No-one will be surprised that the UK public have little faith in #political parties, but given the current travails & criminal activity in the #police, its notable how that doesn't seem to have dented whether people trust them as much as one might have expected (although this is last year's data); but I'd be interested to see that data broken down by #gender & by #ethnicity.
When #RishiSunak warns against 'mob rule' its pretty clear who the UK public at large think the mob actually is!
British Police have always used the media to get themselves really good PR, everything from #DixonOfDockGreen to, well, whatever cozy cop bullshit is on this week on #BBC1, #ITV1, #channel4 fly on the wall docu, forty years of #TheBill, and, well you get the point.
Plus the whole, thousand years of the aristocracy breeding the populace to tug the forelock better and be bootlickers.
The Riders Come Out at Night by @darwinbondgraham and Ali Winston is a highly detailed, highly local recent history of Oakland PD. It's essential reading for abolitionists. So many of the arguments against police abolition are based on abstract ideas about the police that just don't match up with real experience. So many opponents of abolition are deeply invested in theoretical and false ideas of what police do. This book is loaded with reality. It's really good -- I highly recommend it!
it's almost as if NYC has been overtaken by fascists. forget about the presidents of Columbia, Bard, NYU. get rid of #ACAB Eric Adams. if not one democrat will reduce the size of the NYPD, then put them all together into a revival of the Titanic or Lusitania and send off to sea.
"The video was released just weeks after deputies from the same sheriff's department shot dead a 15-year-old autistic boy who was having a mental health episode." #acab
Amid so much that’s so utterly wrong in this world, it’s already been a delight to be part of the Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair (ACAB) organizing crew for the 2024 version of this particularly sweet “anarchist ritual of spiritual recovery” and its “big gay” spirit. After all, #ACAB falls on Stonewall weekend and happens to take place in a town with lots of us queer+trans rebels.
Personally, I want to encourage you to dream up all sorts of imaginative proposals! I’d love to see ideas that reflect the changing (for the better) voices and faces, strategies and practices, of anarchism; that tell stories of inspiring anarchic histories and lessons gleaned for today; that reflect on the new fascist landscape we’re now in, and what ways we might shift to better fight and outwit it, to lessen losses and expand life against the murder machinery, to engage in communal care and self-defense as well as world-building; and that offer different formats, ranging from panels to play, conversations to ritual, workshops to hands-on to keynotes.
If you want to run ideas by me before you put in a proposal, DM me (keeping in mind I’m just one of about ten collective mates).
For now, read and revel in our friendly public invite, from which you can find links to the session proposal and tabling request forms. And big gay love to Bash Back News for posting our invite, which I had the joy of collaborating on with my dear friend and fellow Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair organizer Shuli Branson!
“Amid all the horror, we cannot neglect our capacity for joy. To struggle against the state and for liberation, there must be a life worth fighting for. Our anarchism taps into our pleasures along with our disgust, our wholeness along with our brokenness. The bookfair offers us a space to feel and reflect on these oppositions together. During these gatherings, we witness the breadth of our interdependences and solidarities as we contemplate the crumbling of infrastructure and social well-being, devastation of ecosystems, and growing hot spots of fascist action. We see how much we already make possible through the spirit and substance of our practices.”
Watch the watchers is a website set up by Stop LAPD Spying where you can look up LAPD officers by name or serial number and see their official headshots. It's incredibly useful for cop watching and other activism and it's one year old today!
Got a legit chortle out of this gem: "Cmmr Osborne asked how many tickets the TTC actually issues today, and management answered about 100 per week. That number provoked debate considering that there are about 100 Fare Inspectors."