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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 months

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How the NYPD defeated bodycams

Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop. When American patience for racial profiling in traffic stops reached a breaking point, cops rolled out dashcams. Dashcam footage went AWOL, or just recorded lots of racist, pretextual stops. Racial profiling continued.

Tasers and pepper spray were supposed to curb the undue use of force by giving cops an alternative to shooting dangerous-seeming people. Instead, we got cops who tasered and sprayed unarmed people and then shot them to pieces.

Next came bodycams: by indelibly recording cops' interactions with the public, body-worn cameras were pitched as a way to bring accountability to American law-enforcement. Finally, police leadership would be able to sort officers' claims from eyewitness accounts and figure out who was lying. Bad cops could be disciplined. Repeat offenders could be fired.

Police boosters insist that police violence and corruption are the result of "a few bad apples." As the saying goes, "a few bad apples spoil the bushel." If you think there are just a few bad cops on the force, then you should want to get rid of them before they wreck the whole institution. Bodycams could empirically identify the bad apples, right?

Well, hypothetically. But what if police leadership don't want to get rid of the bad apples? What if the reason that dashcams, tasers, and pepper spray failed is that police leadership are fine with them? If that were the case, then bodycams would turn into just another expensive prop for an off-Broadway accountability theater.

What if?

In "How Police Have Undermined the Promise of Body Cameras," Propublica's Eric Umansky and Umar Farooq deliver a characteristically thorough, deep, and fascinating account of the failure of NYPD bodycams to create the accountability that New York's political and police leadership promised:

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-police-undermined-promise-body-cameras

Topline: NYPD's bodycam rollout was sabotaged by police leadership and top NYC politicians. Rather than turning over bodycam footage to oversight boards following violent incidents, the NYPD suppresses it. When overseers are allowed to see the footage, they get fragmentary access. When those fragments reveal misconduct, they are forbidden to speak of it. When the revealed misconduct is separate from the main incident, it can't be used to discipline officers. When footage is made available to the public, it is selectively edited to omit evidence of misconduct.

NYPD policy contains loopholes that allow them to withhold footage. Where those loopholes don't apply, the NYPD routinely suppresses footage anyway, violating its own policies. When the NYPD violates its policies, it faces no consequences. When overseers complain, they are fired.

Bodycams could be a source of accountability for cops, but for that to be true, control over bodycams would have to vest with institutions that want to improve policing. If control over bodycams is given to institutions that want to shield cops from accountability, that's exactly what will happen. There is nothing about bodycams that makes them more resistant to capture than dashcams, tasers or pepper spray.

This is a problem across multiple police departments. Minneapolis, for example, has policies from before and after the George Floyd uprisings that require bodycam disclosure, and those policies are routinely flouted. Derek Chauvin, George Floyd's murderer, was a repeat offender and had been caught on bodycam kneeling on other Black peoples' necks. Chauvin once clubbed a 14 year old child into unconsciousness and then knelt on his neck for 15 minutes as his mother begged for her child's life. Chauvin faced no discipline for this and the footage was suppressed.

In Montgomery, Alabama, it took five years of hard wrangling to get access to bodycam footage after an officer sicced his attack dog on an unarmed Black man without warning. The dog severed the man's femoral artery and he died. Montgomery PD suppressed the footage, citing the risk of officers facing "embarrassment."

In Memphis, the notoriously racist police department was able to suppress bodycam disclosures until the murder of Tyre Nichols. The behavior of the officers who beat Nichols to death are a testament to their belief in their own impunity. Some officers illegally switched off their cameras; others participated in the beating in full view of the cameras, fearing no consequences.

In South Carolina, the police murder of Walter Scott was captured on a bystander's phone camera. That footage made it clear that Scott's uniformed killers lied, prompting then-governor Nikki Haley to sign a law giving the public access to bodycam footage. But the law contained a glaring loophole: it made bodycam footage "not a public record subject to disclosure." Nothing changed.

Bodycam footage does often reveal that killer cops lie about their actions. When a Cincinnati cop killed a Black man during a 2015 traffic-stop, his bodycam footage revealed that the officer lied about his victim "lunging at him" before he shot. Last summer, a Philadelphia cop was caught lying about the circumstances that led to him murdering a member of the public. Again, the officer claimed the man had "lunged at him." The cop's camera showed the man sitting peacefully in his own car.

Police departments across the country struggle with violent, lying officers, but few can rival the NYPD for corruption, violence, scale and impunity. The NYPD has its own "goon squad," the Strategic Response Group, whose leaked manual reveals how the secret unit spends about $100m/year training and deploying ultraviolent, illegal tactics:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/07/cruelty-by-design/#blam-blam-blam

The NYPD's disciplinary records – published despite a panicked scramble to suppress them – reveal the NYPD's infestation with criminal cops who repeatedly break the law in meting out violence against the public:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/27/ip/#nypd-who

These cops are the proverbial bad apples, and they do indeed spoil the barrel. A 2019 empirical analysis of police disciplinary records show that corruption is contagious: when crooked cops are paired with partners who have clean disciplinary records, those partners become crooked, too, and the effect lasts even after the partnership ends:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2378023119879798

Despite the risk of harboring criminals in police ranks, the NYPD goes to extreme lengths to keep its worst officers on the street. New York City's police "union"'s deal with the city requires NYC to divert millions to a (once) secret slushfund used to pay high-priced lawyers to defend cops whose conduct is so egregious that the city's own attorneys refuse to defend them:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/26/overfitness-factor/#heads-you-lose-tails-they-win

This is a good place for your periodic reminder that police unions are not unions:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/28/afterland/#selective-solidarity

Indeed, despite rhetoric to the contrary, policing is a relatively safe occupation, with death rates well below the risks to roofers, loggers, or pizza delivery drivers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/27/extraordinary-popular-delusions/#onshore-havana-syndrome

The biggest risk to police officers – the single factor that significantly increased death rates among cops – is police unions themselves. Police unions successfully pressured cities across American to reject covid risk mitigation, from masking to vaccinations, leading to a wave of police deaths. "Suicide by cop" is very rare, but US officers committed "mass suicide by cop union":

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/12/us/police-covid-vaccines.html

But the story that policing is much more dangerous than it really is a useful one. It has a business-model. Military contractors who turn local Barney Fifes into Judge Dredd cosplayers with assault rifles, tanks and other "excess" military gear make billions from the tale:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/10/flintstone-delano-roosevelt/#1033-1022

It's not just beltway bandits who love this story. For cops to be shielded from consequences for murdering the public, they need to tell themselves and the rest of us that they are a "thin blue line," and not mere armed bureaucrats. The myth that cops are in constant danger from the public justifies hair-trigger killings.

Consider the use of "civilian" to describe the public. Police are civilians. The only kind of police officer who isn't a civilian is a military policeman. Places where "civilians" interact with non-civilian law enforcement are, by definition, under military occupation. Calling the public "civilians" is a cheap rhetorical trick that converts a police officer to a patrolling soldier in hostile territory. Calling us "civilians" justifies killing us, because if we're civilians, then they are soldiers and we are at war.

The NYPD clearly conceives of itself as an occupying force and considers its "civilian" oversight to be the enemy. When New York's Civilian Complaint Review Board gained independence in 1993, thousands of off-duty cops joined Rudy Giuliani in a mass protest at City Hall and an occupation of the Brooklyn Bridge. This mass freakout is a measure of police intolerance for oversight – after all, the CCRB isn't even allowed to discipline officers, only make (routinely ignored) recommendations.

Kerry Sweet was the NYPD lawyer who oversaw the department's bodycam rollout. He once joked that the NYPD missed a chance to "bomb the room" where the NYPD's CCRB was meeting (when Propublica asked him to confirm this, he said he couldn't remember those remarks, but "on reflection, it should have been an airstrike").

Obvious defects in the NYPD's bodycam policy go beyond the ability to suppress disclosure of the footage. The department has no official tracking system for its bodycam files. They aren't geotagged, only marked by officer badge-number and name. So if a member of the public comes forward to complain that an unknown officer committed a crime at a specific place and time, there's no way to retrieve that footage. Even where footage can be found, the NYPD often hides the ball: in 20% of cases where the Department told the CCRB footage didn't exist, they were lying.

Figuring out how to make bodycam footage work better is complex, but there are some obvious first steps. Other cities have no problem geotagging their footage. In Chicago, the CCRB can directly access the servers where bodycam footage is stored (when the NYPD CCRB members proposed this, they were fired).

Meanwhile, the NYPD keeps protecting its killers. The Propublica story opens with the police killing of Miguel Richards. Richards' parents hadn't heard from him in a while, so they asked his Bronx landlord to check on him (the Richards live in Jamaica). The landlord called the cops. The cops killed Richards.

The cops claimed he had a gun and they were acting in self-defense. They released a highly edited reel of bodycam footage to support that claim. When the full video was eventually extracted, it revealed that Richards had a tiny plastic toy guy and a small folding knife. The officers involved believed he was suffering an acute mental health incident and stated that policy demanded that they close his bedroom door and wait for specialists. Instead, they barked orders at him and then fired 16 rounds at him. Seven hit him. One ruptured his aorta. As he lay dying on his bedroom floor, one officer roughly tossed him around and cuffed him. He died.

New York's Police Benevolent Association – the largest police "union" in NYC – awarded the officers involved its "Finest of the Finest" prize for their conduct in the killing.

This isn't an isolated incident. A month after the NYPD decided not to punish the cops who killed Richards, NYPD officers murdered Kawaski Trawick in his Bronx apartment:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/04/kawaski-trawick/#Kawaski-Trawick

The officers lied about it, suppressed release of the bodycam footage that would reveal their lies, and then escaped any justice when the footage and the lies were revealed.

None of this means that bodycams are useless. It just means that bodycams will only help bring accountability to police forces when they are directed by parties who have the will and power to make the police accountable.

When police leaders and city governments support police corruption, adding bodycams won't change that fact.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/13/i-want-a-roof-over-my-head/#and-bread-on-the-table

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Tony Webster, modified https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Minneapolis_Police_Officer_Body_Camera_%2848968390892%29.jpg

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #impunity #ccrb #nypd #abolish the police #acab #police #corruption #bodycams #body-worn cameras #propublica

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alwaysbewoke · 5 months

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One of the first things that Andre Braugher said to me when he arrived to set for this shoot was that this was his very first solo magazine cover. I thought surely he had to be mistaken, even though he would know his life best lol. I’d been watching Andre on my screen for what felt like my whole life, playing some serious curmudgeon or some police figure. How could he have never been given a solo magazine cover? We talked at great length about this and about how completely ordinary it is for Black artists across all genres to be snubbed and denied such opportunities. However, having been recently nominated for an Emmy for his role on @brooklyn99 , he was having a moment and he was excited. Before the shoot, I went into his dressing room and met @stricola and we talked wardrobe. I was madly in love with this particular sweater that she pulled for the shoot. Andre, not so much, but he was game to try it on. The shoot took place during the summer of 2020, protests over the murder of George Floyd were still globally unfolding. Andre and I disagreed on some things but I really appreciated the vivid, lively conversation. Even with the tensions we had a wonderful time. Lots of jokes, lots of laughter. Andre’s laugh was booming and filled the studio with his gorgeous tenor. At the end of the shoot, he expressed so much gratitude. I was so proud to have been able to celebrate him during such a special moment in his career. He was unbelievably kind and I just wanted to make an iconic image of this under-appreciated gem of a person. When the magazine came out I was told that he really loved the images and that he thought sweater was an excellent choice, iconic being the word he insisted upon. He didn’t win that Emmy, which would have been his third, but I’m happy that he got that moment. I’m still so sad that it took so long. Rest well, Mr. Braugher!

#Andre Braugher #rip

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absolvedallegiance · 2 years

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That is as vile, as disgusting, and as purely, 100% partisan a tweet as has ever been sent, even by Trump. If this bitch had a conscious, he'd dive headfirst off into oncoming traffic.

George Floyd was a lowlife, criminal, burning sack of shit. He's every bit as responsible for his own death as Chauvin is.

When they go low, we go high. Yea, right.

Fuck George Floyd and fuck Blowjob Barry for comparing that trash to the innocent children killed by a mentally ill nut job.

#barack obama #george floyd #both criminals #two worthless fucks #uvalde #texas #shooting

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sleepysera · 2 years

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5.25.22 Headlines

WORLD NEWS

Ukraine: Wants rocket launchers sent quickly (AP)

“Ukraine’s foreign minister says the urgency of his country’s weapons needs can be summed up in two abbreviations: MLRS — multiple launch rocket systems, and ASAP — as soon as possible. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says the situation in the eastern Donbas region “is extremely bad.” The rocket systems could help Ukrainian forces try to recapture places such as the southern city of Kherson from Russian occupiers who invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.”

North Korea: Fires suspected ICBM and 2 other missiles (AP)

“The suspected ICBM didn’t fly its full range. But if confirmed, it would still be North Korea’s first test of an ICBM system in about two months amid stalled nuclear diplomacy with the United States. The launch suggests North Korea is determined to continue its efforts to modernize its arsenal despite its first COVID-19 outbreak, which has caused outside worries about a humanitarian disaster.”

Environment: Environmentalists meet in South Africa to stem plastic waste (AP)

“Environmental activists are meeting in South Africa this week to press governments and businesses to reduce the production of plastic because it is harming the continent’s environment. The conference, “Towards Zero Plastics to the Seas of Africa,” being held in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth), South Africa, through Friday brings together academics and experts on the plastics industry and its effects on the continent, say organizers.”

US NEWS

Texas School Shooting: 19 children, 2 adults killed (AP)

“The 18-year-old gunman who slaughtered 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school barricaded himself inside a single classroom and “began shooting anyone that was in his way,” authorities said Wednesday in detailing the latest mass killing to rock the U.S. Law enforcement officers eventually broke into the classroom and killed the gunman, who used an AR-style rifle.”

Gun Violence: Suspect under arrest in deadly NYC subway shooting (AP)

“A man suspected of abruptly pulling a gun and killing a stranger on a New York City subway train was arrested Tuesday, with police saying his motive for the unprovoked attack was “a big mystery.” Andrew Abdullah, 25, was expected to face a murder charge in the death of 48-year-old Daniel Enriquez, who was shot to death while heading to Sunday brunch.”

BLM: Vigil, rally planned for 2nd anniversary of Floyd killing (AP)

“A candlelight vigil to honor George Floyd’s memory at the intersection where he died was among the remembrances scheduled for Wednesday’s second anniversary of the Black man’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. Activists planned the vigil, along with a rally at the governor’s residence in St. Paul, for the two-year anniversary of Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, which ignited protests in Minneapolis and around the world as bystander video quickly spread.”

#current events #news #ukraine #russia #war #north korea #environment #south africa #united states #texas #school shooting #mass shooting #nyc #blm #george floyd #racism #police brutality

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lunalovegood2 · 8 months

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"As part of his sentence, Chauvin was banned from owning firearms. But he didn't shoot George Floyd. If the court really wanted justice they should have chopped off his fucking knees."

#death to 2021 #derek chauvin #black lives matter #george floyd #tiktok

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mads-nixon · 7 months

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hi everyone! welcome to my band of brothers & the pacific side-blog! my messages and ask box are always open, so shoot me a message anytime you feel like it. also, requests are now CLOSED for the pacific and bob!! you can find the request guidelines below!

request guidelines | gifsets/icons

xoxo,

mads :)

Band of Brothers

italics - wips

Eugene “Doc” Roe

- At Last

- Break the Distance

- C'est Toi (Soulmate!AU)

Joe Liebgott

- Of Course It’s You

- Liebling

Floyd Talbert

- “The Night of the Bayonet”

- I’m Here (oc)

George Luz

- Home

- Old Friends

Dick Winters

- Winter at the Winters'

- Meine Liebe

Ron Speirs

- Keeping You Safe

- For Me

- Knight in Dirty ODs

Lewis Nixon

- Here With You

- The Vow

- Timeless

- Epiphany Series Masterlist

Johnny Martin

- Follow You Anywhere

Headcannons

- Nix When He's Sick

- Dating Eugene Roe

- Post-War Harry Welsh

The Pacific

Robert Leckie

- Crazy

Bill "Hoosier" Smith

- You Before Me

Eugene Sledge

- See the Good

Headcanons

- Hoosier Dating an Extrovert

- Chuckler Dating an Artist

- Chuckler Dating a Medic

Masters of the Air:

You can find things from gifs to fics, and posts about the flyers and ground crews in Masters of the Air on my sideblog, @major-mads!!

comment or message me if you want to be tagged in anything!!

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republicansaredomesticterrorists · 10 months

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Never forget they were the instigators of the violence they tried to blame on BLM and antifa.

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hesbuckcompton-baby · 6 months

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Band of Brothers as Hozier songs - Part 2

Part 1 is here

Tags: @xxluckystrike @dcyllom @lewis-winters @hellofanidea

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

David Webster - Almost (Sweet Music)

The very thought of you, and am I blue? / A love supreme, seems far removed / I get along without you very well / Some other nights

Babe Heffron - Nobody

I'd be appalled if I saw you ever try to be a saint / I couldn't fall for someone I thought couldn't misbehave / But I want you to know that / I've had no love like your love

George Luz - Damage Gets Done

You and I had nothing to show / But the best of the world in the palm of our hands, and darling / I haven't felt it since then / I don't know how the feeling ended / But I know being reckless and young / Is not how the damage gets done

Donald Malarkey - I, Carrion (Icarian)

I do not have wings, love, I never will / Soaring over the world you are carrying / If these heights should bring my fall / Let me be your own / Icarian carrion / If the wind turns, if I hit a squall / Allow the ground to find its brutal way to me

Joseph Liebgott - No Plan

There's no plan, there's no race to be run / The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun / There's no plan, there's no kingdom to come / But I'll be your man if you've got love to get done

Bill Guarnere - First Light

Your eyes open, at first a thousand miles away / But turning, shoot a silver bullet point-blank range / And I can scarce believe what I'm believing in / Could this be how every day begins?

Floyd Talbert - Someone New

Would things be easier if there was a right way? / Honey there is no right way / So I fall in love just a little ol' little bit / Every day with someone new

Shifty Powers - Wasteland, Baby!

All the things yet to come are the things that have passed / Like the holding of hands, like the breaking of glass / Like the bonfire that burns / At all worth, in the fight fell too / Wasteland, baby / I'm in love, I'm in love with you

Renee Lemaire - Would That I

With each love I cut loose, I was never the same / Watching still living roots be consumed by the flame / I was fixed on your hand of gold / Laying waste to my loving long ago

#i really struggled to pick a quote for webster the whole song is made up of references which is so him #i also associate malark with Son of Nyx but it has no lyrics so i didn't include it #band of brothers #hbo war #david webster #babe heffron #george luz #donald malarkey #joseph liebgott #bill guarnere #shifty powers #renee lemaire #hozier

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misscinnamonroll16 · 2 months

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Brozone Cah, mexico and party

Clay snickers as he reads the black car he just pulled.

“What did I bring back from Mexico?” Clay says, placing the card down before holding his head in his hands, fully expecting the worst.

“I don’t know Clay, why don’t you ask your Latina girlfriend.” John teases as he slides his white card over to Clay.

Clay rolls his eyes, shooting John a playful scowl.

“No John, that's what he brought back, obviously.” Floyd teases, handing Clay his white card.

Branch snorts while taking a drink, coughing from the beer going down the wrong pipe.

“Alright, I only got three cards. Who hasn’t given me one?” Clay said, his cheeks red and not just from the alcohol.

“Oops, that was me. Here.” Bruce says, giving Clay his white card.

“Alrighty then, what did I bring back from Mexico? Shapeshifters. Checks out with those damn chupacabras. What did I bring back from Mexico? Stephen Hawking talking dirty, gross. Thanks for that image. What did I bring back from Mexico? Racially-biased SAT questions. That’s messed up. What did I bring back from Mexico, for the last time? Farting and walking away. I could do that here, why did I go to Mexico to do that? Who had SAT questions?” Clay asked, holding up the winning card.

“Me.” Floyd said cheekily, taking the black card from Clay.

“Damn, I thought I’d get it with shapeshifters.” John said, jokingly pouting.

“Fuck me. I played the wrong card.” Bruce groaned, holding his face in his hand.

“You played farting and walking away?” Branch giggled

“Yes. it’s fine, don’t worry about it.” Bruce said deflated, taking a sad swig of his wine.

The others giggle while Floyd pulls the next black card.

“What never fails to liven up the party? Usually booze or drugs but let’s see what yall got.” Floyd says, smiling as he flicks the cap off the wine bottle to fill up his cup.

“I-I don’t even wanna know.” JD sighs, shaking his head at what Floyd said.

Floyd wore a cheeky grin while Branch and Clay giggled.

“I think it’s time we cut back on the alcohol boys.” Bruce said sternly, taking the bottle of wine from Floyd.

“Aw, come on dad. Don’t be such a buzzkill.” Floyd whined playfully.

“He’s right, don’t want you waking up hungover bud.” John said, chuckling softly.

“Just give me your goddamn cards.” Floyd pouted.

“Here you go.” John says, passing his and the others cards to Floyd.

“Ok, what never fails to liven up the party? Being rich. Well that certainly will make you the life of the party. What never fails to liven up the party? Spontaneous human combustion. Think that has the opposite effect. What never fails to liven up the party? An M. Night Shyamalan plot twist. Nice. What never fails to liven up the party? Former President George W. Bush. But he’s dead. I liked spontaneous human combustion, that’s the winner.” Floyd said, holding his tongue between his teeth.

“That would be me. Thank you.” Branch declared as he took the black card.

“I had being rich, which you influenced with your talk of drugs and booze.” John Dory chuckled, drawing another white card.

“I had the plot twist.” Bruce says.

“I forgot the president was dead.” Clay mumbled, taking a swig of his beer.

All the brothers giggle, John getting up to get them all some water.

#trolls #brozone #trolls john dory #trolls floyd #trolls bruce #branch trolls #trolls clay #funny #brozone cah #trolls cah

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pfenniged · 9 months

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How Band of Brothers Characters Would Act Taking a Long Transit Commute:

Tries to make anything they do on the commute vaguely productive: Dick Winters (Reads or takes notes), Carwood Lipton (Modern day Lipton would 100 percent knit). Would have to do something like count cows out the window to keep from running up and down the aisles like a child or switching seats to sit closer to friends: Babe Heffron. I will not be expanding. Annoyed they had to get up early, listens to playlists and disassociates out the window with sunglasses on like they have a hangover. Might actually have a hangover: Joseph Liebgott, Lewis Nixon, George Luz. Full on manages to magically sleep the entire commute and magically wake up right before their stop as though nothing happened: Doc Roe. Follows along on Google Maps despite taking the same commute everyday: Frank Perconte. Sits in the aisle seat and puts their bag in the window seat: Joseph Liebgott, Ronald Spiers. Acts like a normal fucking bus patron, thank you very much: Donald Malarkey. Has to sit at a certain place on the bus or they get motion sickness: Shifty Powers. Shoots death glares at anyone who attempts to sit next to them (unless it's a pretty girl): Bill Guarnere. Stares out the window without sunglasses on to the point where if anyone distinctly focused on them for more than five minutes they'd be concerned: Ronald Spiers. Just wants to listen to their podcast as is annoyed when anyone talks to them too loudly: Lewis Nixon, John Martin, Joe Toye. Unnecessarily tries to strike up a conversation even though nine times out of ten nobody wants to talk to anyone they don't know on a bus in the first place cause it comes off as creepy: Floyd Talbert. Always has a thermos on board: Harry Walsh. Disassociates over the fact he has to take public transit: David Kenyon Webster. Eats a full meal before getting off the bus: Babe Heffron, Donald Malarkey, Bull Randleman. Tries to make small talk with the bus driver even though there's explicitly a sign that says "Don't distract the bus driver": Buck Compton. Makes a point of thanking the bus driver when they get off: Shifty Powers, Carwood Lipton, Doc Roe, Babe Heffron.

#is this how I'm dealing with my commuting issues? yes #but also this is entirely true #hbo war #band of brothers #personal #I will not be having any further arguments on this

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smellofemale · 4 months

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things that you probably didn't think to add to your void list (that don't have to do with necessarily improving your life, but the life's of others)

george stinney was never falsely accused of murder and the 2 girls (Betty June Binnicker and Emma Thames) were never murdered. (George stinney was only 14 when he was falsely accused of murder. due to the racist prejudice system he was executed by electric chair, him, being so small had to sit on a Bible just to be able to get electrocuted. if you want to see what an electric chair does to somebody, watch this video , it's just a video of a mannequin but still, they did that to a little boy due to his skin color.)

complete revision of Jeffrey dahmer. like i have in my script that he never existed.

revision of the death of Brianna Taylor, i also added affirmations for her to just thrive in life

revision of the death of George Floyd, also added affirmations for him to just thrive in life

complete revision of ted bundy, same with Jeffrey dahmer, just scripted he never existed.

complete revision of Richard ramirez

gypsy rose blanchard never going through what she did

menendez brothers never going through what they went through

reversal of all school shootings

education being more accessible and cheaper

housing being more accessible and cheaper

revision of colonization

revision of 9-11

revision of global warming and climate change

revision of the recession and housing crisis

complete revision of any historic event that took the lives of people!

remember, anything is possible! you are not bound by time

#void list #the void state #void state

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olderthannetfic · 9 months

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In order for End OTW Racism to be a psyop, antis would have to think. They don't. They rage, they fear, they slam anyone who disagrees with them as a Pick Me POC, and they do things that make them feel good. Pretending to be activists makes them feel good. They don't ever think enough to ask, "is this actually activism?" They just do it.

One anti did a thing. A bunch followed, because following is easier than thinking. It's not a psyop, it's assholes doing the moral equivalent of masturbating. Pretending they're smarter than that is downplaying how much this cult controls them. I was an anti for several years. I know what it's like in their heads.

There are no plans, no psyops, no fancy tricks. When you're an anti you're constantly doing whatever other people are doing, reblogging what they're reblogging, saying what they're saying, because that's how you feel like you're fighting evil in the world. The world, you have been told, is evil, getting worse, out to kill you and full of pedophiles, racists, queers and people who aren't ashamed of liking sex, which is as bad as rape or pedophilia. By educating others as to the evils of these things, you are fighting the good fight. Don't think about if your reblogging a post is actually going to fight pedophilia, just hit reblog. Don't think about the fact that the George Floyd fanfic had 0 hits and Stitch and their followers have made it known in multiple languages, just reblog Stitch posts. Don't think about if what you're doing actually fights racism, call the POC who disagree with you racefaking pedophile racists and put ENDOTWRACISM in your fanfic title.

Pretending there's a big conspiracy behind things is nice. It makes things easy. It allows you to pretend people aren't actually in a cult, they're just paid actors, like the Sandy Hook shooting victims. But the reality is that there is no psyop. There are no paid actors.

Sometimes things are shit, anon, and lying to yourself about it isn't going to fix it, it'll just make it worse.

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whitehotharlots · 5 months

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The real problem with 2020 was probably just that the left sucks

Freddie DeBoer and Vincient Bevins have both recently published books that purport to examine the manner in which the left-seeming energy of 2020 dissipated. I have purchased each but not been able to bring myself to read either. Not because I dislike the authors; quite the opposite, I admire them greatly and read their debuts. The problem is that I really, really don't want to admit to myself how much the events of 2020 broke my hope and spirit.

What was your favorite lefty moment of that horrible year?

Was it the time an Hispanic business owner defended his storefront against anti-police protestors with a chainsaw, which caused said anti-police protestors to squeal that they were calling the police?

Was it when Chris Martin Palmer, an NBA reporter for ESPN, first tweeted "Burn that shit down. Burn it all down" along with a screenshot of a large arson in a dilapidated American city while his avatar was a cartoon portrait of George Floyd. And then, the very next day--same account, same avatar--he tweeted "They just attacked our system community down the street. It's a gated community and they tried to climb the gates. They had to beat them back. Then destroyed a Starbicls and are now in front my building. Get these animals TF out of my neighborhood. Go back to where you live."

(Screenshot below. It has to be seen to be believed):

Or, saving the worst for last, perhaps your fondest memory was of Seattle's "Capital Hill Autonomous Zone," typically referred to as CHOP or CHAZ. Autonomous Zones were first theorized by "anarcho-immediatist" poet Hakim Bey, who envisioned them as lawless areas within larger communities that provided "radical safety" to their inhabitants. No laws, sure, but a helluva lot of rules. You can shoot up on the sidewalk or light a car on fire no problem, but if you dare misgender someone, express a forbidden thought, or otherwise just look funny, you are liable to get murdered by one of the self-annointed CHAZ "security personnel," hormone-guzzling freaks armed with assault rifles.

You can guess how this played out. They had their tents, their drum circles, their needle exchanges, and their woefully pathetic community garden. They also executed at least one black child who was joyriding a stolen car within their supposedly law-free utopia. We know this happened because one of their brain dead community members posted a joyful tweet about the "beautiful shot placement" of said hormone-guzzling freaks (although a video of the incident, since scrubbed from the internet, confirmed the murder occurred after the vehicle was disabled).

What was the explanation for this? Not just for the murder itself, but for the celebration afterward? Well, they were scared and also the black kids were doing a minor crime. Literally, without exaggeration, within just a couple weeks of establishing their ideal, radical community, the left had become an even worse version of the murder cops they were supposedly protesting.

And so... I dunno. Maybe the spirit of 2020 wasn't coopted by powerful forces or anything so much as it just sucked? Like, maybe these people are just violent shitheads whose differentiation from the far right is much more a matter of style than of substance? Maybe there's no path forward. Maybe there's no light at the end of our tunnel but just another, shittier tunnel?

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 2 months

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The MAGA GOP firmly believes that violence and violent threats against their fellow Americans is the surest path to power. As David French explains, that's a huge problem. In 2021, Reuters published a horrifying and comprehensive report detailing the persistent threats against local election workers. In 2022, it followed up with another report detailing threats against local school boards. In my own Tennessee community, doctors and nurses who advocated wearing masks in schools were targets of screaming, threatening right-wing activists, who told one man, “We know who you are” and “We will find you.”

My own family has experienced terrifying nights and terrifying days over the last several years. We’ve faced death threats, a bomb scare, a clumsy swatting attempt and doxxing by white nationalists. People have shown up at our home. A man even came to my kids’ school. I’ve interacted with the F.B.I., the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement. While the explicit threats come and go, the sense of menace never quite leaves. We’re always looking over our shoulders. And no, threats of ideological violence do not come exclusively from the right. We saw too much destruction accompanying the George Floyd protests to believe that. We’ve seen left-wing attacks and threats against Republicans and conservatives. The surge in antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7 is a sobering reminder that hatred lives on the right and the left alike.

But the tsunami of MAGA threats is different. The intimidation is systemic and ubiquitous, an acknowledged tactic in the playbook of the Trump right that flows all the way down from the violent fantasies of Donald Trump himself. It is rare to encounter a public-facing Trump critic who hasn’t faced threats and intimidation. The threats drive decent men and women from public office. They isolate and frighten dissenters. When my family first began to face threats, the most dispiriting responses came from Christian acquaintances who concluded I was a traitor for turning on a movement whose members had expressed an explicit desire to kill my family. But I don’t want to be too bleak. So let me end with a point of light. In the summer of 2021, I received a quite direct threat after I’d written a series of pieces opposing bans on teaching critical race theory in public schools. Someone sent my wife an email threatening to shoot me in the face.

My wife and I knew that it was almost certainly a bluff. But we also knew that white nationalists had our home address, both of us were out of town and the only person home that night was my college-age son. So we called the local sheriff, shared the threat, and asked if the department could send someone to check our house. Minutes later, a young deputy called to tell me all was quiet at our home. When I asked if he would mind checking back frequently, he said he’d stay in front of our house all night. Then he asked, “Why did you get this threat?”

I hesitated before I told him. Our community is so MAGA that I had a pang of concern about his response. “I’m a columnist,” I said, “and we’ve had lots of threats ever since I wrote against Donald Trump.”

The deputy paused for a moment. “I’m a vet,” he said, “and I volunteered to serve because I believe in our Constitution. I believe in free speech.” And then he said words I’ll never forget: “You keep speaking, and I’ll stand guard.”

I didn’t know that deputy’s politics and I didn’t need to. When I heard his words, I thought, that’s it. That’s the way through. Sometimes we are called to speak. Sometimes we are called to stand guard. All the time we can at least comfort those under threat, telling them with words and deeds that they are not alone. If we do that, we can persevere. Otherwise, the fear will be too much for good people to bear.

#MAGA #threats of violence #courage #David French #articles #NYTimes #MAGA GOP threat to democracy

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