Alan Dettlaff
@alandettlaff.com
3.9K followers 830 following 490 posts

Co-founder of the upEND movement to abolish the family policing system | Writer and co-facilitator at Toward Liberation, an abolitionist learning group | www.alandettlaff.com | www.towardliberation.com

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NEW FROM ABOLITIONIST PERSPECTIVES IN SOCIAL WORK!

SPECIAL ISSUE: Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine

All articles are open access and available to download now: apsw-ojs-uh.tdl.org/apsw/index
Purple journal cover with title of journal and special issue. Table of contents from special issue.

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

upEND’s Josie Pickens writes for @newsoneofficial.bsky.social about a Michigan mother charged with “food stamp fraud.” When a mom trying to feed her kids gets criminalized, that’s not justice. That’s surveillance, control, and punishment wrapped in the language of “help.” newsone.com/6490272/mich...

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

Ten Books to Get To Know Me (upEND edition) 📚

And if you want to learn more about #FamilyPolicing and #Abolition, we have a whole #syllabus on our website. upendmovement.org/syllabus/
1. Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System: The Case for Abolition by Alan Dettlaff
2. Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World by Dorothy Roberts
3. The School for Good Mothers: A Novel by Jessamine Chan
4. We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America by Roxanna Asgarian
5. Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom by Derecka Purnell
6. We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice by Mariame Kaba
7. We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition by Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson
8. Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare by Dorothy Roberts
9. The Black Child-Savers: Racial Democracy and Juvenile Justice by Geoff K. Ward
10. Border and Rule by Harsha Walia

The truth from Miss Major: "The police have been monsters. They're all worthless, unimaginable, horrible people and destructive to mankind in general, especially to my trans and gender nonconforming community…they are the most detrimental thing to ever happen." ❤️🏳️‍⚧️

JOIN US this Thursday, October 16th at 6:00 PM Eastern for a special roundtable with the authors of the recently published papers in Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work on "Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine."
REGISTER HERE: www.bit.ly/APSWRoundtable
A woman photographed from the back holding a Palestinian flag overlaid with information about the webinar contained in the text post.

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

The Ten Demands for Justice provides the roadmap to abolition — with each action chipping away at an inherently, intentionally unjust system.

Read all 10 here, and print this PDF to bring to your city council members.

drive.google.com/file/d/1MKG3...

web.archive.org/web/20240622...
Yesterday I was told that the class I’m scheduled to teach this month, Confronting Oppression & Injustice, is no longer part of our curriculum. This is a required class yet there was no discussion, no faculty vote, just an email saying the class no longer exists. This is what it’s like in Texas now.

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

Anarchism and chaos aren’t the same.

Anarchism and abolition go hand in hand.

Both with a focus on building a more humanistic society through interconnecting self-sustaining communities.

Something we need now more than ever.

Here, anarchist Eric King and abolitionist @awkword.bsky.social discuss
The Pun Show: I am not a terrorist!
YouTube video by Machine Pun Kelly
www.youtube.com

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

My statement on Middle East peace
A white graphic with a blue border includes the following text: 

My Statement on Middle East Peace
October 9, 2025 

After two years of unimaginable loss and suffering for Israeli families and the people of Gaza, we should all be encouraged and relieved that an end to the conflict is within sight; that those hostages still being held will be reunited with their families; and that vital aid can start reaching those inside Gaza whose lives have been shattered. More than that, though, it now falls on Israelis and Palestinians, with the support of the U.S. and the entire world community, to begin the hard task of rebuilding Gaza – and to commit to a process that, by recognizing the common humanity and basic rights of both peoples, can achieve a lasting peace.

Do not stop calling for a free Palestine.

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

"Hospitals and health-care providers are duty-bound to care for all people who come through their doors, and care for them well. Our current policies policing free movement and drug use are not working." Dr. Divya Manoharan on how hospitals fail their patients who use drugs.
Patients Need Care, Not Policing - Divya Manoharan - Inquest
Providing hospital inpatients who use drugs with safe ways to do so is a critical part of what it means to “do no harm.”
inquest.org

ICYMI: JOIN US on October 16th at 6:00 PM Eastern for a special roundtable with the authors of the recently published papers in Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work on "Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine." REGISTER HERE: www.bit.ly/APSWRoundtable
A woman photographed from the back holds a Palestinian flag. This is overlain with details about the event and the registration link shared in the text.

This is a really beautiful article that uses an auto-archaeological narrative to tell the story of the student protests that took place at Portland State University in October 2023 and the institutional repression that followed. The full article is available to download now at www.apswjournal.com.
A woman photographed from the back holding a Palestinian flag overlaid with information along with the title of the journal article, "Hands Off Palestine, Hands Off Students!" Abstract:
It was Spring 2024, and members of the Portland State University (PSU) campus community had been protesting fiduciary ties with corporations responsible for building and supplying weaponry used by Isreal in the genocide of Palestinians. After a major attack on Gaza in October 2023 and as tensions around the world grew, college and university communities became central to strategies of resistance. Protests and Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) efforts in support of Palestinian liberation included encampments on campuses across the country and around the globe. Responses to these efforts varied greatly institution by institution, and on our campus the decisions were enacted by a newly appointed President and Interim Provost. After attempts to negotiate with the student-led protest groups were abruptly abandoned by the PSU administration, the campus, city, and eventually, state police were called to campus and given control of the (public) blocks, as well as the campus building that had become the locus of the movement. I will present a series of artifacts—personal, public, and institutional—which represent turning points for me in my understandings of social work, Palestine, and abolition. I’ll offer an auto-archaeologic narrative telling of these moments as well as the connections between these isolated memories and the work we are doing—or must be doing or should be doing—with regards to abolition and liberation in our social work practice, scholarship and pedagogy.

The news today has been a bit misleading. To help clarify:

1. One man killed two people in Manchester.
2. The Israeli government killed over 50 people in Gaza.
3. Killing people is bad. Israel should stop doing it.

I hope this helps.

JOIN US on October 16th at 6:00 PM ET for a special roundtable with the authors of the recently published papers in the special issue of Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work on "Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine." REGISTER HERE: www.bit.ly/APSWRoundtable
A woman photographed from the back holding a Palestinian flag overlaid with information about the author roundtable featured in the text of this post.

Yes, this is about youth in some form of what the US calls foster care. But it is written by people from multiple countries.

Last week I posted about attending the book launch for "Queer and In Care" but what I didn't mention specifically is that this new book is entirely open access and free to download! This is a really beautiful book. Please take a look! books.ugp.rug.nl/ugp/catalog/...
Cover of "Queer and In Care" featuring a young person surrounded by rainbows and flowers.

This is such an important article as it exposes the utter hypocrisy of social work education. These are the stories about social work that need to be told if we are going to confront the harm universities and schools of social work inflict on so many people. Available now at www.apswjournal.com
Cover image of the Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work journal featuring a black and white photo of a woman holding a Palestinian flag. The colors of the flag are visible against the black and white background. Abstract of the article which begins: Social work education has a deep investment in carcerality and zionism, demonstrated over the past year of discipline and punishment of students for solidarity protests. This article interrogates social work education through the concrete experiences of a student, Darrion Hun, who was deeply involved in Palestine solidarity organizing at the NYU Silver School of Social Work.

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

We’re crowdfunding for @eji.org, a charitable org dedicated to “ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.”

tiktok.com/@thisisawkword
The United States incarcerates its citizens more than any other country. Mass incarceration disproportionately impacts the poor and people of color and does not make us safer. EJI is working to end our misguided reliance on over-incarceration.

The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population but nearly 25% of its incarcerated population.

Our spending on jails and prisons reached $87 billion in 2015, an increase of 1000% from the $7.4 billion spent in 1975.

In 1972, there were only 200,000 people incarcerated in the United States. Today that number has grown to 2.2 million.

At the book launch for Queer and in Care in Groningen, Netherlands. You can get your free download at the QR code.
Video of rainbow flag with book title Queer and in Care. Book cover featuring young person with rainbow and QR code to download your copy.

Thank you for this reminder!

NEW from our special issue “Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine”: Nadia Ben-Youssef and Cameron Rasmussen explore the concepts of abolitionist social relations and collective safety as part of the global movement for a free Palestine. Available now at www.apswjournal.com.

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

We're back from our summer break with an incisive analysis from La Defensa's Leah Perez on how a history of racist policing in Los Angeles has amplified the violence of ICE and the National Guard to create the authoritarian spectacle of a city "under federal occupation."
The Canary in the Coal Mine - Leah Perez - Inquest
A number of factors—including a willingness of law enforcement to collude with federal authorities—make Los Angeles a distressing bellwether of a country succumbing to authoritarianism.
inquest.org

NEW from our special issue, “Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine,” Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian and Abeer Otman ask “What are the psychosocial, affective, and actual experiences of Palestinian students studying within settler-colonial genocide?” Available now at www.apswjournal.com

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

Yesterday we joined the Healthy and Free Tennessee Youth Council for a Family Policing Abolition 101 workshop. The brilliance and courage of these young leaders reminds us how important it is to listen to and learn from youth who are system impacted. ❤️ 🔥

Reposted by Alan J. Dettlaff

Happy fall semester/quarter to all of my academic friends! Survivors+Allies created this syllabi template in 2020 & we hope u will consider adding it to your syllabi (adjusting it to your university)! It includes information on confidential resources & more.
Survivors and Allies - Syllabus Template
Template for Instructors to Use in Their Syllabus
www.survivorsandallies.com

Over the next few weeks, I’d like to highlight the articles from our new special issue, “Thinking and Practicing Abolition Through Palestine,” beginning with this beautiful Introduction from our Guest Editors. Download the open access article from our website: www.apswjournal.com

Reminder to join the @swactivists.bsky.social next week for "An Evening of Solidarity and Support." These meetings are always such a generative space to be together with like-minded people, feel supported, and learn about opportunities to engage where you're able and interested. I hope you can join!