalist paradigm. As such, these arguments fit within an abolitionist framework. This Essay concludes with a call for reckoning with the nation’s white supremacy to enable reconciliation.