Dear DA,

May I commend DA for the article Anarchism and Crime in the Spring 2009 edition. It’s nice to read anarchists discuss this issue sensibly.

Not sure what exactly “the policing role would...be carried out only as part of a balanced job complex” means.

Can I assume it means we the people policing ourselves and each other, as community militia, workers and residents militia, protecting ourselves and each other and coming to decisions by free association and direct democracy, with former skilled police constables training the rest of us in crime prevention and detection and forensics being retained as needed?

Glad to read about rotation of posts and community direct democracy. Of course there would be no role for judges in an anarchist society. Deci-sions on proven guilt would need to be reserved to juries, and sentencing also decided by community direct democracy. Judges can be replaced with chairpersons of the court, a position rotated and recallable, and for maintaining order only.

Solidarity, Joey.

We would argue for society to dispense with police forces per se, but some of their functions, like those you mention, would still be needed. Instead of being the preserve of one group, as now, these should be integrated with other related, “non-policing” roles, always under the control of an appropriate council (rather than militia) whether that be at the community or workplace level, or at the regional or industrial level.