Review Of: The Global Police State

Abstract

As Brazilian president Bolsonaro did everything in his power to sabotage efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19, protestors took to the streets holding signs that read "Our brother, George Floyd," seeking to connect the police murder of George Floyd to the racist violence of Brazilian police who kill in the favelas with impunity. In 2019, 1,800 people were killed by police in Rio de Janeiro alone, almost twice the rate of police killings in all of the United States (Gutierrez 2020). The police murder of George Floyd over an alleged $20 counterfeit bill amid a raging global pandemic resonated with millions of oppressed people all over the world, from the favelas of Brazil to the streets of Nigeria. In the United States, the George Floyd rebellion unleashed one of the most militant uprisings since the 1960s, forsaking previous demands of police reform and taking concrete steps towards abolishing the police-tearing down carceral infrastructures that prop up the brutal racial social order. William Robinson's book "The Global Police State" couldn't have come at a better time. Policing and the COVID-19 pandemic have forced us to face head on the question of crisis. Robinson has provided us with an important text that makes a powerful case for understanding how the contradictions and crises of the capitalist world-economy are pushing