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Reality has been happening too fast in the last 24 hours for me to keep up (I had to get faster internet ha ha ha) and it feels like we're on the verge of either a fascist dystopia or an anarchist revolution, and here I am stuck in my house. In lieu of a proper post, here are some links so that you can have more tabs on your browser.

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Police defunding motion in Toronto. I signed a bunch of petitions and wrote some letters and got a lot of letters back from various politicians on this. We'll see if it has legs. The police budget in Toronto is ridiculously bloated and any dollar not spent on them is a dollar better put to help communities.

8 fantasy novels by trans and nonbinary authors. I felt some of the authors here wrote better books than the ones they've listed, but I just noticed that this is from 2019 (JKR has been TERFing it up for awhile) so it's possible that those weren't out yet.

An exposé of Lauren O'Neil and the "BlogTO claims that Montreal antifa are descending on the city to riot" fiasco.

Confessions of a bastard cop. This is a long but really important read. A former cop reflects on his job and how it's structurally beyond reform even if there may be some well-meaning people in the system.

Masculinity as radical selfishness. Rebecca Solnit looks at gender, racism, and care. It's really good.

Why violent protests work. A hard look at why calls for peaceful protest only tends to be wishful thinking rather than how political change actually works. From, of all places, GQ.

Not to be out-radicalled by GQ, TeenVogue also has an article on BLM and co-optation. Their take is more optimistic than mine from the other day but let's hope they're right and I'm wrong.

Joy Ellison wrote a really good piece with advice for fellow white people wanting to stand in solidarity with Black folks.

So did you know that Seattle anarchists seized a police station, made an autonomous zone, and it's been going strong for a whole day? This is why Seattle is my favourite American city, y'all. Long live the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone!

Finally, a weird article about how horseshoe crabs bleed blue and are used in vaccine research.

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That is an epic illustration to an epic links post.

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I love Gritty.

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kore

THAT IS HAPPENING LITERALLY IN MY NEIGHBOURHOOD IS THAT LIKE OUT OF FUCKING NIGHT WATCH OR WHAT except with no Sam Vimes, lolsob

Just look! https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2020/06/welcome-to-free-capitol-hill-capitol-hill-autonomous-zone-forms-around-emptied-east-precinct/

https://mynorthwest.com/1930871/seattle-protest-updates-tuesday/

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/06/09/43873501/the-dawn-of-free-capitol-hill

it feels like we're on the verge of either a fascist dystopia or an anarchist revolution, and here I am stuck in my house

OMFG yes, and it's driving me FUCKING NUTS.

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I was just there this winter! It was gentrified to fuck. I can’t get over it.

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kore

YES! Those blocks are now filled with horrible crackerbox five-story buildings that rent studios for like $2K and Amazon and Microsoft get giant finder discounts for their employees! When the people were talking about the tear gas rising up from the streets and GETTING IN their apartments even through sealed windows, it's because the construction was that fast and shitty, like all the rest of the stacked ice cube tray condos replacing historical buildings. Cal Anderson is where some Karen mom found a syringe fifteen minutes after she moved here and freaked out over BUT WHAT ABOUT MY BAAABIES and the fucking child abuser mayor (the one before this one) went out and walked the park with a whole gaggle of Karens and promised to crack down on those awful homeless people spoiling everyone's playtime.

To their credit, the young people in the new horrible shitty gentrified buildings are very supportive of the protesters, and did stuff like offer shelter and aid in the secured building lobbies when the cops went apeshit, and documented the crackdowns from their windows, and let news cameras and freelance photogs film from the roofs (the cops told them not to, and also said "We are just concerned for your safety! There might be SNIPERS trained on the building!" Spoiler: there were no fucking snipers). The business owners around there are still acting like jackasses, tho.

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IMO gentrification is pretty complicated as it's often rather borderline, nice people (cough*likeme*cough) who are sympathetic to progressive causes who are at the forefront. The really shitty reactionary people don't want to live in the cool neighbourhoods. The problem to me is developers and investors; with the people themselves, there's a basis for unity.

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kore

The problem to me is developers and investors; with the people themselves, there's a basis for unity.

Oh yeah, absolutely. (I mean, I was part of the gentrifying wave myself back in like 1999, lol.)

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kore

Also, when building managers complained "You are ACTUALLY tear gassing the tenants as they are sitting there in their own homes with the windows shut (and making the property values drop like an elevator with its cables cut, what if they try breaking the lease??)" apparently the SPD said "we didn't teargas anyone" (the Trumpian argument it was aerosolized pepper spray. It was not aerosolized pepper spray) and "collateral damage is to be expected, nobody got hurt, you're fine".

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Ah! That's great news for the people who got teargassed that it wasn't really teargas.

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kore

Maybe they can tell that NBC reporter she didn't really get a flashbang to the chest while she was live on the air!

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Hopefully all those people who lost eyes will grow them back.

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kore

Also, people donated a shitload of money for medical bills to the young black man, Daniel Gregory, who saw that the white fuckwit DRIVING A CAR INTO THE CROWD OF PROTESTERS had A GUN, reached into the car, and tried to grab it, getting shot in his shoulder. Apparently he moved here from MD in January.

https://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/224045-1560x1002.jpg

You can see one protester thinking quickly and also moving a police barrier in front of the car.

https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/gofundme-victim-capitol-hill-protest-shooting-raises-100k-4-hours/3PKU3S22ANCTBNNML6THEVQRFA/

(I believe this is legit) https://www.gofundme.com/f/DanGregoryBLMHero

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Holy shit what a hero.

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kore

That was when everyone still thought the biggest threat was this murderous asshole just driving through the crowd. Daniel Gregory was apparently one of the first people to realize he was armed and as you can see in the photo, he goes charging in before the guy is even out of the car. People have been given medals for way less.

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Can you imagine a cop risking his life that way?

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kore

HMMMM. -- Oh and the racist fuckwad ran through the crowd brandishing his gun and fucking terrifying everybody, ran UP to the cops and was like "I sympathize with you so much! I am here for you!" or something, and they had him drop his gun, walked him VERY GENTLY to a wall, did not cuff him from what I could see, and vanished him around a corner and a line of riot police immediately cut the view off so nobody could see what was happening. Maybe he got a doughnut.

(Things The Cops Did Not Do: forcibly disarm him, get him spreadeagled on the ground, search him for MORE WEAPONS, restrain him, kneel on his neck, get him in a chokehold, you get the picture)

Sooooooo yeah.

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Well, he was probably someone they could relate to.

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kore

SUPPOSEDLY he has a bro in the police force and he was "worried for his brother's life!" or some goddamn bullshit, but that smells like a building defense lawyer argument to me.

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kore

these are my two fave pics so far

https://i1.wp.com/www.capitolhillseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/CHSBLMJune82020-27.jpg

https://i1.wp.com/www.capitolhillseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/IMG_7998.jpg

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Glorious!

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kore

Useless Racist Mayor: "We hear they will try to BURN DOWN to the east precinct and BLOCK fire trucks and property will be DAMAGED!!"

Narrator: The police station was not burned down, fire trucks remained ready one block away, and no property was damaged unless you count the graffiti which is ALREADY all over the neighbourhood.

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Has URM never met an anarchist? They would need to have like a four hour discussion before coming to consensus on whether the precinct should be burned down, turned into a soup kitchen, or turned into a community theatre space.

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kore

LOL YES apparently they all started arguing

-- BUT THEN! SABS, THEN COMMIE CITY COUNCILWOMAN KSHAMA SAWANT (she's actually a socialist! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshama_Sawant but she gets called a Commie) GOT EVERYONE FIRED UP AFTER SOME GROSS ASSHOLE MOCKED HER ACCENT, SAID 'I HAVE THE KEYS TO CITY HALL, WHO IS WITH ME,' AND LED A MARCH THAT GREW UP TO A _THOUSAND_ PEOPLE DOWN TO CITY HALL, LET THEM IN, AND THEY OCCUPIED THE BUILDING FOR HOURS! IT WAS ESTIMATED AT LIKE TWO THOUSAND PEOPLE! AND THEN EVERYONE PEACEFULLY LEFT. LOOK

https://twitter.com/AGarlandPhoto/status/1270556711804420103

https://twitter.com/AGarlandPhoto/status/1270565524863246336

https://twitter.com/GoldsteinStreet/status/1270565453807550467

https://twitter.com/AGarlandPhoto/status/1270565427219841024

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-mayor-police-chief-sued-by-protesters-aclu-for-unnecessary-violence-at-demonstrations/

Alex Garland needs to be nominated for a fucking Pulitzer, he has been documenting this whole thing non-stop and I don't think he has any fulltime job

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Ahhhh!

She's fucking awesome. I know some people are slagging her off for not going far enough but I think everyone is still feeling out the limits of what is possible right now.

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kore

I can't help it, I just fucking love her for going "You know if you REALLY want to take the message to the halls of power, GUESS WHO HAS A FUCKING KEY." (paraphrasing)

Altho apparently she was banging on about TAX AMAZON! (can you blame her, she's like the ONLY POLITICIAN in the fucking city who does) and someone plaintively asked "Can we please please focus on black lives mattering just once?" Aww man.

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kore

Also the ACLU-WA has now sued Useless Racist Mayor for shit like: not promising the police would not use tear gas against the protesters; saying she could not guarantee that she would stop the police using tear gas; saying the police well really should stop doing it, okay, fine; and then saying the police might still have used tear gas and oh dear wasn't that dreadful, but maybe it wasn't tear gas?

I mean this is the CONSERVATIVE Seattle Times rag:

The mayor and chief did apologize Sunday for instances in which they said officers may have failed to deescalate tense moments and used disproportionate force. Referring to police maneuvers on Capitol Hill, Durkan said, “I know that safety was shattered for many by the images, sound and gas more fitting of a war zone, and for that, I’m sorry.”

Hours after their remarks, tear gas was again deployed on Capitol Hill. Police said people in the crowd threw bottles, fireworks, rocks and other projectiles at officers. The next morning, multiple City Council members said Durkan should consider resigning.

In a dramatic shift in tactics Monday afternoon, the Police Department boarded up and barricaded its East Precinct and then abandoned the surrounding streetscape to protesters. The night passed peacefully.

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In a saner world, the use of banned chemical weapons against civilians would get anyone involved removed from office and/or prosecuted.

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kore

But it wasn't really real tear gas! It just smelled and acted like tear gas!

(insert my typical rant about people not only tolerating but WELCOMING extreme militarization of all police forces, even tiny suburban ones, post-9/11)

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I often feel like An Old for remembering how things were before 9/11. We never got those rights we lost back, and that's why it's so important to fight now.

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kore

It is amazing how radically and thoroughly the fucking politicians changed the world. There was like a whole two weeks of goodwill and uniting and so on, and then they just absolutely seized all the grief and fear and anger and used it to justify the worst shit. kljasdoqweklj &*&*%&*&*(

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Yup. Disasters can go one of two ways, or a combination of both.

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kore

I mean, is it me or is there a DIRECT LINE between shit like "waterboarding is not torture and even if it was, using it on those Radical Mooslim Insurgents is a-OK" to "yes Mr President we will teargas those peaceful protesters out of the Peoples' Park so you can have a photo op pandering to the religious right" -- ?

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It is not just you.

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I read "Confessions of a bastard cop" last night and now would like to have it framed. It taught me so much I never knew.

Edited (clarity) Date: 2020-06-10 08:47 am (UTC)

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I learnt a ton from it. I'm the first to admit that I don't really have a ton of insight into why cops behave as they do—like I have the systemic analysis, but not the understanding of why individuals choose to be a part of said system. That article really helped.

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Yes, it did. Glad I read it. I've talked to my fair share of cops in everything from routine work situations to personal situations and the article sheds light on why some act as they do.

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robin_iamar

I love that image and also I heard it's Gay Wrath Month (there's a meme with a glorious horn-masked Pride horsey and I love it; I wonder if the original artist has made a T-shirt of it)

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So short answer, no, but they may have stickers soon.

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kore

OMFG check it, the Cap Hill Autonomous Zone is having a TOWN HALL MEETING, in the open air

https://twitter.com/Omarisal/status/1270853536813727746

Latest cop PR: "We did not abandon the police station! There are still cops inside." (All the windows are boarded up, the desks are gone, the door is OPEN.) "Officers last night did not say on the scanner that Capitol Hill can 'deal with it themselves'!" (They did.) "Police are still responding to calls to the East Precinct!" (With an empty parking lot, an empty and abandoned precinct, and no cops visible anywhere....?)

But wow, check it

https://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2020/06/10/changes-to-policy-on-body-worn-camera-use-at-demonstrations/

By order of the Chief,
Pursuant to Executive Order 2020-07, effective immediately all Seattle Police Department officers who are assigned to work demonstrations where they will have contact with the public are ordered to have body-worn video recording during demonstrations.

Back to reality: the guy who tried to drive through the peaceful crowd, and then shoot people, got charged with assault. (They also got most of the details wrong.) https://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2020/06/10/assault-charges-filed-against-shooting-suspect-at-11th-and-east-pine/

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Beautiful! Let the cops play make-believe that they still have the precinct if it keeps them from busting heads. In fact, that might be a good strategy in general. We can give them nerf guns and let them play on an island somewhere.

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kore

They're having film nights! The first one was 13th!

This warmed the shrivelled cockles of my black bitter little heart:

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/06/10/43885722/eltana-bagels-across-12th-from-the-police-station-finds-new-ways-to-do-business

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BAGELS FOR THE PEOPLE

omg

omg

THE CONQUEST OF BAGELS

I'll see myself out

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kore

REASONABLY PRICED LOVE AND A BAGEL WITH LOX

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broken_record

You post the best resources.

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I try!

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flamingsword

Thanks for the links!

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You're welcome!

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