@dystopiance / dystopiance.tumblr.com
“American exceptionalism isn’t just ignoring the bad that American and other Imperialist countries have caused, it is criminalizing, victim blaming, and punishing how people respond after they have been attacked. We expect those who have seen their countries invaded, their loved ones murdered, who live in fear of the next drone attack, or rape from a station soldier to just pray for peace and bestow forgiveness”.
Anyone in Los Angeles, and especially poor non white communities of color, will tell you that police choppers flying or hovering incessantly over your heads is not news.
So imagine the surprise when I read the LA Times recent article, which might as well have been featured in Minority Report, a popular dystopic fiction movie.
Gone are the days fearing government overreach targeting “thought crime” criminalizing areas or people before an incident occurs. Now, we are in the era of “predictive policing” where technology is utilized for organized violent groups like the police, which systemically murder non white life while the conditions of violence and poverty remain the same, or get worse.
Even more troubling is the undoubted credibility given to mainstream “known by name” publications like the LA Times who conspire with the LAPD to bottom line pro-cop anti-poor narratives that invisiblize the structural and racial violence of the police.
But the article is much more dangerous than it seems. While impacted (as opposed to benefiting) communities have organized tirelessly for alternative strategies to prevent crime, resourcelessness, violence and poverty in their communities the LAPD is opposed to all of it choosing instead to use a “hammer” approach of structural violence against youth of color.
Instead of more resources to prevent the conditions that create crime, resources take the form of funding for police, who just reached a negotiated settlement with the city for a 7% pay increase over the next three years. (also uncritically written about by the LA Times)
But the story isn’t that we have uncritical media or lack of investigative journalism, it’s that these tactics are used by the police for a long period of time before they are ever mentioned by the media. They are experienced long before they are “represented” in a palatable form for the consuming audience. When they are mentioned, it’s done in a way that legitimizes the policy almost like the police called the Times and asked them to run a story because their ready to finally acknowledge what poor hyper patrolled people have known all along.
What’s troubling is the framing of the article, despite the evidence presented.
Craig Uchida, a policing consultant who analyzes data for the LAPD and offers advice on crime prevention strategies, says it is too early to prove a definitive link between the flights and drops in crime. But the results so far, he said, are encouraging.
"Certainly it provides another layer and blanket of security for our folks," says Capt. Ed Prokop, who until recently oversaw the Newton Division."
Which means that while being marketed to the middle class aspiring populace, the increase in police helicopters probably has more to do with control and power for police and prisons than it does with “crime”.
Especially given that it is not proven to prevent crime, but is likely to displace crime to other areas. A side effect we’ve seen again with “gang injunctions” which also rely on “hot spots”, faulty profiling and police databases to create a restraining order in certain neighborhoods but likely has more to do with property value, development and ultimately the displacement of working class black and brown families.
While air patrols are frequent, the frequency has increased without much formal acknowledgement (until now) let alone input by the communities made to suffer the consequences. These disturbances have rather been a non-debatable aspect of increased militarization and surveillance culture “pioneered” by LAPD.
A few years back there was discussion from local activist communities about how to track the growing number of air-ships and map out the surveillance tactics of the police. In Echo Park for example, an area reeling from the influx of redevelopment, displacement and increased police harassment to effect gentrification- there were air-ships at all hours of the night sometimes for hours on end.
One night, a few of us meddling as we might in the affairs of the unaccountable police, decided to review the actions of police and investigate the situation. We found the established perimeter and began questioning why the police had shut down a block between 3rd and Beverly on Lucas.
We were told it was unsafe, that there was an armed gunman and to move away from the situation. We kept a distance and filmed, and as the chopper lingered for 5 hours we realized that the urgency and demeanor of the police was off. They were not moving cautiously, from building to building as people were trapped inside of their homes. In fact, in one lot an officer who had a higher rank modeled and illustrated to the group of officers running tactics how to use bolt cutters to get through a lot gate that was not locked.
It became apparent that not only were the police using poor neighborhoods heavily populated with people of color and migrants for training purposes but the prolonged use of the chopper at night was also designed to lay out the groundwork for increased air occupation and gauge how people respond. Just two weeks later we experienced a similar situation near Elysian Park where police locked down an entire neighborhood for 3 hours and went door to door and house to house unlawfully searching and occupying the street.
So while the LA Times and other mainstream propaganda rags are serving as the mouthpiece of the LAPD, communities are still left to deal with the fall out. Though there is rising movement against the execution of black life by law enforcement, the system that legitimizes collateral damage by the police runs smoothly through the mechanisms of institutional media. While we investigate the police in our own neighborhoods, the dominant narrative and apologists alike tell us that authority demands trust. The LAPD has proven that it deserves neither.
The US government quietly hosted a summit against ‘violent extremism’ this week. Then they announced the export of armed drones to other “allied” states. The same day the president made a good speech. Curiously, they wanted to focus on domestic radicalization of youth to radical ideologies opposed to ‘democratic’ capitalism.
a comrade
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has some explaining to do this week, after a federal judge ordered the agency to provide a more thorough explanation to justify why it withheld information from a graduate student’s Freedom of Information Act request for documents regarding an alleged 2011 assassination plot against leaders of Houston’s Occupy movement.
The requests — which were filed last year by Massachusetts Institute of Technology doctoral candidate Ryan Noah Shapiro, who is researching the plot — sought all records “relating or referring to Occupy Houston, any other Occupy Wall Street-related protests in Houston, Texas, and law enforcement responses.” Shapiro noticed a reference to the plot in FBI documents about the Occupy movement that were unsealed in 2012 after a civil-rights group filed a FOIA request.
An FBI document that Shapiro showed to VICE News describes the plot against Occupy Houston:
“An identified [redacted] as of October planned to engage in sniper attacks against protestors [sic] in Houston, Texas, if deemed necessary…. [Redacted] planned to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs, then formulate a plan to kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles.”
The FBI said it had identified 17 pages of records relevant to Shapiro’s FOIA request, but it only released five of them, all highly redacted. Shapiro then filed suit against the FBI.
FBI FOIA Chief David Hardy defended suppressing the information in a motion to dismiss Shapiro’s lawsuit. Hardy noted that the request concerned material that the FBI had given to local authorities who were investigating “potential criminal activity” by Occupy Houston protesters. The FBI was working with them to assess potential terrorist threats posed by Occupy Houston and determine whether it had advocated overthrowing the US government. Hardy .
The FBI and the Department of Justice invoked the Bureau’s “general investigative authority” and its “lead role in investigating terrorism and in the collection of terrorism threat information” as a basis for its exemption from FOIA, but this did not convince Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of the US District Court for the District of Columbia. She agreed with Shapiro that the FBI’s justification was “overly-generalized and not particular.”
“At no point does Mr. Hardy supply specific facts as to the basis for the FBI’s belief that the Occupy protestors [sic] might have been engaged in terroristic or other criminal activity,” Collyer wrote in an opinion that denied part of the FBI’s motion to dismiss. “Neither the word ‘terrorism’ nor the phrase ‘advocating the overthrow of the government’ are talismanic, especially where FBI purports to be investigating individuals who ostensibly are engaged in protected First Amendment activity.”
VICE News asked the Department of Justice for its reaction to Judge Collyer’s opinion, but it declined to comment. (Read Full Text) (Photo Credit: Occupy Houston @ Facebook)
the more movement managers insist on pacifism the more tensions will rise within it. violence is already employed institutionally and regularly to create our oppressive conditions- to instigate war, displacement, to deprive resources, to protect wealth and ownership, to fill prisons and pocketbooks while dehumanizing black and brown, nonwhite bodies. to mine and destroy resources, animals the environment. im more interested in breaking down what nonviolence, and violence means for self defense not according to and defined for the benefit of white supremacist law and order. #thelawlies regardless of personal preference or privilege opressed communities already regularly experience systemic violence. no moral pacifist appeal will give us permission to liberate ourselves. it isnt preventing systemic violence and police violence. it only further polices the behavior of the oppressed restricting our ability to defend ourselves and hoping particular behavior will qualify us for validity (or protection) in the eyes of our oppressors. it only begs further state intervention. that is not liberation or freedom or justice. it is criminalization and resignation of our power to centralized authority. its not about violence but about challenging the doctrine of domesticity and nonviolence. this is about the legitimacy of state and capitalist violence and the criminalization of the poor. delegitimize the narrative of violence lets stop perpetuating the legality of war. #waronthepoor
but seriously I don't care if people think 'cops are people too'. i'm sorry, does reaffirming that a 'cop' is in fact a 'person' in any way shape or form address the fact that they are paid oppressors with a salary, pension and benefit package that enact war against the poor for the benefit of control and capital.
especially when people try to affirm or defend police in response to outrage after police brutality (which is their daily role) and terrorism. does a shitty metaphor comparing police murderers with no consequences to bad fruit do anything about the inevitability of police murder within a system and society of prisons and incarceration targeting poor black and brown communities?
no I don't think so. your dismissive apologist attitude for a privileged exerciser of violence contributes to oppression. if you cannot fathom giving a fuck about why this system targets and murders black youth or consider thinking seriously about real consequences for killer cops and alternatives to policing, your side commentary is nothing more than a comfort to yourself out of faith in defense of this false social order.
they are not 'just like us' they are not accountable like us. they are trained to be intimidating and to incite terror to maintain control. if you have someone you kno who is a pig, getting defensive and not speaking out because you don't think they should have to reflect heavily on their actions/power or 'get their feelings hurt' then you are more concerned about the feelings of people with power than the practical effects of the exercise of that power.
if you respond with any of these quick repeated answers justifying the police, instead of listening to the feelings of their victims you are silencing and dismissing people's valid concerns and contributing to their marginalization.
when people are outraged about consistent targeted and genocidal actions and incarceration by the hands of police their outrage does not need to be followed up by a positive comment justifying the role of the police or explaining their 'not all like that'. Yes they are trained to 'all be like that'. It's in their manual. It's why they wear the same uniform.
So Napthine and the crew are going even further these days to protect their criminal mates such as Grocon……At least we only have to deal with them for one more year
Draft laws to be introduced to State Parliament today would allow police to order protesters to “move on” if they restrict access to property, or are “causing others to have a reasonable fear of violence”.
In extreme circumstances, serial pests could be subject to a 12-month exclusion order allowing police to arrest them on sight if they repeatedly show up at the same picket lines. The Napthine Government’s laws are aimed at clamping down on violent protests, like those that dogged the Grocon Emporium site.
Bring it on. Napthine, the Gestapo-like ABCC and now the jacks. Fuck em all. We’ll make the Emporium picket look like a Sunday lunch in the park if push comes to shove.
Meetings every other Monday at 5:30 pm. Email [email protected] for more information. Los Angeles, CA.
Fucking pigs.
fuck pigs.
ANUNCIO IMPORTANTE: 9/27/13 PASARAN LA DEL MANDATO JUDICIAL ATRAS DE NUESTRAS ESPALDAS!!!! Peladeamos por Libertad! : Decimos NO a los mandatos judiciales contra nuestras familias. Traer agua, una bici que FUNCIONE y algo de dinero para donar! Si le interesa ayudar o donar agua/comida contactanos a [email protected]. _________________________________________________________ IMPORTANT NEWS FLASH: 9/27/213 THEY APPROVED THE GANG INJUNCTIONS LITERALLY BEHIND OUR BACKS!! Injunctions have been a tool to harass, imprison, displace families and rupture communities. We are getting together to ride around the proposed injunction area. We are creating our OWN safety in OUR OWN community. This ride will also be a teach in, if you want to learn more about the classist and racist injunctions and the rich hxstory of Echo Park, Silver Lake, Elysian Valley and Vista Hermosa join us! We will be organizing future rides all over Los Angeles where communities of Color and Poor communities are being gentrified, attacked and imprisoned. Bring water, a WORKING BIKE, safety gear and bucks to donate. Food not Bombs will provide some food! 2pm-3pm: Donation base bike mechanics! PLUS bike check up. 3pm-6pm: We ride! Bring water, a WORKING BIKE .Bring some CASH to support local vendors as well as donate towards the legal cost for bail money for youth that are already being WRONGFULLY arrested and also to cover the cost of legal fees to contest the injunction in court. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED ON DONATING FOOD/WATER AND HELPING OUT DURING THE RIDE (TRAFFIC CONTROL, DOCUMENTATION, FILMING, SECURITY, BIKE MECHANICS) EMAIL US TO [email protected]. TOGETHER WE SMASH THE INJUNCTIONS like us: https://www.facebook.com/Echo.park.united website: http://togetherwestay.org/ WANT TO GET INVOLVED? CONTACT US TO [email protected]
Please come out Tuesday, August 6th, 6:00pm for National Night Out for Safety and Justice STOP THE ECHO PARK GANG INJUNCTION JOBS, YOUTH CENTERS AND INTERVENTION/PEACEBUILDERS = PUBLIC SAFETY at the Echo Park Walgreens Store Parking Lot 1625 W Sunset Blvd corner of Echo Park Avenue 3 blocks East of Glendale Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026 *For Info about the Echo Park Gang Injunction See Link: http://www.youth4justice.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Echo-Park-Injunction-Fact-Sheet.pdf National Night Out defines itself as "a program promoting police-community partnership" sponsored by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF TOWN WATCH (NATW). Traditionally, police have defined the role of communities in crime prevention as being "the eyes and ears of the police." But, such community watch strategies have often increased fear between neighbors, isolated us behind locked doors and security gates, and caused us to define public safety as arrest and incarceration. The killing of Trayvon Martin highlights how dangerous these strategies can be. And, as we all know, L.A. now locks up more people than any other city in the world. In addition, despite the fact that violent crime in Echo Park, throughout Los Angeles and across the nation is at its lowest levels since the 1960s, the City Attorney's Office and the LAPD are proposing a gang injunction against 6 neighborhoods in and around Echo Park. Since their creation in L.A. County in 1983, gang injunctions have primarily served to gentrify communities and displace poor and working class families of color. Please join us on Tuesday, August 6th to meet your neighbors and build a different reality for the future of L.A. We seek a future that: -Prioritizes JOBS not JAILS; -Protects the ability of people to stay in neighborhoods they have lived in for decades; and -Builds true community safety based on KNOWING - NOT FEARING YOUR NEIGHBORS. Brought to you by: *The residents of Echo Park - "United we stand! Together we stay!" *Justice for Families, a national network of families of court-involved and incarcerated youth *Youth Justice Coalition, a youth, family and prisoner-led movement working to challenge the criminalization, mass incarceration and murder of young people of color. For More Info: -Comment/Post on this page -Visit www.youth4justice.org -Email [email protected] -Text Message (323)617-1751 -Tweet @YouthJusticeLA
The timing couldn't be worse for the Los Angeles Police Department to revive a 20-year-old, racially charged word invented to stoke fear of minority teens' supposed criminal tendencies. But that's exactly what's happened.
i'm actually coming to feel that repression comes in varied forms- the overt violence of the state and its mechanisms like arrest and prison and bureaucracy- and the subtle social coercion of politics/society as usual to get things 'under control' and avoid further conflict.... thus erasing the true state of tension between us and our structured surroundings.
the worst part i think is the lie that more control means more organized. like people are saying that they need to get organized, which is totally true.. but that doesn't mean working with the police and criminalizing tactics you don't agree with it should always mean speaking out against police obstruction and building movements IN the ruptures not in SPITE of them.
repression includes enforcing an expectation of how you are supposed to behave or respond to oppression whether by criminalization or social war.
my neighborhood had a community assembly and the energy was fantastic many people that have lived here for a long time shared their experiences with police harassment and with feelings of being displaced and pushed out of their own neighborhood! many people talked about 'showing their face' because they want to organize to fight the gang injunctions coming down. they talked about petitioning, forming an organization and doing actions to raise awareness/education and build pressure against the injunctions.
we discussed how injunctions and gentrification is a tactic by the city, so we can't just appeal to city power. it's not that they can't hear us they don't care- so i stressed why it was important to build dialogue for the sake of watching the police, defending ourselves and building our own communities up regardless, or in opposition to, state intervention.
there was a lot of talk about unity, and working with some existing organizations. i critiqued organizations (as i do) coming in to speak on the behalf of the community and noted that we all have different perspectives and often times organizations will speak for community and sometimes negotiate with the city/police. i also noted that we cannot speak for the youth but give them space to speak for themselves.
For all the sensationalized media about the #justicefortrayvon actions in LA there was little to no coverage of the spontaneous 11 mile peaceful (but deliberate!) march on Sunday night July 14th from Leimert Park, onto the freeway, and even through police obstruction towards Hollywood.
This is a bike-eye view of the march which brought people out into collectively empowering space (TAKESTREETS) even in spite of police brutality, to be heard and to take action together in a way that makes sure we don't have to rely on the narrative and coverage (or misrepresentation) of mainstream corporate media. Marchers were in the street telling people what was going on being seen by drivers and cars (a car caravan even formed!) that might otherwise not have been touched or moved to pause or consider the Zimmerman verdict beyond a flip of the channel or a facebook status. This march also served as a challenge to what is considered 'acceptable' protest in a time post-911 and post-occupy where the police make sure to control and passivize protest as much as they can. This happens via permitting, peace-policing police liasons, kettles (surrounding protesters to block a march), violence, victim-blaming and other forms of oppression. They especially make note to fearmonger and criminalize any actors that do not wish to comply with police obstruction 'crowd control' tactics by accusing them of 'seeking confrontation with police' and convincing others of 'outside agitators' or implanting fears of 'violence' to both undermine organic community revolt and neutralize potentiality. This march showed that marchers do not need the police to keep us safe, and that the police only serve to control and criminalize actions deemed 'disruptive' while the media distorts them. It did not have a permit. It refused to disperse despite police obstruction (intimidation, violence, projectiles). It refused to be stopped and it held space for 8 hours roving on streets to bring attention to the massive flaws and inconsistencies in our so called justice systems. It was beautiful. And for many, Justice for Trayvon is precisely about challenging a culture of policing that keeps oppressed people subordinated and silent, or if your black or brown- criminalized, imprisoned or extrajudiciously murdered without justice.
the police and prisons do not solve crime, they do nothing to stop violence, they displace it by monopolizing it. they do not reform or prevent crime because the root of crime is POVERTY. instead of splintering and dividing over how we feel about destructive acts within our communities how about we SHOW SOLIDARITY against state intervention and cease relying on the outside forces of institutional violence that patrol and criminalize our communities. how about we stop deferring to them and instead intervene against them to urge ourselves toward practicing self organized solutions for deescalation, restorative dialogue and to defend our communities.
you cannot blame the subordinated or punish them for how they/we respond to their/our subordination- to this hierarchical system of economic enslavement that places property over people. this system of force punishes those who do not assimliate 'properly' yet it depends on the existence of a subordinated population to scapegoat and justify its existence.
