uncreative

boyslayr:

me: I dont wanna like…… do things……..

My psychologist: You have to, do things

me: 

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hater-of-terfs:

Most of the “keep up the work after the protests have ended!”-type posts I’ve seen are mostly focused on like, reading Black authors and listening to Black voices and unlearning racism, and obviously all of that is absolutely vital - but no amount of individual self-reflection will be able to dismantle institutional systems of oppression. So I wanted to put together some resources for continuing to build a culture of noncompliance and resistance to the police and prison system even after things have calmed down

But first, be aware that the protests aren’t over. It’s June 29th and there are still events and actions being planned regularly across the nation, and they still need your participation and support. If you’re able, please keep your focus there; this list is for what can be done long-term outside of the protests

• Know your rights. Giving the police any more information than you absolutely have to will never and can never benefit you or anyone else - positive evidence given to the police is regularly thrown out in court, whereas negative evidence will be used against you. Know what to say and what you have the right to refuse. You don’t have to answer any questions without a lawyer present, you don’t have to give the police access to your house or car unless they have a current warrant signed by a judge. They will try to intimidate you - learn your rights and don’t let up, don’t ever cooperate with the police

• Don’t snitch. If you see someone breaking the law in a way that doesn’t hurt anybody, keep your mouth shut. If cops knock on your door asking you questions about your neighbors or anyone you know, don’t answer

• Don’t call the cops. If you can solve the problem in a different way, do it. Cops have on multiple occasions murdered the people they were called to help (or bystanders) without provocation. Don’t be complicit in that. Learn how to handle situations as a community or with the help of qualified experts

• When you see an interaction with the police happening, stop and observe. If necessary, film the interaction. Organize and work with groups such as Copwatch to observe the police and hold them accountable

• Use proper opsec, especially if you’re involved with anything that might make you a target for the cops. Downloading Signal is a great simple place to start
  

• Learn about jury nullification, and spread the word. When serving in a jury, you have the right to vote not guilty on a defendant that you believe did commit the crime but doesn’t deserve punishment for it. Don’t be complicit in unjust punishment

• Refuse to do work for the police or prison system. Workers keep the world running and the state relies on our compliance to keep our neighbors under their thumb. We can shut it down

• Continue to support bail funds, even for non-protesters. Cash bail is unjust, and people shouldn’t be in jail just because they can’t pay

• Continue to support legal defense funds as well, such as that of the National Lawyers Guild
  

• Write to prisoners, either by yourself or with groups such as the Anarchist Black Cross or Black And Pink, and organize/support books to prisons programs, commissary funds, reentry programs, and other forms of prisoner support

• Organize and support community-run crisis response organizations like the CAHOOTS program in Eugene, Oregon or the Birmingham Peacemakers in my hometown

Here are some other organizations to join that are doing good work in this area:

• Black Lives Matter is obviously a huge voice in racial justice right now. The list of “official” chapters on their website is very incomplete, though, so you may have better luck doing a web search for “[your area] black lives matter” (beware of fakes though)

• Showing Up for Racial Justice is another very active and widespread racial justice network

• Critical Resistance is a grassroots prison abolitionist organization founded by Angela Davis

• The Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement is another active prison abolitionist organization

• The IWW’s Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee works with prisoners to organize strikes, phone zaps, and other actions combating injustice in prisons

• Again, the Anarchist Black Cross does great work supporting political prisoners through letter-writing and more. The link I’ve been including is to an unofficial federation of ABC groups, though - there may be a group in your area that’s not part of that federation, so a web search for “[your area] black cross” may be better

• Black And Pink is a prison abolitionist organization focused on queer people and people living with HIV/AIDS
  

• Antifascism is of course an important aspect of racial justice and community safety. See @antifainternational‘s guide to getting connected to your local antifascists - though, again, beware of fakes (the “antifa checker” accounts on fedbook and twitter can help)

The police state and prison industrial complex rely on the complicity and cooperation of all of us to function and be effective. By building a culture of noncompliance and active resistance, we can drastically reduce the state’s ability to oppress communities of color. Don’t let the struggle be forgotten with the changing of the news cycle - keep up the struggle until all are free!

Boosts and additional resources are very much appreciated!

(via lifeisinthepixels)

rawandyellow:

(via matchboxvingt)

nintendogs:

sheabutterbitch:

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis

Here’s a free PDF of “Are Prisons Obsolete” if you are interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the prison abolitionist movement. This reading answers many of the questions you likely have regarding the call to abolish prisons and police.

One of the things I love about Angela Davis is that her writing style is so easily digestible, even when covering complex theory such as this. Do not be intimidated by the subject matter, it is fairly easy to grasp and I think everyone should read it.

audiobook version here on youtube

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mentallydatingahotcelebrity:

anxietyproblem:

Wow look, me

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politijohn:

(Source: twitter.com, via ororium-z)

asian-asf:

asian-asf:

diskhorsedudes:

autonomy-is-a-right:

diskhorsedudes:

geraniumlady:

diskhorsedudes:

diskhorsedudes:

For real, if you don’t hate cops unfollow and block this blog. You are not my ally. I want nothing to do with anyone who at this point still believes “not all cops”. Cops need to be abolished. It’s time to try something else. Too many of them are bigoted people who abuse their power. When we give cops lethal weapons and authority over whole groups of people, there cannot be any room for error. Our modern day police for stems from organized slave catching during the slavery era for fucks sake. We need something else.

@geraniumlady​ I’m responding to this publicly just so others can see because i know you’re not the only one who is wondering this. Most of these are gonna be from anarchist websites or written by anarchists because we are the main group who are looking into a creating alternatives to police.

This article is a good article to start with that goes into how communities can deal with crime themselves and talks about other places that have already started managing crime in their communities this way. 

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/policing-is-a-dirty-job-but-nobodys-gotta-do-it-6-ideas-for-a-cop-free-world-199465/

Here’s a video about what our societies could do instead of having traditional police and prison systems. Its from the point of view of an anarcho-communist and is one part of a series of videos about how anarchism works and what an anarchist society would look like, but this video is easy to understand without having watched the ones before it in the series and points of this video can be translated onto our current society. 

https://youtu.be/Hmy1jjRnl8I

Here’s an article from the anarchist library about crime and police alternatives as well.

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/scott-of-the-insurgency-culture-collective-the-anarchist-response-to-crime

And here is a page that leads to a google doc that is an in-progress list of resources on the subject of alternatives to police.

https://www.anarchistagency.com/critical-voices/what-to-do-instead-of-calling-the-police-a-guide-a-syllabus-a-conversation-a-process/

Ultimately, a lot of these have to do with crime prevention first and foremost, since less crime means less need for police, but they also talk about what can be done when crime does end up happening. I hope these sources are helpful to you and anyone else reading!

Thank you for the polite and detailed reply! It wouldn’t make any sense to abolish the police force without other systems in place first. This is good reading for this evening so I’ll book mark these links. Maybe if anything good comes out of this pandemic, it will be communities become close-knit enough to where changes like this would actually be feasible.

No problem! I appreciate you asking a genuine question in a polite way!

I agree. I hope that if anything else, our communities become closer, too. If you ever have anymore questions, please let me know!

Here’s a link to a good post about it!

Thank you for your addition! It would lowkey be great if this turned into some kind of masterpost for police alternatives so if anyone else has anything to add, please do!

https://anarchy.works/#toc41

here’s a link to Anarchy Works, pretty much a comprehensive manifesto that details solutions to alternatives to policing and explains anarchism as a theory!

Sorry to make an already long post longer, but here are what the highlighted sections say:

In the United States, modern police forces arose at a time when crime was already diminishing. Rather, the institution of police emerged as a means to give the ruling class greater control over the population and expand the state’s monopoly on the resolution of social conflict. This was not a response to crime or an attempt to solve it; on the contrary, it coincided with the creation of new forms of crime. At the same time police forces were being expanded and modernized, the ruling class began to criminalize predominantly lower class behaviors that had previously been acceptable such as vagrancy, gambling, and public drunkenness.Those in authority define “criminal activity” according to their own needs, then present their definitions as neutral and timeless. For example, many more people may be killed by pollution and work-related accidents than by drugs, but drug dealers are branded a threat to society, not factory owners. And even when factory owners break the law in a way that kills people, they are not sent to prison.

Likewise, the intense presence of militarized police in ghettos and poor neighborhoods is connected to the fact that crime stays high in those neighborhoods while rates of incarceration increase. The police and prisons are systems of control that preserve social inequalities, spread fear and resentment, exclude and alienate whole communities, and exercise extreme violence against the most oppressed sectors of society.

(via confetti-vampire)

asian-asf:

asian-asf:

diskhorsedudes:

autonomy-is-a-right:

diskhorsedudes:

geraniumlady:

diskhorsedudes:

diskhorsedudes:

For real, if you don’t hate cops unfollow and block this blog. You are not my ally. I want nothing to do with anyone who at this point still believes “not all cops”. Cops need to be abolished. It’s time to try something else. Too many of them are bigoted people who abuse their power. When we give cops lethal weapons and authority over whole groups of people, there cannot be any room for error. Our modern day police for stems from organized slave catching during the slavery era for fucks sake. We need something else.

@geraniumlady​ I’m responding to this publicly just so others can see because i know you’re not the only one who is wondering this. Most of these are gonna be from anarchist websites or written by anarchists because we are the main group who are looking into a creating alternatives to police.

This article is a good article to start with that goes into how communities can deal with crime themselves and talks about other places that have already started managing crime in their communities this way. 

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/policing-is-a-dirty-job-but-nobodys-gotta-do-it-6-ideas-for-a-cop-free-world-199465/

Here’s a video about what our societies could do instead of having traditional police and prison systems. Its from the point of view of an anarcho-communist and is one part of a series of videos about how anarchism works and what an anarchist society would look like, but this video is easy to understand without having watched the ones before it in the series and points of this video can be translated onto our current society. 

https://youtu.be/Hmy1jjRnl8I

Here’s an article from the anarchist library about crime and police alternatives as well.

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/scott-of-the-insurgency-culture-collective-the-anarchist-response-to-crime

And here is a page that leads to a google doc that is an in-progress list of resources on the subject of alternatives to police.

https://www.anarchistagency.com/critical-voices/what-to-do-instead-of-calling-the-police-a-guide-a-syllabus-a-conversation-a-process/

Ultimately, a lot of these have to do with crime prevention first and foremost, since less crime means less need for police, but they also talk about what can be done when crime does end up happening. I hope these sources are helpful to you and anyone else reading!

Thank you for the polite and detailed reply! It wouldn’t make any sense to abolish the police force without other systems in place first. This is good reading for this evening so I’ll book mark these links. Maybe if anything good comes out of this pandemic, it will be communities become close-knit enough to where changes like this would actually be feasible.

No problem! I appreciate you asking a genuine question in a polite way!

I agree. I hope that if anything else, our communities become closer, too. If you ever have anymore questions, please let me know!

Here’s a link to a good post about it!

Thank you for your addition! It would lowkey be great if this turned into some kind of masterpost for police alternatives so if anyone else has anything to add, please do!

https://anarchy.works/#toc41

here’s a link to Anarchy Works, pretty much a comprehensive manifesto that details solutions to alternatives to policing and explains anarchism as a theory!

Sorry to make an already long post longer, but here are what the highlighted sections say:

In the United States, modern police forces arose at a time when crime was already diminishing. Rather, the institution of police emerged as a means to give the ruling class greater control over the population and expand the state’s monopoly on the resolution of social conflict. This was not a response to crime or an attempt to solve it; on the contrary, it coincided with the creation of new forms of crime. At the same time police forces were being expanded and modernized, the ruling class began to criminalize predominantly lower class behaviors that had previously been acceptable such as vagrancy, gambling, and public drunkenness.Those in authority define “criminal activity” according to their own needs, then present their definitions as neutral and timeless. For example, many more people may be killed by pollution and work-related accidents than by drugs, but drug dealers are branded a threat to society, not factory owners. And even when factory owners break the law in a way that kills people, they are not sent to prison.

Likewise, the intense presence of militarized police in ghettos and poor neighborhoods is connected to the fact that crime stays high in those neighborhoods while rates of incarceration increase. The police and prisons are systems of control that preserve social inequalities, spread fear and resentment, exclude and alienate whole communities, and exercise extreme violence against the most oppressed sectors of society.

(via confetti-vampire)

writingwithcolor:

Writing With Color – Featured Description Posts

Some of our most useful posts on describing People of Color, all in one place.

• Words to Describe Hair

• Words to Describe Skin Tone

• Describing Asian Eyes

• Describing Wide Noses
  

• Describing Undead & Sick Dark Skin

• Describing POC and Avoiding Caricatures
  

• Describing Unnatural Skin Tones: Green

• Describing Unnatural Skin Tones: Jaundice

• Indicating Race of Characters (FAQ Questions #3-4)

• Not Indicating Race at All – Note: You Probably Should
  

• Praising Beauty Without Fetishizing

• Olive Skin, Race and Ethnicity

Specific Description Posts  

• Describing Skin as Swarthy (Spoiler alert: it’s sketchy)

• Describing East Asian Skin as Porcelain (Spoiler alert: it’s also sketchy)

• Describing Skin as Russet (Spoiler alert: it’s alright)

• Describing PoC as Exotic (SA: it’s othering)

• Describing Skin as Ebony (SA: it’s cliche)

• Describing Natural Hair as Cloud-Like (SA: it’s cool)

• Describing Black Hair as Unkempt (SA: it’s offensive)
  

• Describing Black Hair as Kinky (SA: it depends)

• Describing Skin as “Dark as Night” (SA: it also depends)

• Describing Skin as Like Dirt or Soil (SA: See above)
  

• Describing Skin as just “Dark.” (SA: it’s vague)

• Describing Black Hair as “Nappy” (SA: it ain’t recommended)
  

• Describing Skin With Food (SA: it’s a no-no)

–WWC

(via confetti-vampire)