What the movement I am studying advocates for is a defunding (for the purpose of abolition) of ALL Memphis police, not just school officers, because it is all connected. The ways in which mass incarceration affects students’ parents, older siblings, and neighbors works in conjunction (and I would even say cannot work without) a carceral school structure and hyper-policed students. The road to abolishing police is a long one, but the process is streamlined and extremely possible. Starting with how students are handled by teachers and administrators that should be there for them, which is its own violent form of policing. Then, getting rid of actual officers in schools would be the next step to trying to make an educational space where youth do not feel hyper-policed. Eventually, we would need to abolish ALL officers to create whole communities where communities of color are not being policed and forced into the “death-worlds” that is the prison system— in turn leading to an abolition of prisons. Subsequently, it would be necessary to add resources and social services as well as additional funding to these communities as well rather than creating a “vacuum” similar to those in post-war states that could be filled by outside actors. The final step to creating justice from police is a complete abolition of the military— clearly, a long and strenuous journey but also one that is very much possible. 

The work that is currently being done supports organizing theories such as those proposed by Baker by listing specific demands in the form of petitions as well as a minimization of hierarchy and respectability politics by the placement of youth leaders at the forefront. These youth leaders are able to pass down their knowledge and strategies by way of non-profits that help facilitate youth action (like BRIDGES) that put together groups of differently aged students so that the momentum of this movement does not end with a class’ graduation. This makes for organizing that is led by those most directly impacted by the problems at hand and seems to work effectively for a very successful blossoming movement.