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filipinfodump · 2 months

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Kabesang Tales - Isang Rap en Rol Musical

A Filipino Musical that hasn't left my mind since the mid 2010s

Poster for Kabesang Tales posted by Palakat Batangas City via Facebook

Although the Philippines is known for its many talented singers which include many that had crossed over to Broadway such as Lea Salonga, and Rachelle Ann Go, alongside many other Filipino-American talents like Conrad Ricamora, Arielle Jacobs, George Salazar, and Darren Criss just to name a few, the musical scene in the Philippines itself isn't as popular nor as successful in the country as it really should be.

Even with Filipino-majority musicals in states like the controversial Broadway musical "Here Lies Love" which narrates the life story of Imelda Marcos, one of the most controversial figures in Filipino politics and history today, and with Filipino stars often taking in lead or secondary roles in major productions, the musical boom of the 2010s did not come with a boom for the musical industry in the local level compared to the sudden popularity of American musicals like Hamilton, Heathers, Dear Evan Hansen, or Be More Chill to name a few.

The very few musicals that did garner the spotlight did not receive the same notoriety of these foreign productions save for one of the few musical movies to have gotten major media acclaim Loy Arcena's Ang Larawan (2017) (en. The Portrait) based on the 1997 play of the same name by National Artist Nick Joaquin which became a media frenzy as being maybe one of the few if not the only original movie not based on major series or created by a large production company to be released that year for the Metro Manila Film Festival. One of the things that had skyrocketed it to media attention was the fact that most theaters did not screen it and it was only shown in very few cinemas, but that's a story for another time.

Despite the time and devotion Filipino musical fans may have for theatre, rarely do Filipino made and produced musicals ever enter the pop culture zeitgeist due to many factors like the lack of advertising, accessibility issues, and honestly the lack of cast recordings. Out of the many throughout the 2010s, one of the few I was able to watch that I still think about at times is Ricky Lee's very own rap and rock musical Kabesang Tales.

Background

Photo of Ricky Lee, the writer of Kabesang Tales the Musical via Inquirer

Kabesang Tales - Isang Rap en Rol Musical) (en. Captain Tales - A Rap n' Roll Musical) is a rap and rock musical first performed in the year 2015 and was written by renowned Filipino writer and National Artist Ricky Lee. The musical was directed by Alejandro "Bong" Ramos, with music by Jeffrey Hernandez and Alfredo Ongleo, and produced by Red Lantern Production (Inquirer, 2015).

Photo of John Arcilla, the lead actor for Kabesang Tales the Musical via Inquirer

The musical stars John Arcilla as the titular character Telesforo Juan "Kabesang Tales" De Dios, famously known for his breakout role as Hen. Anotnio Luna in the historical film Heneral Luna released the same year as the musical, alongside other talents such as Dio Marco as Karyo, Kevin Posadas as Tano de Dios, Alecx Lorica as Juli De Dios among many other talented actors (Inquirer, 2015).

A cover of one of the book's translations posted by twitter user El Filibusterismo (@/joseriz15155899) via X/Twitter

The play is based on Jose Rizal's El Filibusterismo (en. The Filibuster) and more specifically, the character of Kabesang Tales, the head of his barangay (a sort of Filipino village) and father of Basilio's main love interest Juli, who had turned into a guerilla bandit after his family and life were ruined by the Spanish friars. He becomes the feared Matanglawin (en. Hawkeye) who terrorizes the countryside. He plays a minor but important role in the books, being the father of one of the main secondary characters as well as being one of the main allies of the primary characters as they tried to start a revolution in the country.

The play primarily focuses on his perspective throughout the whole book with some scenes focusing more on the main protagonists Simoun and Basilio as well as his daughter Juli.

Performances and Releases

The musical had limited performances throughout some parts of the CALABARZON Region or Region IV-A, with some select performances in Metro Manila as well as some other provinces like in Mindoro, sometime during the years 2015-2017 with some being done in local cultural centers and schools throughout the region with very limited promotion outside of news stories.

The only promotional material I could really find are some posts on Facebook and a trailer in the Red Lantern Production's YouTube channel which could be seen here:

youtube

Trailer uploaded by Red Lantern Production via YouTube

There are no original cast recordings that I could find of any of the songs and the only material that I could find besides this are uploads on YouTube of scattered scenes from different parts of the play:

youtube

Full Playlist uploaded by YouTube channel pheejaypi here

I was also able to find a collection of clips of Karyo, a character possibly named after Karyo from Mga Ibong Madaragit which is a continuation novel of the El Filibusterismo written by Amado Hernandez, played by Terrence Guillermo.

youtube

Video uploaded by YouTube channel pinoy music maestro here

I remember some time in the 2010s seeing uploads of members of the cast singing in interviews I believe but I could no longer find any of these videos.

As of now, it is unknown if the production will ever come back with the last post on the Facebook page having been in 2021 with a post prior to posted on July 2019 calling for auditions in August 2019, possibly hinting that there was a planned 2020 tour for the musical before the pandemic hit.

Photo of the audition announcement posted on Facebook

The Plot (mostly from memory)

As there's barely any material of the live musical, I'll do my best to recollect what I could remember with the aide of the actual books to guide me. Of course, spoilers for Rizal's books Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo if you haven't read them.

The plot follows the events of El Filibusterismo but mainly from the perspective of the titular character Kabesang Tales. It begins with an extremely happy and optimistic scene with him, his family, and barangay as well as the visit of Basilio, Tales's daughter's lover to their house. I remember that there was an extremely cheesy song here between the two that a lot of people squealed over.

Photo of the mentioned musical number between Basilio and Juli posted by Jayson Pascua

The perspective switches over to Basilio and his visit to his mother's grave where he is shocked to see a man there who is revealed to be the thought to be dead fugitive Crisostomo Ibarra who now goes by Simoun, a jewelry merchant from the United States. The two have a bit of an argument where Simoun tries to convince Basilio to join him and his rebellion and I don't recall exactly if there was a song, but it seems likely.

Perspective switches back to Tales as tragedy strikes as his entire family gets struck with malaria resulting in the death of his wife. I don't remember all the details here or if there was a song, but I remember a sort of depressing atmosphere for the rest of this part.

Photo showing all of the actors playing the De Dios Family posted by Jayson Pascua

The family struggles with money and friars come over to cause even more problems for them. There's a rap battle here between Tales and a friar. Here starts his downward spiral as he struggles to make ends meet as well as handle the friars that had been trying to gain his land. I don't recall if it's shown that he has to pay for a lot of lawyers, but he starts paying more and more for legal fees because of the legal drama with the friars and the government.

My sister tells me that there's a song about how good the friars are before they get properly introduced and I have a hazy memory of three friars wearing varied outfits typically associated with friars posing for the stage as people sing songs of praise and goodwill. My sister tells me that Basilio was in the ensemble here.

His son, Tano, gets drafted to the Guardia Civil (en. Civil Guard) and sent to the Caroline Islands because Tales could not pay money to prevent his draft due to their financial struggles. This is shown as a heart wrenching scene in the play where the rest of the family is left distraught.

He starts guarding his property in fear of bandits possibly taking his fields and taking whatever he has left.

Tales then gets taken by these bandits who demand ransom money for his return. There he meets Karyo, one of its leaders who tells him about the struggles of the working class and why he and the others had resorted to being bandits in the first place (?). I don't actually remember if this is the first they meet or what since I do remember that the two have a philosophical discussion about violence later and that Karyo is definitely a member of the bandits but there are scenes where he acts as the emcee during Tales's rap battle with the friar.

The bandits later lets him go back to his family where he finds that he has no one left.

Juli, in order to help with her family's financial struggles as well as pay for her father's ransom, leaves home and asks for loans and find work.

If I'm not mistaken, his father Tandang Selo goes mute with the grief of the continuous tragedies that had struck the family as well. It's hard for me to remember if this was shown in the musical.

When Tales returns, he finds himself at a loss for what has happened to his family. He is left with his daughter forced to work and his father mute. He is then met with Simoun, who comes to him as a jeweler. Simoun tempts him with some ideas of radicalization against the friars and he refuses at first before spiraling further and joining Karyo and his bandits, becoming the feared Matanglawin.

I genuinely don't remember if his meeting with Simoun was also in the musical or not but it's important context for the story.

The musical then switches perspective to Basilio, who gets implicated with a conspiracy against the government and gets arrested. A heartbroken Juli goes to Padre Camorra, a creepy priest that's been trying to corner her, to beg for his help since she saw no one else that could help her. This leads into a rather intense scene acted in shadows and lights where it is heavily implied that Juli gets assaulted.

After this, Juli sings a song about her assault where she contemplates getting revenge or retaliating but instead chooses to jump off to end her life.

The scene switches back to Tales who, unlike in the books, meet with his son again who has returned to the Philippines. This one, I know had a song in it since I remembered the extreme daddy issues punk rock vibes the scene gave off. He sang about how he no longer respected his father and that it's too late to repair things if I recall as he's now a bandit and he's a member of the Guardia Civil.

Photo of the confrontation between Tales and Tano where Tano sings about his frustration with his father posted by Jayson Pascua

Desolate and distraught at the loss of his family, Tales gets visited by a diwata (a forest spirit/fairy) and this part was extremely out of left field and absolutely not in the books.

Here, the diwata shows Tales visions of the future (???) and directly tells him, without any sort of subtlety, that the working class, and especially farmers like him, will continue to struggle in his country in the future. He is then shown a scene of farmers in a protest who were then taken down by police in what I remember as riot gear. He contemplates the future and is further given resolve to continue his rebellion.

Photo of the mentioned scene where Tales first meets a diwata who will later send him to the future posted by Jayson Pascua

Photo of the mentioned scene where Tales is sent to the future by a diwata to witness farmers being taken down by cops in riot gear posted by Jayson Pascua

Another photo of the mentioned scene where Tales is sent to the future by a diwata to witness farmers being taken down by cops in riot gear posted by Jayson Pascua

I need to cut in and say that this was so on the nose and is by far the weirdest and personally maybe the worst part of the show. I'm not even against the message, it just ruined my immersion and just left a weird taste in my mouth. I think the play was doing a plenty good job driving that point across already without the time travel diwata scene but maybe that's just me.

The scene cuts back to the climax of the story where Basilio, distraught over then death of Juli, finally joins Ibarra as they plant a bomb in a wedding reception that the Governor-General of the Philippines was attending. The scene plays out like it was in the books where the lamp gets tossed out by Isagani and the revolution doesn't start.

It goes back to a scene of Tales and his men trying to fight the Guardia Civil where he is shot and killed in action, by the gun of his own son. Tano realizes what he has done and is horrified. This leads to a song which later leads to a finale that sings about Tales as the cast come together for the curtains to close.

Photo of the mentioned scene where Tales is shot and killed by his son Tano posted by Jayson Pascua

Another photo of the mentioned scene where Tales is shot and killed by his son Tano posted by Jayson Pascua

The musical ends and the cast is called on to the stage one by one, with the loudest applause going to Basilio who a lot of the girls found hot, and of course, the man himself, Kabesang Tales.

Photo of the closing song with Tales being shown front and center posted by Jayson Pascua

After the play and final thoughts

Ricky Lee actually attended the performance I watched and I remember so many people crowding around the actors to get their autographs. My sister bought one of Ricky Lee's book, his script writing guide "Trip to Quiapo" and had it signed but she genuinely can't find it anymore sadly. My sister also got the autograph of some of the actors and the director on that same book so I'm a little miffed that we can't find it.

I would discuss more things and even show off my old ticket but I'm pretty sure that I would end up doxxing myself if I speak any more details.

That's all I remember from it and I would love to say more or even discuss the songs but as you can see, I could barely remember them, with only maybe a solid grasp in about maybe four songs.

It's a shame that it doesn't have as much of an established release and media presence because despite that one glaring issue I had with the weird diwata scene, I quite enjoyed the musical and it remains one of the few that I actually got to experience live.

It isn't Les Miserables or Hamilton, but it's still a musical I'll probably fondly remember especially since El Filibusterismo is one of my favorite books of all time with the character of Kabesang Tales being one of the most interesting — a man of honor and virtue who slowly descends into extremist violence because society had failed him. It's sad to see this musical barely recognized and very little talked about today and I do hope that it will one day return to the stage.

References

Introduction

Palakat Batangas City. (2015, May 29). "The Batangas City Government and Red Lantern Production present Ricky Lee’s KABESANG TALES - Isang Rap en Rol Musical." [image]. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://web.facebook.com/palakat.batangascity/photos/a.1543377512565520/1636600273243243/?type=3&_rdc=1&_rdr

Background

El Filibusterismo (@joseriz15155899). (2019, November 13). "#TheFilibuster Ventura's salvificact made Rizal gave his original manuscript of El Filibusterismo, a pen and an autograph printed copy." [image]. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://twitter.com/joseriz15155899/status/1194459895657041920

Inquirer. (2015, December 12). John Arcilla stars in Ricky Lee ‘rap en rol’ musical ‘Kabesang Tales’. LIFESTYLE.INQ. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/215824/john-arcilla-stars-in-ricky-lee-rap-en-rol-musical-kabesang-tales/

Inquirer. (2015, August 29). Ricky Lee writes rap, hip-hop libretto for new musical ‘Kabesang Tales’. LIFESTYLE.INQ. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/204943/ricky-lee-writes-rap-hip-hop-libretto-for-new-musical-kabesang-tales/

Lee, R. (2015, August 29). Ricky Lee: “I have been longing to do a musical, music being a driving passion in my life.” PHOTO FROM RICKY LEE [image]. LIFESTYLE.INQ. Retrieved on 17 February https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/204943/ricky-lee-writes-rap-hip-hop-libretto-for-new-musical-kabesang-tale

Red Lantern Productions. (2015, December 2012). John Arcilla. PHOTO FROM RED LANTERN PRODUCTIONS [image]. LIFESTYLE.INQ. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/215824/john-arcilla-stars-in-ricky-lee-rap-en-rol-musical-kabesang-tale

Performances and Releases

Kabesang Tales - Isang Rap en Rol Musical. (2019, July 27). Picture of the audition announcement posted on Facebook [image]. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://web.facebook.com/kabesangtalestherockmusicale/photos/a.459803204196123/1309076952602073/

pheejaypi. (2016, October 3). Kabesang Tales: Isang Rap en Rol Musical clip 1 [video]. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jftRyZOpxAA&list=PL1Yv-w-s-ETvRYsDWtaMPw2q0QO0q8Nfc

pinoy music maestro. (2021, January 1). Kabesang Tales excerpts feat. John Arcilla and Terence Guillermo [video]. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlOkDi8_D_A

Red Lantern Production. (2015, August 15). Kabesang Tales Trailer [video]. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CKKJsuBiuc

Plot

Pascua, J. (2015, October 11). Various photos [images]. Retrieved on 17 February 2024, from https://estranghero.weebly.com/photo-blog/john-arcilla-on-ricky-lees-kabesang-tales-isang-rap-en-roll-musical

#filipinfodump #filipino #philippines #filipino theatre #filipino musicals #musical theatre #musicals #filipino music #el filibusterismo #kabesang tales - isang rap en rol musical #kabesang tales #jose rizal #ricky lee #violence tw #sa tw #police brutality tw #police violence tw #mod maya

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feminist-space · 1 year

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Erin Bow:

"I just read -- in the book SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO by Jess Hill -- about the incident in Stockholm for which Stockholm Syndrome is named, and I am royally pissed off on behalf of all women, buckle up.

So, in 1973 there was this bank robbery In Stockholm. Two gunmen took four bank clerks hostage. This doesn't happen much in Sweden, and the police response can most charitably be described as inept. They surrounded the bank and kept it under siege for six days.

The public was rapt. The police probably felt they couldn't back down.

They got off to a bang up start when they sent their psychiatrist Nils Bejerot and a teenaged kid THOUGHT was the gunman's younger brother into the bank to negotiate. The kid was not in fact the younger brother and he got shot. Nils got out, though. Put a pin in that.

One of the hostages was a woman named Kristin Enmark. She strategically got close to the gunman who seemed more sane and more stable, because she thought that getting his protection was the best bet for getting out of there.

Definitely she didn't want to leave their lives in the hands of the police. She tried to talk to our friend Nils on the phone -- he refused to talk to her.

From inside the bank she gave a radio interview: "[The police] are playing with our lives. And they don't even want to talk to me, who is the one who will die if anything happens."

She was terrified the police would storm the bank and she and the other hostages would be killed in the cross fire. She even called the Swedish Prime Minister, proposing a plan where she and another hostage would leave the besieged bank with the two robbers.

The prime minister refused to agree, saying they couldn't give in to the demands of criminals. He told her: "Well, Kristin, you can't get out of the bank. You will have to content yourself that you will have died at your post."

When the police finally did teargas the place, they captured the gunmen and paraded them up and down the street. Enmark had had quite enough of theatre that would have cast her as "dead hero" and now wanted her to be "dazed victim."

She refused to get into a stretcher, walking out of the bank instead. She was not visibly traumatized in what the public considered the appropriate way. And she was critical of the police, especially their psychiatrist, our boy Nils.

It was at that point that he made up a syndrome -- Norrmalmstorg Syndrome, for the part of the city, later Stockholm Syndrome -- on the spot, and diagnosed her with it without ever talking to her personally.

Jess Hill writes: Stockholm Syndrome is a myth invented to discredit women victims of violence, created by a psychiatrist with an obvious conflict of interest, whose first instinct was to silence the woman questioning his authority.

The worst of it is this made-up disorder has been used to discredit (mostly but not exclusively) women who live with protracted danger and make strategic decisions about how and whether to resist.

In domestic abuse (a term author Hill prefers to domestic violence), Stockholm Syndrome is a tool for keeping the focus on the victim (“why didn’t she leave”) and not the perpetrator, or the system."

Links to the thread and related article below:

#robbery tw #misogyny tw #police violence tw #violence tw #stockholm syndrome

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jondoe297 · 2 months

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#marquis revera #justice for marquis revera #black lives matter #social justice #petition #petitions #important #police brutality tw #tw police brutality #police brutality cw #cw police brutality #police brutality mention #police violence tw #tw police violence #police violence cw #cw police violence #police violence mention

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brettdoesdiscourse · 1 year

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Orange Is The New Black and the "good cop" fallacy

Personally, I think CO Bayley storyline in Orange Is The New Black is a perfect example of what exactly people mean when they say all cops are bastards/bastardized. Of what people mean when they say that there can be no good cops.

"Listen to me. This isn't for someone like you. This place crushes anything good. It's like a monster that's grown too big for it's stubby little legs and now, it's stumbling around, crushing whole cities. You can't survive it, Bayley. Even if you're the city now, one day, you'll be the monster. Working here, it changes who you are."

We first meet him as a young man, barely old enough to even hold the position. And he's very obviously still young. He wants to help in what he's been socialized to see as helping. He thinks being a prison guard is cool and has this glorified image of what it is in his head. A glorified image pushed by society and their idea of the "hero cop."

And despite the fact he doesn't really seem cut out for it, young and immature, he's pushed through and into a position anyway.

He gets virtually no training before he takes the position. Despite Caputo wanting to train the guards in how to use non-lethal force and how to peacefully deescalate in an emergency, Danny is focused solely on the bottom line of the prison and if money is being "wasted" in training them before they start. And so, the guards all begin without training. Yet, they all still had pepper spray and tasers.

And the poor training on both emergency situations and how to handle them non-lethally very quickly catches up to them. During a peaceful protest that turned hectic due to guards pulling inmates off the tables, he ends up killing Poussey.

He didn't intend to, but he absolutely did. And the prison system plays off what he did as necessary and caused by Poussey's actions rather than poor training. They paint Poussey, a young black woman, as a dangerous criminal and a threat to others. A woman who was protesting peacefully and not resisting when she died.

Because it looks better if she is that. If she's a dangerous criminal who caused her own death, rather than the prison being completely at fault

Even when Bailey feels genuine remorse and tries to take accountability for his actions, nobody lets him. The prison does everything it can to preserve their image, including not letting Bailey say it was his fault and that it shouldn't have happened.

But not just the prison. Everybody in his life told him that it was okay and that it was unfortunate it happened, but it wasn't his fault. And just making every excuse they could for the situation.

Bailey's a perfect example of the "good cop" ideology. This image of a good American just wanting to do their part to make the world a better place, someone who doesn't want to hurt others. But it also shows in a system so deeply corrupted, the existence of this "good cop" directly contradicts what prison's prioritize. How society has been brainwashed to feel the same way and to see that as normal.

That people's first response is to justify why police killed somebody because police are only supposed to kill the bad people. So surely, that person was bad and deserved it rather than the cops being bad.

And prisons love to forward this notion because it helps their own priorities. Money over lives and their image over accountability.

A "good person" cannot exist in an inherently bad system. Either they change to conform to that bad system or else they don't end up lasting as an employee of that system.

#acab #anti cop #anti prison #prison industrial complex #all cops are bad #all cops are bastards #analysis #oitnb #orange is the new black #police brutality tw #police violence tw #social discourse #brett does discourse

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genderqueerpositivity · 2 years

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TW: police violence

According to Porter, there was a side for pro-life demonstrators and pro-choice demonstrators for hours, and it remained peaceful.

Porter said things escalated when a group of men identifying themselves as Proud Boys showed up, which Porter said then prompted police to implement rules of keeping people from entering the road to keep the peace.

"Anyone that kind of disobeyed that rule over on the pro-choice side, cops would lay their hands on them," Porter said. "They would push them back and use physical force to get them back on the sidewalk. Anyone on the pro-life side that it happened to, the cops would just kind of smile at them and wave them away."

Oh by the way, fuck the Greenville police for literally body slamming pro-choice protestors.

#police violence tw #violence tw #police tw #acab #tw for the video in the article #proud boys tw #south carolina

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angelnumber27 · 1 year

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She was walking home from her friends house and was kidnapped and murdered by a police officer.

Below is the link to the petition/donation site. I am absolutely heartbroken about this.. and it is so close to home too.. :(

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newvegasdyke · 10 months

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This is a specific genre of cop. Look how he stands so awkwardly they always stand like that and puff themselves up like a socially inept gorilla. They also always lack a chin and look a bit too umm unfit to be a cop

#police violence tw #he pepper sprayed a black man for existing. the guy was wearing his army fatigues and it only made the cops angrier

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cantsayidont · 3 months

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April 1987. Why Selina Kyle loves Batman, the Frank Miller version, part 1: Pursued by a typically murderous police SWAT team armed with assault rifles, Batman pauses to save a stray Siamese cat, who then runs to Selina (who at this point is not yet Catwoman), in this scene from BATMAN #406, the third part of "Batman: Year One."

#comics #batman #batman: year one #frank miller #david mazzucchelli #richmond lewis #bruce wayne #selina kyle #catwoman #batcat #police violence tw #cats

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allthecanadianpolitics · 7 months

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A Vancouver police officer charged with assault has admitted that he kneed a suspect three times and punched him three more within just six seconds not long after arriving at the scene of an arrest, but insists he was able to reassess the man's compliance between the blows.

Const. Beau Spencer, 35, is one of three Vancouver Police Department officers on trial for assault in connection with a May 2017 arrest at Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain station that left a suspect with four broken ribs and a collapsed lung.

[...]

Surveillance video of the arrest played for the court appears to show Cowie lying relatively still when Spencer runs into frame from the station's entrance on Broadway. The suspect is being held face down by two other officers when Spencer hits him with his right knee for the first time.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

#cdnpoli #canada #canadian politics #canadian news #canadian #police brutality #police violence #assault #cops #police #vancouver police department #vancouver #british columbia #BC #police brutality tw #police violence tw #assault tw #cops tw #police tw

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guess-that-ship · 24 days

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S10 Loser's Bracket Round 2

Rockslide

cw: body horror reference, spoilers

They are both so old and so immortal that no one seems to know their true names. In olden times, they were two men, a king and a traveler, who feel deeply in love and lived together. The traveler grew sick and the king grew desperate to save him; when his lover was at death's door, the king sacrificed his own city in exchange for the life of his lover.

But of course, the bargain had a catch, and his lover was transformed into something no longer entirely human. The traveler could not forgive his lover for what was done to him, and they parted ways, but the former king's devotion never faded. There are hints and stories that suggest the king seeks out a transformation of his own, so that he can change his form to match his lover's, perhaps finding a way to reunite after thousands of years.

Water Motifs

cw: police violence, transphobia, bullying, spoilers

A is a people-pleaser who tries to get along with everyone--which means he gets taken advantage of, has trouble making decisions, and eventually gets peer pressured into bullying his brother. After he gets isekai'd, he meets B, a cynical punk trying to figure out her identity while running from her dystopian society's police, who want to kill her for being Fantasy Trans. They team up with their magic animal friend and experience the Magic of Friendship; A helps B open up and believe she can have a better life, and B pushes A to grow a spine and stand up for what's right.

Then A gets tragically ripped away from B when she's in mortal danger from the cops, so while she does a light spot of murder and fights The Man, A figures out how to break the isekai system to get back to B. Then they find a loophole that allows them both to leave together, because rules of the universe be damned, A won't let B stay behind in her shitty world and B won't lose A again.

#s10 #tournament poll #loser's bracket #loser's bracket round 2 #spoilers #police violence tw #transphobia tw

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memento-morri-writes · 7 months

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Had the very strange experience today of being complimented by my professor and thinking to myself "you can thank tumblr for that".

(explanation/angry ramblings about the world under the cut. tw for racism and police violence)

So on Monday in class we watched a dashboard cam video of an altercation between a policeman and a black man that took place in my state. (My professor got called as an expert witness to the trial and got permission from the court to share the video.) After the video, the professor asked us what we thought about it, and what we thought either party did right/wrong/could have done better.

Most of the class was pretty wishy-washy, either not willing to get "political" in class, or hiding more extreme prejudices. But the absolutely insane thing was that most of them said the cop "handled it fine". My dude. The cop broke this man's window, attempted to rip him out of the car, and then later pulled a gun on him, leaving the man begging for his life. How the fuck is that "fine" behavior from someone who is supposed to make people feel safe???

Obviously being the opinionated, not-afraid-of-starting-fights little shit that I am, I had to call bullshit. I was the very last person the professor called on (by virtue of sitting in the far back corner) and I was really one of 2 or 3 people who actually said any words that meant anything.

I opened with the words "Have any of you actually had the police called on you? Anyone?" and went from there. I brought up that even as a literal child, and a privileged white one at that, I was terrified of the police. To the point that when a school employee told me (lying) that she had called them on me, I panicked, barricading myself in a room, and attempting to run as soon as someone opened the door. I was 12, and white. I had no reason to fear cops, having been raised on cop propaganda.

Now imagine how an adult black man must feel, living in the U.S., especially post-George Floyd. Every few weeks/months he's seeing on the news "black man shot by police, black man killed by police, black person beaten by police" and on and on and on. Of fucking COURSE his first reaction when he's pulled over (completely alone, no witnesses around) by a cop is to flee. Is that the "rational" thing to do? No. But people don't act rationally when they're terrified for their fucking lives.

Anyways, I brought that up, as well as pointed out the fact that the cop was the first one to get aggressive (swearing, raising his voice), as well as the fact that the cop had the nerve to later say "oh look, I have glass in my hand. This sucks." as if it wasn't his own fucking choice to break this poor man's window.

Some other classmates seemed mildly emboldened by my long rambling defense of the black man, and instead of saying wishy washy nothing spoke up a little more. Which was nice to see. But still... they didn't say much of substance.

Anyways, fast forwards to today, and when I walk into class the professor calls me over and says that my analysis of the video was "Something he'd expect out of a graduate student." While that was nice to hear, it was also disheartening, because my "analysis" was just pointing out things that happened in the video and linking them to real world events, as well as using common sense. So it's kind of sad to think that that level of critical thinking and just plain "don't be an idiot"-ness is rare.

I also didn't know how to feel about the fact that I have tumblr to thank for my education on that kind of thing, because god knows my 90% white, mildly conservative hometown didn't teach me shit about racism, or make me anti-cop.

I have the people who were spreading resources here on tumblr during the protests of 2021 to thank for that.

#morrigan.text #delete later #racism tw #police brutality tw #police violence tw #it's weird how many parts of me I can directly attribute to being on tumblr for the past 5 years.#including my general acceptance of people different from me #but also my queerness (or at least knowing what it is and being chill with it)#seeking out my autism diagnosis #being informed about current events #like. none of that would be true about me if not for being on tumblr.#which is very strange (and kind of sad) to think about.

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