{"id":873,"date":"2020-09-24T08:28:49","date_gmt":"2020-09-24T12:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/?p=873"},"modified":"2021-04-27T11:29:34","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T15:29:34","slug":"ivan-calaff-the-praxis-of-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/ivan-calaff-the-praxis-of-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivan Calaff | The Praxis of Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/ivan-calaff\/\">By Ivan Calaff<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"gmail_quote\" dir=\"auto\">History is the wisest teacher, not only because it lays out a roadmap for how we should deal with our present circumstances, but because it also allows us to ask better questions looking into the future.\u00a0 Speaking of history being a\u00a0 wise teacher, Frederick Douglas once said, \u201cIt is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.\u201d<br \/>\nWhy is this important? And what does it have to do with abolition?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gmail_quote\" dir=\"auto\">These 12 powerful words perfectly define what abolition should look like- building and creating(not repairing or reforming) new systems, laws, institutions, ideologies, practices, and structures which will enrich, strengthen, and uplift our people and their communities. The term \u201cBuilding\u201d carries the assumption that we all come together-a collective efficacy working across our differences by focusing on on our commonalities. Henry Ford said, \u201cComing together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"gmail_quote\" dir=\"auto\">Many people believe that the ills that plague many black and brown communities can be cured by \u201creforming\u201d\u00a0 them away.\u00a0 They believe that by \u201creforming\u201d the police, or even our criminal law system, that will somehow lend itself to&#8230; Justice? Safety? Or maybe equity?\u00a0 Sadly, we only need to look to our nation\u2019s history to know that \u201creform\u201d has\u00a0 never equated to justice, safety, nor equity, for certain communities. Fortunately, more and more people have begun to realize that.<br \/>\nIf we want true Justice,\u00a0 completely different from our current system of revenge, we must embrace and engage, unapologetically and unashamedly, \u00a0in the praxis of Justice.\u00a0 But, it must be a Justice tempered with mercy and forgiveness. Achieving a world where police and prisons are no longer necessary\u00a0 will require from us a certain level of courage as change can be frightening. And\u00a0 fear can be a real hindrance. However, courage is simply the realization that there exist somethings more important than fear.<br \/>\nAbolishing systems, institutions, structures, etc., that deny people their basic freedoms, and human dignity is absolutely necessary. Nevertheless, building and creating healthy communities remains much more important.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ivan Calaff\u00a0 History is the wisest teacher, not only because it lays out a roadmap for how we should deal with our present circumstances, but because it also allows us to ask better questions looking into the future.\u00a0 Speaking&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/ivan-calaff-the-praxis-of-justice\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51427],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts-1-13","byline-ivan-calaff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/abolition1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}