Aggregating

Notes: 28 / 7 hours ago

seriously. fuck the police.

Notes: 8 / 3 days ago from t-d-x

“like straight up you can give the police One Trillion Dollars and they will roll up in a fucking ferrari cop car with rocket launchers meanwhile sending faxes of mimeographs 50 feet to ‘records’ which is just a room with a lady in it who puts the fax in a box”

- fwd

Notes: 5 / 6 days ago from bookmarklet

"DHS estimates that as many as 1 million people who are subject to administrative detention or arrest annually could now be subject to DNA collection. But it’s important to note that many of these people are not involved in criminal activity. Collecting DNA from anyone detained by the government for any number of non-criminal reasons—especially juveniles—seems to be yet another step on the slippery slope to collecting DNA from everyone in the United States, no matter their status."

- DHS Considers Collecting DNA From Kids; DEA and US Marshals Already Do | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Notes: 1057 / 2 weeks ago from anonmedics

anonmedics:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/05/david-graeber-new-police-strategy-in-new-york-sexual-assault-against-peaceful-protestors.html

A few weeks ago I was with a few companions from Occupy Wall Street in Union Square when an old friend — I’ll call her Eileen — passed through, her hand in a cast.

“What happened to you?” I asked.

“Oh, this?” she held it up. “I was in Liberty Park on the 17th [the Six Month Anniversary of the Occupation]. When the cops were pushing us out the park, one of them yanked at my breast.”

“Again?” someone said.

We had all been hearing stories like this. In fact, there had been continual reports of police officers groping women during the nightly evictions from Union Square itself over the previous two weeks.

“Yeah so I screamed at the guy, I said, ‘you grabbed my boob! what are you, some kind of fucking pervert?’ So they took me behind the lines and broke my wrists.”

Actually, she quickly clarified, only one wrist was literally broken. She proceeded to launch into a careful, well-nigh clinical blow-by-blow description of what had happened. An experienced activist, she knew to go limp when police seized her, and how to do nothing that could possibly be described as resisting arrest. Police dragged her, partly by the hair, behind their lines and threw her to the ground, periodically shouting “stop resisting!” as she shouted back “I’m not resisting!” At one point though, she said, she did tell them her glasses had fallen to the sidewalk next to her, and announced she was going to reach over to retrieve them. That apparently gave them all the excuse they needed. One seized her right arm and bent her wrist backwards in what she said appeared to be some kind of marshal-arts move, leaving it not broken, but seriously damaged. “I don’t know exactly what they did to my left wrist—at that point I was too busy screaming at the top of my lungs in pain. But they broke it. After that they put me in plastic cuffs, as tightly as they possibly could, and wouldn’t loosen them for at least an hour no matter how loud I screamed or how much the other prisoners begged them to help me. For a while everyone in the arrest van was chanting ‘take them off, take them off’ but they just ignored them…”

Notes: 628 / 2 weeks ago from anonmedics

anonmedics:

An extremely disturbing report on the emerging police tactic of employing brutal sexual assault against Occupation protesters as an intimidation and provocation tactic. Police have engaged in rape and sexual assault against civilians since time immemorial, but the use of such tactics against Occupy may finally serve to bring some light to the intrinsic evil, exploitation, and misogyny of the United States law enforcement industrial complex.

Read the full article here.

Arbitrary violence is nothing new. The apparently systematic use of sexual assault against women protestors is new. I’m not aware of any reports of police intentionally grabbing women’s breasts before March 17, but on March 17 there were numerous reported cases, and in later nightly evictions from Union Square, the practice became so systematic that at least one woman told me her breasts were grabbed by five different police officers on a single night (in one case, while another one was blowing kisses.) The tactic appeared so abruptly, is so obviously a violation of any sort of police protocol or standard of legality, that it is hard to imagine it is anything but an intentional policy.

For obvious reasons, most of the women who have been victims of such assaults have been hesitant to come forward. Suing the city is a miserable and time-consuming task and if a woman brings any charge involving sexual misconduct, they can expect to have their own history and reputations—no matter how obviously irrelevant—raked over the coals, usually causing immense damage to their personal and professional life. The threat of doing so operates as a very effective form of intimidation. One exception is Cecily McMillan, who was not only groped but suffered a broken rib and seizures during her arrest on March 17, and held incommunicado, denied constant requests to see her lawyer, for over 24 hours thereafter. Shortly after release from the hospital she appeared on Democracy Now! And showed part of a handprint, replete with scratch-marks, that police had left directly over her right breast. (She is currently pursuing civil charges against the police department)

Notes: 213 / 2 weeks ago from collaterlysisters (originally from redsuspenders)

(Source: redsuspenders)

Notes: 275 / 1 month ago from churchofindustry (originally from politics-war)

(Source: politics-war)

Notes: 80 / 2 months ago

What the hell is “white privilege”?

This is a post for my fellow white people.

When you’re a member of a privileged group, like being cisgendered, heterosexual, white, or male, the most difficult part of understanding activism, developing progressive ideas, and becoming a good ally is figuring out exactly what people mean when they call you “privileged”.

It’s not easy! It’s actually really goddamn difficult. I can see male privilege because I have the lived experience of a female—but as a white person, seeing white privilege is far more difficult for me. I will never fully understand the experience of a person who does not have white privilege, but by studying it, listening to the experiences of others, creating a hostile environment for racism, sexism, and homophobia in my immediate vicinity (by calling out racism, sexism, and homophobia when I see it, where I see it), and taking every opportunity to shut the hell up when another white voice is not needed or wanted in the conversation, I can help a little.

It’s especially difficult when—and I see this happen to internet white men a lot, often resulting in scathing arguments on Tumblr and elsewhere—people of color seem to be telling you that you’re doing something wrong, or even that you’re a bad person, just because of your skin color. When you don’t see your privilege, you are unable to understand what the problem is, or even what you’re supposed to be doing to fix it.

Phrases like “smash the patriarchy”, “die cis scum”, “fuck the police” and “kill whitey” are difficult to process without first being made aware of the poisonous background radiation of privilege/oppression that make these slogans—whether they are said in jest, seriously, or as something in-between—justified and reasonable. It seems alienating, confusing, and often impossible to harmonize with your own “progressive ideals” of a hate-free egalitarian utopia. The anger that this language communicates to privileged people is often shocking to them. It is difficult to understand that this anger is justified, that it is reasonable, and that it is reasoned, when you personally have never been the victim of police violence, male violence, gaybashing, and institutional or interpersonal personal racism.

The nature of privilege is that if you have it, you won’t notice it. You aren’t meant to. It is, in effect, like being “spoiled”: spoiled children never say thank you, never acknowledge the time and effort their parents exert to spoil them, and never notice that their position is different from anyone else’s until it stops—and then the tantrums start.

You, and I, and every other white person, are spoiled as shit. But spoiled children aren’t bad people. They aren’t evil, or scheming, or intentionally exploitative—they have simply been raised this way. They don’t know any better, it other words, until someone confronts their expectations of being catered to, and demands they start behaving like human beings instead of entitled jerks.

In “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh, a white female scholar creates a list of ways in which she is privileged by her skin color. READ THE WHOLE THING.

My schooling gave me no training in seeing myself as an oppressor, as an unfairly advantaged person, or as a participant in a damaged culture. I was taught to see myself as an individual whose moral state depended on her individual moral will. My schooling followed the pattern my colleague Elizabeth Minnich has pointed out: whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work that will allow “them” to be more like “us.”

Daily effects of white privilege

I decided to try to work on myself at least by identifying some of the daily effects of white privilege in my life. I have chosen those conditions that I think in my case attach somewhat more to skin-color privilege than to class, religion, ethnic status, or geographic location, though of course all these other factors are intricately intertwined. As far as I can tell, my African American coworkers, friends, and acquaintances with whom I come into daily or frequent contact in this particular time, place and time of work cannot count on most of these conditions.

1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.

3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.

4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

7. When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.

9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.

10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.

[List continues here.]

Why is this recommended reading for white people? Because white privilege allows us to ignore the words spoken or written by people of color, and words spoken or written about racism. Which is one of the items included on the list, actually. As horrible as this is to admit, having a white person lay it out like this, with words about how and why she came to these conclusions, is probably more helpful to neonate progressives, activists, or allies than continually misunderstanding why people of color keep insisting that they’re “privileged”.

People ask me all the time where they should “start” being feminist/activist/anti-racist/a good ally. Here’s a good place to start.

Thanks to CHECK YOUR WHITE PRIVILEGE, a page of fantastic links that I have only just started to read through, by stfuconfederates.

Notes: 213 / 2 months ago

According to the book The Art of Star Trek, “the skirt design for men ‘skant’ was a logical development, given the total equality of the sexes presumed to exist in the 24th century.”

The uniform was used primarily by background actors, though “Encounter at Farpoint” featured both Deanna Troi and Natasha Yar in skant-type uniforms, the latter only briefly. While Troi got a new look entirely for subsequent episodes (according to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion the uniform was referred to as the “Space Cheerleader” look), Yar remained in her jumpsuit uniform for the rest of her stay aboard the Enterprise, never donning the skant after the pilot episode. Male crewmembers wearing the skant were only seen in few episodes, “Encounter at Farpoint”, “Haven”, “Conspiracy”, “Where No One Has Gone Before” and “11001001”, though the footage seen in the last episode was re-used from “Where No One Has Gone Before”.

The skant was primarily seen in the first season, appearing only four times, worn with black trousers, in the second season episodes “The Child”, “The Outrageous Okona”, “The Schizoid Man”, and “Samaritan Snare”. After that its final appearance was in the flashbacks during “All Good Things…”

Notes: 153 / 2 months ago from catbountry (originally from capromanoff)

proper interrogation technique

Tagged:
fuck the police

Notes: 8 / 3 months ago from collaterlysisters

Police are murdering, hysterical children

collaterlysisters:

Here’s what happened in the meantime: he walked to the retaining wall at Laney College, directly across from where the fence had just come down. Looking at the front of Laney, this would be the “right” end of the fence, close to the intersection of 10th and Oak. He met two girls there, and joked with them, “The police threw tear gas. I just have these.” And in his hand he had a cluster of seedpods – the dark brown, lightweight, spherical type of seed-holders that fall from sweetgum trees.
As the police hurled tear-gas canisters into the crowd, Govinda threw these one-inch-round seed pods at the line of shielded riot cops.
“It would have been like throwing popcorn,” said Sweet Grass. “They hardly weigh anything, and can’t travel very far.”
For this gesture, Govinda is facing eight felony charges. None of the seedpods had made contact with an officer, but eight officers “felt assaulted.” Each of the eight wrote up a separate felony indictment for the same act, along with a misdemeanor charge for wearing a black bandanna around his head.
Officers refused to identify themselves on paper, choosing instead to sign each individual citation as “John Doe.” An officer has written across each indictment form the word “SERIOUS.”

Notes: 23 / 3 months ago

Christ, I’m glad SOMEONE is paying attention.

Notes: 15 / 3 months ago from bookmarklet

"There are people in this world who kill and torture innocent people, and they won’t listen to reason. They are the bad guys. The only thing they will listen to is a kick in the fucking teeth. Pacifists love to use Gandhi as an example of how nonviolent protest works, but they forget that Gandhi was effective because Britain was a civlized democracy with a lot of press access. If Gandhi had tried his approach under Stalin, or Mao Tse Tung - or even, yes, Saddam Hussein - then we never would have heard of him. He’d be buried deep in a ditch with a bullethole through one lens of his glasses."

-

The Watchtower of Destruction: The Ferrett’s Journal - A Love Letter To Those Who Kill

Yeah. Those people are called “the police”.

Notes: 69 / 3 months ago from collaterlysisters

collaterlysisters:

“Protect the Person Behind You”

Masked shield corps protester at Occupy Oakland on January 28th with homemade shield and sign. A group of these people protected unarmed and legally-assembled civilian marchers during the Oakland Police Department attack on the action, including catching rubber bullets, baton blows, flashbang and teargas grenades, pepper balls, and beanbag weapons on their shields.

Her Ya Basta sign signals her membership in a long-running leftist group of the same name, who often take it upon themselves to protect vulnerable protesters at actions in this way.

Edit: on a personal note, it’s fascinating to see this kind of brilliant “character design” manifesting in real life. She’s the Space Marine of her time—customized armor, personal touches everywhere, absolutely hardassed and reliable in the face of an overwhelming, alien, indefatigable foe.

Notes: 6 / 3 months ago from bookmarklet

"Cognitech, Inc. has announced the recent donation of it’s forensic video enhancement Tri-Suite 11 software system to the Oakland Police Department, at the request of the Oakland Law Enforcement, and in the interest of the City of Oakland, CA, community at large with the purpose of forensically enhancing and analyzing video footage from the Occupy Oakland protests in order to “find the forensic truth” in the recorded incidents/events footage."

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Cognitech, Inc. Announces Donation of Software to the Oakland Police Department

I told you it was the grim cyberpunk future, and you didn’t fucking believe me. Why didn’t you believe me?