Public university caught promoting piece explaining 'Why All Cops Are Bastards' and 'Good Cops Do Not Exist' on its 'allyship' reading list

The University of Wisconsin-River Falls' diversity office recently hosted an allyship event in which they promoted an article titled, "A Guide to Allyship: Black Lives Matter & Why 'All Cops Are Bastards,'" Campus Reform reported.

The article, according to the Campus Reform's Jackson Walker and Adam Sabes, has since been removed from the office's "Education & Resources for Allies" webpage, and the university's director of communications and marketing states that the school regrets the posting of the document.

What are the details?

According to the outlet, the recommended reading explains that the idea that individual cops can be good is "rooted in white supremacist mythology."

"The claim that individual cops can be good is rooted in white supremacist mythology that suggests racism is an individual act committed by anybody," the article noted. "Policing is not a question of individualism. It is not as if a random individual gets a gun, a badge, a police car, and a blue uniform. The police are a highly organized institution with systemic power. In order to understand any institution, it is important you start with the history of that institution, the institution of modern day policing evolved from the slave patrol system."

The reading also noted that "to suggest that there are good cops is like saying there's good slave patrols or good colonizers," and pointed out that even if — by chance — an officer with a good intention exits, it doesn't change the fact that "the system they work for criminalizes the whole black community."

According to the article, police "protect Nazis and white supremacists," are guilty of causing gender violence, and states that police are useless in protecting schoolchildren when serving in a SRO capacity.

"[W]e must abolish the police," the article concluded.

What else?

The article was yanked after Wisconsin Right Now reported the article on June 22, Walker and Sabes noted.

Dina Fassino, the school's director at the communications and marketing office, told the outlet that the university is regretful in sharing the document, and "have taken steps to develop a process for reviewing such content in the future."

Beth Schommer, the chief of staff at the UW-River Falls' Chancellor's Office, said that the link to the article was unintentionally posted to the portal.

"We are terribly under resourced in terms of our ability to oversee all the different webpages we have," Schommer said.

Wisconsin Right Now shared a statement from the school:

UW-River Falls regrets the posting of a link on one of its webpages to an editable document from a third-party source which, after being posted, was edited at the source to include statements against law enforcement. The opinions and views reflected in the document do not reflect the values of the university. UWRF is appreciative of the work of law enforcement and is committed to promoting an inclusive campus environment. The webpage has been removed and the university has taken steps to develop a process for reviewing such content in the future.

One of the articles, which was linked on the university's website (which is funded by your tax dollars, in part), bears the headline, “good cops do not exist," and says, “The claim that individual cops can be good is rooted in white supremacist mythology that suggests racism is an individual act committed by anybody. Policing is not a question of individualism…the institution of modern day policing evolved from the slave patrol system. To suggest that there are good cops is like saying there's good slave patrols or good colonizers. It acts as if policing is an individual act that isn't a product of racial capitalism."

The article states that policing “is a violent, sexist, anti-Black institution." Another article on the site suggests that Asians not call cops to show allyship to blacks. Other articles called for defunding and abolishing the police. An article, “Why Riots Work," declared, “violent demonstrations can and have spurred change" and noted, “to turn the tide against injustice, we need movements that are relentless, escalating and with a broadening base of participation."