Settler police and policing: Cleo My Tien Nguyen, ‘To serve and protect’ (settler-colonialism): The ‘raison d’etre’ of Canada’s law enforcement, MA dissertation, University of Saskatchewan, 2024 | settler colonial studies blog

Settler police and policing: Cleo My Tien Nguyen, ‘To serve and protect’ (settler-colonialism): The ‘raison d’etre’ of Canada’s law enforcement, MA dissertation, University of Saskatchewan, 2024

30Jan24

Abstract: This thesis investigates the role of police and prisons in the reproduction of a violent, settler- colonial state order. The scope of police being examined pertains to all police forces in Canada, including city police and the RCMP. It asserts that proposals for reform in response to issues of police violence against Indigenous peoples and communities of color along racialized and gendered lines have been only at the micro-level and technical. I argue that we must broaden our approach to a macro-level to engage in a systemic analysis that views policing in the context of the state’s racial, settler-colonial project and to this end I investigate how institutions of policing and prisons reproduce a white, settler-colonial order. With the production of this white, settler- colonial order, populations within it also come under the maintenance of the state via both policing and prisons. By recognizing the existence of racism as structures, such as the police and prisons, we can begin to utilize an abolitionist approach to justice which sees to their dismantlement and a transformative future. My thesis concludes that while it is theoretically possible to curb police violence through reform, doing so runs counter to its very raison d’etre.

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