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.
Defiance: Anarchist Statements before Judge and Jury
"As long as there have been anarchists, we have come into conflict with the law. From the workplace to the street, our actions have put us before judges and juries time and again. Many of us have chosen to maintain our defiant opposition to the law, despite the threat of punishment. This anthology collects the words of anarchists facing condemnation by a court system we don’t believe in."
—Errico Malatesta
"On September 27, 1973, former Black Panther and current New African anarchist Kuwasi Balagoon escaped from a New Jersey prison shortly after being convicted of armed robbery.
In 1983, Balagoon was on trial for the robbery of two armored cars and the deaths of two police officers and a rent-a-cop. He defended himself at trial. You can read his final sentencing statement in the book Defiance: Anarchist Statements to Judge and Jury."
via @Niusha@DetritusBookshttps://detritusbooks.com/products/defiance-anarchist-statements-before-judge-and-jury #Anarchism#Repression#State#Prison#AbolishPrisons#BLM
Mapuche #PoliticalPrisoners from Temuco Show Solidarity with Anarchist and Subversive Prisoners
"It should be noted that for all those committed to the struggle against the capitalist system, this only increases our ties of solidarity and support.
It is for this reason that from Wallmapu territory, Temuco prison, we express our support and solidarity with the current trial that comrade Mónica Caballero and comrade Francisco Solar are going through, giving them all our newen, and at the same time, highlighting all the courage, valor and bravery they have shown to face this stage marked by unjust accusations, where the real criminals, terrorists, delinquents and murderers are free with their hands stained with blood.
A strong embrace full of much newen, solidarity, support, hope and resistance."
via @amwenglishhttps://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2023/09/26/mapuche-political-prisoners-from-temuco-show-solidarity-with-anarchist-and-subversive-prisoners/ #AbolishPrisons
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.
CALL FOR AN INTERNATIONAL WEEK OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE ACCUSED OF 8.12.2020
FROM 16 TO 23 SEPTEMBER 2023
"The 7 french comrades arrested on 8 December 2020 will go on trial from 3 to 27 October 2023. They will be judged for «criminal association of terrorist criminals» (art. 450-1) in Paris. No terrorist project has been established after two years of investigation characterized by the use of white torture and a very intrusive surveillance. The criminal classification was not retained but the terrorist and collective dimension remains despite the total absence of evidence or even links between all the seven people. Several of them are also charged with “refusing to surrender a secret decryption convention” (Art. 434-15)." https://anarchistnews.org/content/call-international-week-solidarity-accused-8122020 #Repression#France#Counterterrorism#Frankreich
"Am 08. Dezember 2020 wurden 9 Menschen, die als “ultra-links” eingeordnet wurden, in verschiedenen Regionen Frankreichs vom DGSI verhaftet. Die Betroffenen kennen sich zwar nicht einmal alle, dennoch fanden die Verhaftungen nach einer Ermittlung gegen eine “kriminelle Konspiration zur Verübung krimineller terroristischer Taten”statt.
Fünf der festgenommenen Menschen kommen als “besonders hochkarätige Gefangene“ in Untersuchungshaft. Das bedeutet Isolation und verstärkte Überwachung, mangelnde Bewegunsfreiheit, Zurückhalten der Post, alle zwei Stunden geweckt werden…
Wie dem auch sei, obwohl sie angeklagt sind, Feuerwerkskörper gebastelt und an Softair-Spielen teilgenommen zu haben, kann ihnen kein konkreter Plan vorgeworfen werden. Ohne handfeste Beweise werden die sieben Angeklagten verdächtigt, sie hätten der Polizei schaden wollen, oder der Armee vielleicht… Ihr Freiheitsentzug basiert also auf “Verdächtigungen” und potentiellen “Plänen”, “Eigentum zu beschädigen und gewaltsame Handlungen durchzuführen”, der Mutmaßung einer Absicht." https://emrawi.org/?Feministische-Analyse-und-Soli-Erklarung-zum-Auftakt-des-8-12-Prozess-in-2837 #France#Repression#Polizeigewalt#Knast#AntiKnast#AbolishPrisons#Autoritarisierung#Frankreich#France
"Abolish Criminology presents critical scholarship on criminology and criminal justice ideologies and practices, alongside emerging freedom-driven visions and practices for new world formations.
The book introduces readers to a detailed history and analysis of crime as a concept and its colonizing trajectories into existence and enforcement. These significant contexts buried within peculiar academic histories and classroom practices are often overlooked or unknown outside academic and public discussions, causing the impact of racializing-gendering-sexualizing histories to extend and grow through criminology’s creation of crime, extending how the concept is weaponized and enforced through the criminal legal system. It offers written, visual, and poetic teachings from the perspectives of students, professors, imprisoned and formerly imprisoned persons, and artists. This allows readers to engage in multi-sensory, inter-disciplinary, and multi-perspective teachings on criminology’s often discussed but seldom interrogated mythologies on violence and danger, and their wide-reaching enforcements through the criminal legal system’s research, theories, agencies, and dominant cultures.
Abolish Criminology serves the needs of undergraduate and graduate students and educators in the social sciences, arts, and humanities. It will also appeal to scholars, researchers, policy makers, activists, community organizers, social movement builders, and various reading groups in the general public who are grappling with increased critical public discourse on policing and criminal legal reform or abolition."
Ten Comrades Arrested in Police Operation Against Anarchist Newspaper in Italy #AnarchistPrisoners#Italy
"On August 8, at dawn, the public prosecutor’s office of Genoa and the Digos (antiterrorist police) of La Spezia led yet another operation of repression against the anarchist movement. Ten anarchist comrades are accused in this investigation, including five comrades from Carrara, for whom the prosecutor initially asked for detention. In addition to searches in the homes, the Anarchist Cultural Circle “Gogliardo Fiaschi”, the historic center of anarchists in Carrara, has been the subject of a descent. Magazines, books, leaflets, posters and computer supplies have been seized. The preliminary investigation judge has decided on four residential assignments with all restrictions, five house arrests with return to prison at night. One comrade is not subject to any restriction. Luigi, one of the four residential comrades had no official residence: he was therefore transferred to the Spezia prison." https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2023/08/09/ten-comrades-arrested-in-police-operation-against-anarchist-newspaper-in-italy/
via @amwenglish #Repression#EU#Prison#abolishprisons
“When a person studies mathematics, he learns that there are many mathematical laws which determine the approach he must take to solving the problems presented to him. In the study of geometry, one of the first laws a person learns is that “the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts.” This means simply that one cannot have a geometrical figure such as a circle or a square which in its totality contains more than it does when broken down into smaller parts. Therefore, if all the smaller parts add up to a certain amount, the entire figure cannot add to a larger amount. The prison cannot have a victory over the prisoner because those in charge take the same kind of approach to the prisoner and assume if they have the whole body in a cell that they have there all that makes up the person. But a prisoner is not a geometrical figure and an approach which is successful in mathematics is wholly unsuccessful when dealing with human beings.
In the case of the human, we are not dealing only with the single individual, we are also dealing with the ideas and beliefs which have motivated him and which sustains him, even when his body is confined. In the case of humanity, the whole is much greater than its parts, because the whole includes the body which is measurable and confineable, and also the ideas which cannot be measured and which cannot be confined. The ideas are not only within the mind of the prisoner where they cannot be seen nor controlled, the ideas are also within the people. The ideas which can and will sustain our movement for total freedom and dignity of the people cannot be imprisoned for they are found in the people, all the people, wherever they are. As long as the people live by the ideas of freedom and dignity there will be no prison which can hold our movement down. Ideas move from one person to another in the association of brothers and sisters who recognize that a most evil system of capitalism has set us against each other, when our real enemy is the exploiter who profits from our poverty. When we realize such an idea then we come to love and appreciate our brothers and sisters who we may have seen as enemies, and those exploiters who we may have seen as friends revealed for what they truly are to all oppressed people. The people are the idea; the respect and dignity of the people, as they move toward their freedom is the sustaining force which reaches into and out of the prison. The walls, the bars, the guns and guards can never encircle or hold down the idea of the people. And the people must always carry forward the idea which is their dignity and their beauty.
Writing letters to Prisoners @Kalabalik#Berlin
"On the 7th of August at 17:00 we would like to invite you at Kalabalik (Reichenbergerstr 63A) to create and send post for our comrades in prison and experiment with linocut by sharing a small workshop!
Create post that drips glitter, shining and showing the rays of solidarity in beaming colors. The solidarity will shine on our comrades in prison cells, but will make the prison guards glitch in their oppressive acts!
We will provide material, like paper, pens, loooots of glitter, glue, stickers, stamps etc. !From Berlin to Greece – No Justice no Peace."
"(...)
Im Nordrhein-westfälischen Werl etwa geriet die dortige Justizvollzugsanstalt vor wenigen Wochen in die Schlagzeilen, weil sich die gut 120 Sicherungsverwahrten über die angeblich schlechte Unterbringung beschwerten. Ein Sicherungsverwahrter klagte erfolgreich vor dem Landgericht Arnsberg: Der Schwerbehinderte war einem lokalen Medienbericht zufolge für einen Arztbesuch außerhalb des Gefängnisses an den Füßen gefesselt worden, obwohl er sich nur mit einem Rollator fortbewegen könne. Dies prangerten die Prüfer, die ehrenamtlich bundesweit die Haftbedingungen im Freiheitsentzug in Augenschein nehmen, unter anderem an."
Via @ndaktuellhttps://www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1174787.justizwesen-haftbedingungen-am-pranger.html
"Im Dezember 2017 wurde der Anarchist und Antifaschist Rodrigo Lanza in einer Bar in #Saragossa von einem stadtbekannten Neonazi angegriffen. Unter Todesangst wehrte er sich und schlug den Neonazi zu Boden. Wenige Tage nach der Auseinandersetzung erlag dieser seinen Verletzungen. Fünf Jahre später wird Rodrigo zu drakonischen 18,5 Jahren Haft verurteilt. Der Fall wirft ein Schlaglicht auf die staatliche #Repression und rechte Medienhetze gegen Antifaschist:innen in #Spanien . Aber die Geschichte von Rodrigo und seinen Leidensgenoss:innen beginnt lange vor jener fatalen nächtlichen Begegnung in Saragossa: Sie reicht bis ins Jahr 2006 zurück. Ein Resümee in elf Akten."
Chronologie einer Mobilisierung und ihrer Unterdrückung!
Rache für M., der von den Bullen im CRA* Vincennes getötet wurde!
"In den Tagen nach dem Tod von M., der am 26. Mai starb, nachdem er von Polizisten geschlagen worden war, beschlossen die Insassen des Abschiebegefängnisses Vincennes, kollektiv zu kämpfen (Hungerstreik, Zusammenstöße mit den Bullen, Klagen…). Die besonders intensive Repression hat jedoch im Laufe der Tage die Mobilisierung im Inneren untergraben. Draußen versuchten Personen, diese Kämpfe sichtbar zu machen und zu unterstützen...."
[*CRA, Les centres de rétention administrative / Zentren für administrative Abschiebungen)]
In Brutal Summer Heat, #Prisoners Say Their Cells Are Like “Stifling Hot Coffins”
"Days of extreme heat without access to enough water and cooled air become deadlier for an aging prison population.
[...]
Shortly after midnight this past Friday, guards found 37-year-old Elizabeth Hagerty dead in her unair-conditioned Texas prison cell. The day before, temperatures had reached nearly 100 degrees."
JUNI
INTERNATIONALER TAG DER SOLIDARITÄT MIT ALLEN LANGZEIT-ANARCHISTISCHEN GEFANGENEN
Gegen das Vergessen, Gegen die Verzweiflung
"Ein weiteres Jahr vergeht, und wieder steht der 11. Juni vor uns. Erneut schätzen wir alles, was sich in anarchistischem Kampf in dieser Zeit entfaltet hat, sowohl die Triumphe als auch die Schwierigkeiten, außerhalb der Gefängnismauern und innerhalb. Wir schätzen die Schönheit des Widerstands und die Stärke, die entstehen kann, wenn wir uns weigern, sowohl dem Vergessen als auch der Verzweiflung zu erliegen.
Gegen das Vergessen: Wir weigern uns zuzulassen das der Staat Rebellen verschwinden lässt, ihre süßen oder scharfen Worte aus unseren Diskussionen löscht oder ihre Beiträge zu unseren gemeinsamen Kämpfen entfernt oder zu verschleiern. Stattdessen erinnern wir uns an sie. Ihre Taten, Worte, ihr Lachen, ihr Potenzial und ihre Menschlichkeit. Wir können als Vermittler dienen, durch Gefängnismauern und zwischen Generationen hinweg. Sie können in unsere sich verändernden Kämpfe einbezogen werden, und wir können sie mit der Außenwelt verbinden und die Außenwelt mit ihnen verbinden."
Via @june11 https://june11.noblogs.org/post/2023/05/27/gegen-das-vergessen-gegen-die-verzweiflung-11-juni-2023/#more-1778
Call for International Week of Solidarity with #AnarchistPrisoners
"Extreme right, conservative and authoritarian politics are increasing all around the world. Some use it to start Wars and kill thousands of people, some build fences and guard what they think is their property and others use it to arm up in the digital world. Surveillance is increased and the states are leaping more and more into our private spaces, analyzing our private conversations and collecting data about us with a depth of detail we could never have imagined. The tools of the states to crush resistance, crush even the idea of fighting the system, are sharpened with every minute. Many anarchists, anti-authoritarians, environmental activists, and antifascist around the world face repression because acting anonymous in a digitalized world is as difficult as never before.
With all the obstacles put into our way during the struggle for a better world, anarchist ideas and values remain important. In times of crisis methods of collective organizing, mutual aid and the principle of solidarity start to shine. The system will fall apart and we should get ready to take back a world that was stolen by companies, yacht owners and the war industry." https://darknights.noblogs.org/post/2023/08/05/call-for-international-week-of-solidarity-with-anarchist-prisoners-2023-23-30-august/ #Anarchism#Prison#freeThemAll#abolishprisons
Write to our comrades in jail and break the isolation!
No one is free until all are free!
List of imprisoned anarchists 2023
"Every year we try to update the list of imprisoned anarchists. We finished and present it to you!
If you see any mistakes in it, if someone is missing or has been released, please let us know!
There is a single page version and a booklet version to print."
via @woswap https://solidarity.international/index.php/list-of-prisoners/ #AnarchistPrisoners#anarchism#abolishprisons
"We therefore launch this appeal not to let him miss our solidarity, and we invite everyone to write him letters or postcards, using registered letters with acknowledgement of receipt, to increase the possibility that they will be given to him, or, if the prison keeps them, that he will be informed of them."
Alfredo Cospito
Casa Circondariale "G. Bacchiddu
Strada provinciale 56, n.c. 4
Località Bancali
07100 - Sassari (Italy)
Against all jails!
Cassa Antirepressione Alpi Occidentali
From https://t.me/NO41bis/10638 #abolishprisons#Anarchism#Repression
UK: Anarchist comrade Toby Shone abducted by armed cops & sent back to prison!
"Toby Shone is an anarchist who was imprisoned in Wandsworth, Bristol and G4S Prison Parc for nearly two years accused of being the administrator of counter-information project 325.nostate.net. After the political prosecution failed and the cops had to drop the case 5 days before trial in October 2021, Toby received a sentence of 3 years 9 months for possession of psychedelic medicines. He was released on 28 December 2022 under heavy restrictions (license conditions), oversight by a multi-agency team (MAPPA) including the National Security Division (counter-terror) and forced to live in a filthy bail hostel in Gloucester for 9 months. He had just moved back into a flat in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire 9 days ago.
(...)
Toby is in a good mood, as always, and asks for letters and books.
You can write to:
Toby Shone A7645EP
HMP Bristol
19 Cambridge
Bishopston Road Bristol BS7 8 CV"
"Oury ist kein Einzelfall und die letzten Jahre und insbesondere die letzten Monate haben nachdrücklich gezeigt, dass Polizeibeamte keine Hemmungen haben Menschen aufgrund ihrer Hautfarbe, ihrer Herkunft, ihrer sozialen oder psychischen Situation zu erschießen, zu ersticken oder sonst wie umzubringen. Wenn der offensichtliche Mord an Oury Jalloh ohne Konsequenzen für die Täter bleibt, weil diese durch Staatsanwaltschaften, Gerichte und Politik geschützt werden, dann ist das auch in Zukunft ihr Freibrief zum Töten!"
Bruder zieht vor EGMR
"2005 wurde der aus Sierra Leone geflüchtete Oury Jalloh rechtswidrig in Dessau in Gewahrsam genommen, misshandelt, auf einer Matratze fixiert und angezündet. Weil die deutsche Justiz eine restlose Aufklärung verweigert, zieht sein Bruder vor den EGMR."
Bruder zieht vor Europäischen Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte
"2005 wurde der aus Sierra Leone geflüchtete Oury Jalloh rechtswidrig in Dessau in Gewahrsam genommen, misshandelt, auf einer Matratze fixiert und angezündet. Weil die deutsche Justiz eine restlose Aufklärung verweigert, zieht sein Bruder vor den EGMR."