Alex S. Vitale is an American author and professor of sociology at
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...
. He is also the coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College.
His writing has appeared in the
''New York Times'', ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...
'', ''The Appeal'', ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
'', ''
Vice News
Vice News (stylized as VICE News) is Vice Media's alternative current affairs channel, producing daily documentary essays and video through its website and YouTube channel. It promotes itself on its coverage of "under-reported stories". Vice Ne ...
'', and other media outlets. Vitale is the author of ''
The End of Policing
''The End of Policing'' is a 2017 book by the American sociologist Alex S. Vitale. In it, Vitale argues for the eventual abolition of the police, to be replaced variously by decriminalization or with non-law enforcement approaches, depending on ...
'' (2017), which argues for the
abolition of police.
Biography
Alex S. Vitale is originally from
Houston, Texas
Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
.
In 1989, he received his Bachelor's in
Urban anthropology
Urban anthropology is a subset of anthropology concerned with issues of urbanization, poverty, urban space, social relations, and neoliberalism. The field has become consolidated in the 1960s and 1970s.
Ulf Hannerz quotes a 1960s remark that t ...
from
Hampshire College
Hampshire College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges ...
.
From 1990 to 1993, he served on the staff of the
Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco, where he directed
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...
policy for the organization. He also worked on health care programs and
social services
Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...
programs.
While in San Francisco, Vitale witnessed a national backlash against
homelessness
Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...
. In San Francisco, Mayor
Art Agnos
Arthur Christ Agnos (born Arthouros Agnos; September 1, 1938) is an American politician. He served as the 39th mayor of San Francisco, California from 1988 to 1992 and as the Regional Head of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Dev ...
attempted to address homelessness with aggressive ticketing. This was followed by Police Chief
Frank Jordan
Francis Michael Jordan (born February 20, 1935) is an American politician and former police chief who served as the mayor of San Francisco from 1992 to 1996. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Early life and education
Jordan was born in ...
, who became mayor with a platform to aggressively police the homeless. As Vitale later wrote, "Despite these aggressive efforts to restore order, the number of people without a place to live continued to increase and public order remained impaired..."
In 1993, Vitale moved to New York City to attend
CUNY Graduate Center
The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and postgraduate university in New York City. Formed in 1961 as Division of Graduate Studies at City University ...
.
During this era, he was able to observe the transition from the administration of Mayor
David Dinkins
David Norman Dinkins (July 10, 1927 – November 23, 2020) was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993.
Dinkins was among the more than 20,000 Montford Point Marine Associa ...
, which Vitale viewed as
politically liberal
Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...
, to the administration of Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani ( , ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and disbarred lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General fr ...
, which Vitale viewed as
neoliberal
Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pej ...
. He observed aggressive policing and scapegoating of the homeless population under the Giuliani administration.
In 2001, he received his PhD in Sociology from CUNY Graduate Center.
Work
In 2009, ''City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics'' (
NYU Press
New York University Press (or NYU Press) is a university press that is part of New York University.
History
NYU Press was founded in 1916 by the then chancellor of NYU, Elmer Ellsworth Brown.
Directors
* Arthur Huntington Nason, 1916–193 ...
) was published. In the book, Vitale focuses on the drive to improve
quality of life
Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards ...
in New York City and other American cities. In particular, he argues that, in the 1990s, New York City politics focused on restoring moral order, which included the "
zero tolerance
A zero-tolerance policy is one which imposes a punishment for every infraction of a stated rule.zero tolerance, n.' (under ''zero, n.''). The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Ed. 1989. Retrieved 10 November 2009. Italy, Japan, Singapore China, I ...
" campaign of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and an overhaul of prostitution,
graffiti
Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...
,
panhandling, and homelessness in the city. This marked a shift toward prioritizing the needs of the middle and upper classes. The book examines how such changes impacted various New York neighborhoods, the
NYPD
The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...
, and city politics.
In 2017, ''
The End of Policing
''The End of Policing'' is a 2017 book by the American sociologist Alex S. Vitale. In it, Vitale argues for the eventual abolition of the police, to be replaced variously by decriminalization or with non-law enforcement approaches, depending on ...
'' was published. In the book, Vitale argues that the United States should radically reconsider policing, rather than simply
reforming it. He argues that the rise of policing in the world was rooted in three primary forms of economic exploitation:
colonialism
Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...
,
slavery
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
, and the rise of industrialization in the 19th century.
As such, police forces have historically enforced inequality, suppressed workers, and micro-managed black and brown lives. He wrote, "The problem is not
police training
A police academy, also known as a law enforcement training center, police college, or police university, is a training school for police cadets, designed to prepare them for the law enforcement agency they will be joining upon graduation, or to o ...
, police diversity, or police methods. The problem is the dramatic and unprecedented expansion and intensity of policing in the last 40 years, a fundamental shift in the role of police in society. The problem is policing itself." ''The End of Policing'' was met with mixed reception, with positive reviews praising his writing style and detail in research,
and negative reviews arguing that Vitale's proposed solution is too extreme or not extreme enough.
Following the
George Floyd protests
The George Floyd protests were a series of protests, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as Reactions to the mu ...
, Vitale's work received wider public interest. He has been interviewed on alternatives to policing, as well as the movements to defund or
abolish the police, by media outlets such as ''
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
'', ''
the Intercept
''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing nonprofit news organization that publishes articles and podcasts online. ''The Intercept'' has published in English since its founding in 2014, and in Portuguese since the 2016 launch of the Brazilia ...
'', ''
Jacobin
The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential political cl ...
'',
''the Nation'', ''
The Indypendent
''The Indypendent'' is a progressive newspaper based in Brooklyn, New York, United States. It is published monthly, distributed worldwide and is available for free throughout New York City and online. It currently prints 30,000 copies per issue, ...
'', ''
Democracy Now
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long TV, radio, and Internet news program based in Manhattan and hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live ...
'', and ''
The Daily Show
''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk show, late-night talk and news satire television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central in the United States, with extended episodes released shortly after on Paramount+ ...
''.
In one interview, he explained, "Part of the problem is that for decades now, communities have been told that the only resource they can have to address their community problems is more policing and more
incarceration
Imprisonment or incarceration is the restraint of a person's liberty for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is considered " false imprisonment". Impri ...
... Our job is to lay out what the alternatives would look like and give people a sense that they have the power to ask for what they really want."
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
Personal Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vitale, Alex S.
Brooklyn College faculty
Academics from Houston
Police abolitionists
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Hampshire College alumni
CUNY Graduate Center alumni