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More than a year after the mass uprisings against racist police brutality that roiled cities across the United States, many media outlets have  or dismissed as  specific demands by racial justice organizers to divert funding from massive police budgets toward city services. Casey Rocheteau, communications manager at the  and co-host of a new podcast , calls it 鈥渁 backlash in mainstream media when it comes to what people are seeing as a 鈥榥ew鈥� demand to defund police.鈥� 

In fact, calls to reduce police funding  much earlier than 2020. One example is  that found a correlation between increased police funding and incidents of police brutality in Washington, D.C., that took place at the same time that funds for social services were cut. And, in the wake of the Ferguson uprising in 2014, some advocates for police reform  as a way to remedy state violence. 

To remedy the misinformation in many corporate media outlets, Rocheteau, together with Amanda Alexander, founder and executive director of the Detroit Justice Center, decided to create a platform to share powerful and inspiring stories of how organizers are challenging the way police budgets are determined, demanding an end to state violence, and advocating for a significant reduction in incarceration levels.

鈥淲hen people are calling the police, the police are telling people, 鈥榃e can鈥檛 help you because we鈥檝e been defunded,鈥欌�� says Rocheteau. Such an absurd claim鈥攕hared by a Seattle-based organizer in a forthcoming episode of Freedom Dreams鈥攎akes the case for a podcast that sets the record straight. In fact, neither  nor  police have been defunded. 

Coming at these issues from an abolitionist perspective that aims to dismantle policing and incarceration, Freedom Dreams鈥�  spotlights an effort to close the Atlanta City Jail. It is an inspiring story of how a coalition of formerly incarcerated women, transgender and queer organizers, and undocumented activists have chipped away at the size of the jailed population from more than a thousand to just a few dozen. 

The podcast creators, feeling that the story had not gotten nearly as much attention as it deserved, spoke with organizers Marilynn Winn and Xochitl Bervera about their campaign to replace the jail with a Center for Wellness and Freedom.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been important for us to think about not just what we鈥檙e tearing down in terms of policing and jails and prisons, but also focusing on what we鈥檙e building up,鈥� says Alexander. 

Alexander describes her organization鈥檚 communications strategy as 鈥渋ntentional鈥� in 鈥渟potlighting the problems鈥� and, more importantly, 鈥渢he movement builders who are already resisting, that we can be learning from.鈥� 

Although the podcast鈥檚 focus is on Detroit, where the hosts are based鈥攑rimarily because, as Rocheteau says, 鈥淒etroit is a very fertile ground for this kind of [abolitionist] work,鈥� where social services are 鈥攖he creators make a concerted effort to draw connections between similar struggles and solutions in other cities, such as Seattle, New York, Los Angeles, and others.

Alexander hopes to attract young listeners, in particular who 鈥渢ook to the streets last summer鈥� but have not yet taken the next step beyond 鈥減rotesting what we don鈥檛 want,鈥� to asking the question, 鈥淲hat can we learn from people who are building up what we do want?鈥� 

Find out more about the Freedom Dreams podcast .

Not only do most reports of policing and incarceration miss stories like the closing of Atlanta City Jail that Freedom Dreams highlights, but Rocheteau worries there are also alternate narratives being presented that do a disservice to communities most directly impacted by policing and mass incarceration. 

For example, mainstream media analysis of policing and mass incarceration often serves up dense facts informed by crime statistics and the complexities of city budgeting, all while making the assumption that policing is the only way to tackle crime. 

A case in point is this extensive report in  that Rocheteau cites about the battle over police funding in Dallas, Texas. The reporters barely scratch the surface of what might be causing crime in the city of 1.3 million residents, and, subsequently, there is no effort to spark a conversation about why the abolition of police is a matter of racial justice. Instead, there are myriad statistics of how the number of homicides and police officers have changed over time. 

鈥淵es, it鈥檚 important to know those statistics,鈥� says Rocheteau. 鈥淏ut presenting people with that information often leaves them in a position of feeling like, 鈥榃hat do I do about that?鈥欌�� 

With Freedom Dreams, Rocheteau and Alexander hope to inspire action by showcasing how people across the country are engaged in abolition work. 鈥淚n cities across the country, there is this move to say, 鈥榃e need to stop building jails, we need to understand why people are there,鈥欌�� says Alexander. 鈥淲e need to start meeting people鈥檚 actual needs in other ways besides policing, and prosecuting, and jailing people.鈥�