When did I become an abolitionist?
I became an abolitionist when I was six, the night of my parents divorce, when the cops showed up and made me feel even less safe.
I became an abolitionist when they threatened to arrest my dad.
As I got older I started hearing my dad say “the biggest, most dangerous gang in the country is the one in blue with badges and uniforms,” and I became an abolitionist.
I became an abolitionist in juvie, where I was punished and left in a padded room for hours for scratching my arms.
I became an abolitionist when the sheriffs carried me and used my head to push the door open when they were taking me to jail.
I became an abolitionist when a patrol guard and aspiring cop sexually assaulted me in his car, then followed me when I ran until I lost him. He promised to put me in jail over it.
I got sober and off the streets to learn that one of the few street kids I really trusted, who always kept me safe and helped take care of me, was shot in the back nine times while he was sleeping by OPD, and I became an abolitionist.
I became an abolitionist when in the span of a four hour book-and-release process, I had my skin unnecessarily touched twice by a male officer, forced to remove a tampon and open up my bleeding cavity in front of a female…
