Here in the U.S., the police abolition movement has gained significant momentum since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020 and the continuing protests. Promoted with the phrase "defund the police," the movement argues that policing in the U.S. is inextricably tied with white supremacy and the capitalist interests of the ruling class and cannot be meaningfully reformed. Advocates of this argument propose dismantling police departments and creating alternate services which focus on building structures which support communities.
One of the classifiers at the Library of Congress recently received a Cataloging-in-Publication copy of a book discussing defund the police for a juvenile audience. The editors discussed multiple places where works on this topic might be classed. The scatter class-elsewhere note at 322.44 Reform movements reads "Class a movement seeking to reform a specific social function with the function, e.g., women's suffrage movement 324.623, welfare reform 361.68." So we looked to the social services hierarchy to find the class for Police services, 363.2.
One potential class for works on defunding the police is 363.20681, a number built from 363.2 Police services and T1—0681 Organization and financial management. The manual note at T1—068 says that the subdivisions of T1—068 parallel the subdivisions of 658, so reviewing 658.1 and its subdivisions can help you see what would be involved in T1—0681, including topics like financial management (658.15) and reorganization and dissolution of enterprises (658.16).
A broader option would be 363.2068, using T1—068 Management. This might be a good choice for a work on police abolition that included a significant amount of discussion about personnel management or marketing management (for example, in pitching community-oriented alternatives to policing).
One option you might consider is 363.208996073, a number built from 363.2 Police services + T1—089 Ethnic and national groups + T5—96073 African Americans. This could be an appropriate choice for works focusing on police service and racial discrimination against African Americans, but consider that other class numbers might be better choices. Check out our Black Lives Matter blog post to see other potential class numbers for works focused on the relationship between police and African Americans.
The specific book we were discussing introduced the topic by explaining the death of George Floyd as well as other police killings of Black people, but went on to focus on the general concept of what police abolition means, focusing on the implications of defunding and reinvesting money in other social services, so the editors suggested 363.20681. We anticipate more works in this area, so your feedback on where additional clarification or development is needed is helpful! Feel free to get in touch at dewey@oclc.org.
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