"Amazon’s Ring has announced that it will no longer facilitate police's warrantless requests for footage from Ring users... Despite this victory, the fight for privacy and to end Ring’s historic ill-effects on society aren’t over. The mass existence of doorbell cameras, whether subsidized and organized into registries by cities or connected and centralized through technologies like Fusus, will continue to threaten civil liberties and exacerbate racial discrimination."
In response to the recent incident of police violence against a young person of color in Seaside, the community will be marching to this week's City Council meeting demanding an end to police violence and the defunding of the Seaside police department, as well as a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, where young people also face unrelenting state violence. Please share if you are local to the area.
The governor of a women’s prison where senior correctional officer Wayne Astill raped a number of inmates extended his tenure in the role even after she was made aware of “serious allegations” by inmates that she said she believed.
"The data, released to the Redfern Legal Centre (RLS), also revealed 56 children aged under 18 were strip-searched over the past financial year, including 25 underage girls, three of whom were 12"
I saw a tiktok earlier today talking about how the kubotan is illegal to carry in Australia without a "valid reason", and how "self defence" isn't seen by the police as a valid reason.
I shared in the comments how I carry one, and tell the cops that it's not a weapon, it's a tool for smashing a car window if I get into an accident and need to climb out of my car.
The sheer number of responses that I've gotten to the comment that say something along the lines of "the cops aren't stupid, they know it's not for a car window".
I take classes with policing students. Trust me, they are not clever, not competent, and they are lazy.
New South Wales police are looking to replace a program designed to provide “person-centred, trauma-informed care” to people with severe mental health challenges despite the police minister describing it as “so successful”.
Under the Police, Ambulance, Clinical, Early, Response (Pacer) program, mental health clinicians employed by NSW Health are stationed with police to ensure police powers are only used when necessary in responding to mental health crises.
While the police minister, Yasmin Catley, has lauded the program, the force has disclosed it is looking at alternatives to the scheme in its response to a landmark Law Enforcement Conduct Commission report.
The LECC’s report found almost half of the people involved in critical incidents with NSW police over the past five years were experiencing a mental health crisis. Critical incidents were defined as those resulting in serious injury or death.
Here’s a little glimpse of the Bash Back gathering in Chicago this past weekend, or at least some of its fierce, fabulous, and fiery sentiments as transformed into a red+orange stencil on a wall. The notion of #AbolishPolice felt extra crucial given that 61 people—and by association, anarchism—had just been indicted on RICO conspiracy charges a few days earlier, as the state tries hard to serve and protect its power (and cops) by unleashing more repression against @stopcopcity and @defendatlantaforest.
Happily, there was lots of love and solidarity in evidence at Bash Back for the codefendants, and I hope they all feel it in spirit, given that they’re spread far and wide across this continent. And I know that love and solidarity will not only continue but grow stronger over the coming months, too, as word of this statist backlash spreads.
Because many, many, many people love trees, not cops.
Right now, a big way that you—and your collectives, spaces, distros, bands, art, and so on—can tangibly demonstrate that love and solidarity for these 61 codefendants is by helping to raise oodles and oodles of money for the @atlsolfund, and/or donate some yourself, even if you already have previously. It’s greatly needed to pay the bonds (aka ransom) for those brave and bighearted codefendants stuck in the state’s claws.
But yeah, get busy with those creative fundraisers for the Atlanta Solidarity Fund—fundraisers that can do double-duty as gathering spaces for, say, a game night, community picnic, singalong evening, dance party, etc., nourishing us with joy even as we continue to defend this imperiled earth and each other.