Stakes is High: Life After the American Dream

Smith begins this essay by explaining that he knows he lives in the hood, where he says trash is the telltale sign. The amount of trash is a socioeconomic indicator, a reminder that his neighborhood is not the priority of city officials, who could place more trash cans on the sidewalks if they really wanted to, but don’t. Instead of trash cans, city officials have deemed the heavy police presence in the neighborhood a necessity. All day and night, the police patrol and harass.

Smith then provides a brief history of the police in America, who initially “were charged with preventing slave revolts” (64). The police would then become the primary enforcer of Prohibition, the uprisings of the Civil Rights movement, the “War on Drugs,” and counter-terrorism initiatives that surveilled and targeted Muslim after 9/11. Smith argues that the police have never been part of a solution in America, but instead contribute to the ongoing belief that people themselves are the problem. Later in the chapter, Smith suggests that abolishing the police is the best way forward for America. According to Smith, the “police are needed only insofar as there is a need to police the borders of the American—pardon me, US—identity, meaning that they are needed to determine who is worthy of life, liberty, and happiness” (93).