We Keep Us Safe: Building Secure, Just, and Inclusive Communities (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780807029701)

A groundbreaking new vision for public safety that overturns more than 200 years of fear-based discrimination, othering, and punishment

As the effects of aggressive policing and mass incarceration harm historically marginalized communities and tear families apart, how do we define safety? In a time when the most powerful institutions in the United States are embracing the repressive and racist systems that keep many communities struggling and in fear, we need to reimagine what safety means. Community leader and lawyer Zach Norris lays out a radical way to shift the conversation about public safety away from fear and punishment and toward growth and support systems for our families and communities. In order to truly be safe, we are going to have to dismantle our mentality of Us vs. Them. By bridging the divides and building relationships with one another, we can dedicate ourselves to strategic, smart investments--meaning resources directed toward our stability and well-being, like healthcare and housing, education and living-wage jobs. This is where real safety begins.

In this book Zach Norris provides a blueprint of how to hold people accountable while still holding them in community. The result reinstates full humanity and agency for everyone who has been dehumanized and traumatized, so they can participate fully in life, in society, and in the fabric of our democracy.

Author: Zach Norris
ISBN-10: 080702970X
ISBN-13: 9780807029701
Publisher: Beacon Press
Language: English
Published: 02/04/2020
Pages: 208
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.20w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 12/01/2019
Publishers Weekly 12/16/2019