@dystopiance / dystopiance.tumblr.com
except from The Calendar Says Wednesday https://exdystopia.wordpress.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”.
What is happening/ a western state uses the word terrorism and suddenly the world mourns.. meanwhile those same western states hold coalitions bent on destruction and displacement of people worldwide through horrifying tactics like raids, economic sabotage, drone attacks. The US state has a hand in every major crisis, but only the ones in white dominated countries are mourned like this. Don’t forget that the state commits terror always, and the people react to their conditions always. Non state entities, organizations, have preferences and may resort to violence as a means of communicating their goals.
Western states always use violence to sabotage, destabalize and maintain structural privileges over other states gained through colonialism, and now globalized capitalism/fascism (the trading of surveillance and violence technology between israel and the US/ the development of counter terrorism social media to prevent youth radicalization / policing/ private security). Recognize state violence, not just violence that invokes reactionary nationalism.
There is no Freedom in how amerika does war. Unless you are talking about freedom for the decision makers who send people to kill and die, profiteering capitalists and weapons manufacturers, the industrial warmongerers. Freedom for genocide, to expressly develop and subordinate and infiltrate and destabilize other countries and particularly non white people for profit.
Making the world less safe, more poor, less survival, more desperation. Coercing youth into a military that destroys and harms people physically emotionally psychologically. Not worth it. The economy tell you to get any job, but it doesn't tell you that it keeps conditions of poverty desperate so they can recruit you to fight kill and die for profit. Whose freedom is that? Fuck the police and fuck the military. Love your children and keep them from killing other children. Hard truths hidden by Holiday bs.
The civil war never ended.
My mind is forever blown.
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.
Homelessness is on the rise whether it be from housing shortages, evictions from bedroom tax, over crowding and any other number of social reasons, domestic abuse, substance abuse…..The only diff…
DIRECT PRACTICAL ACTION
The UCSB shooter made a video, said he was “the true alpha male” — this is toxic hyper-aggressive masculinity taken to its extreme. He talked about women in a sorority house — he called them “animals” and said he would “slaughter them like animals.” Both women and animals are viewed as expendable and disposable in our society. It’s the same mindset of dehumanization and objectification. The murderer felt “alienated” and “rejected” by women, so he felt he had to exert his power and dominance over them.
Misogyny and rape culture are real and have deadly consequences.
(via opinionessoftheworld)
Apparently he lured and executed 3 more people in his apartment before leaving for the drive by shooting rampage.
TODAY Sunday April 27th. Los Angeles, CA
Check out our latest show reflecting on the radio project as well as the themed 5-week series topic we chose “War on the Poor” on KPFK 90.7fm @ 1:30pm or listen live online at www.kpfk.org/index.php/listen-live.
NEWWW!!!! You can listen online at our soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/on-resistance/debrief-waronthepoor
This is our last show until after KPFK’s “fund drive”. After the break we’ll go back to doing shows on individual topics. Please check out our recently completed 5-week #waronthepoor series as well as information and resource links for each show!
WORK AND POVERTY: https://soundcloud.com/on-resistance/work-waronthepoor [Info Drop] http://onresistanceradio.tumblr.com/post/80481013521/show-resources-listen-to-our-first#notes
FOOD AND THE ENVIRONMENT: https://soundcloud.com/#on-resistance/food-health-and-the [Info Drop] http://onresistanceradio.tumblr.com/post/81238466756/waronthepoor-foodjustice-food-justice-the#notes
HOUSING AND GENTRIFICATION: https://soundcloud.com/on-resistance/housing-waronthepoor [Info Drop] http://onresistanceradio.tumblr.com/post/81848176823/click-to-listen-to-our-full-hour-discussion-sunday#notes
MILITARIZATION DOMESTIC AND ABROAD: https://soundcloud.com/#on-resistance/militarization [Info Drop] http://onresistanceradio.tumblr.com/post/82587080007/show-resources-click-to-listen-to-our-full#notes
HIERARCHY AND THE SOCIAL WAR: https://soundcloud.com/on-resistance/social-war-waronthepoor-1 [Info Drop] http://onresistanceradio.tumblr.com/post/83325623981/i-n-f-o-d-r-o-p#notes
Please check our soundcloud: www.soundcloud.com/on-resistance for past shows including discussions on Amerikan Fascism, Anti-blackness, Voting v. Direct Action and report backs on gang injunctions and the Trayvon Martin Uprising in LA. On Resistance Radio is a horizontal radio collective project committed to anti capitalism and intersectional resistance including the abolition of social, economic and political systems of hierarchy.
[SHOW & RESOURCES]
CLICK TO LISTEN to our full hour discussion Sunday April 13th @ 1:30pm on Militarization: Domestic & Abroad here on: https://soundcloud.com/on-resistance/militarization
MUSIC VIDEO: DEAD PREZ-POLICE STATE
FBI bulletin about sovereign citizen extremists interrupting police stops
Los Angeles panel to gauge concern over LAPD surveillance programs
US hires Israeli company to retrofit Mexico border wall
Jerry Brown, Israeli leader Netanyahu pledge greater cooperationhttp://english.al-akhbar.com/content/us-hires-israeli-company-retrofit-mexico-border-wall
LAPD goes to Israel, falls in love with drones and mass surveillance
LAPD scopes out Israeli drones, ‘big data’ solutions | Los Angeles
WeAreChangeLA questions LAPD Chief William Bratton about Bin Laden, Black Ops and Israeli Intelligence
Dismantling the Myth of Bill Bratton’s LAPD
The Anarchist Case against the Domain Awareness Center : Indybay
Urban Shield, SWAT, and the Domain Awareness Center | FireWorks
LAPD says every car in Los Angeles is part of an ongoing criminal investigation
Tomorrow is Today: An Interactive Map of Domestic Drones in the United States
U.S. Currently Fighting 74 Different Wars … That It Will Publicly Admit | INTELLIHUB
Bringing the argument home about domestic spying | l.a. activist
#Justice4Kelly
LAPD training exercises: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvMkG3_ocaQ and description: http://antidelusions.tumblr.com/post/52425177051/los-angeles-ca-gunfire-echoed-through-downtown
FTP - Combating the Police State info drop - books, zines, documentaries, resources:
The Police and the Occupy Movement » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
How Prisons Change the Balance of Power in America http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/10/how-prisons-change-the-balance-of-power-in-america/280341/
“How can one expect the state to solve the problem of violence against women, when it constantly recapitulates its own history of colonialism, racism, and war? How can we ask the state to intervene when, in fact, its armed forces have always practiced sexual and intimate violence against women as a central military tactic of war and domination.”— Angela Davis, ‘The Color of Violence Against Women’
"We’re learning a lot about this thing called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This war time disease. This combat fatigue diagnosis. And we read something worth sharing. Fact, urban youth are twice as likely to get Post Traumatic Stress Disorder than soldiers who are coming home from war. So tell me, what’s the difference between homicide in the streets and bloodshed on the battlefields of Iraq. […] The only difference there is between a soldier with PTSD and one of my students with it is that a soldier gets to leave the battlefield, while my kids go home to it."
Javon Johnson - “cuz he’s black” (NPS 2013)
"LAPD establishing the pretext for LAPD violence. Note how one person in a crosswalk after the light changes, or people standing in the parking lot of a commercial establishment (private property—even if it is open to the public), is enough to justify the “rules”. Not to mention LAPD track record for putting its own provocateurs and agents into a crowd to foment unrest. If one person “breaks” the rules, that’s enough to declare a demonstration unlawful. There’s a word for that: collective punishment. And it’s a violation of the Geneva Convention of Human Rights. NO JUSTICE NO PEACE!— Emma Rosenthal
"Councilman Jumaane Williams has claimed the rebellions were caused by people who did not live in Flatbush, and many reporters and others have followed his lead. By “outsiders,” he also means white people. Everyone knows this is bullshit. Jumaane Williams is implying that the young black militants in Flatbush were either controlled by whites and outsiders, or that they did not care enough about Kimani Gray to fight the police on their own. We know both are lies. Williams’ lie is important for two reasons. First, it proves what role Williams played during the rebellion. He didn’t try to help the rebellion defeat the cops. He tried to defeat and contain the rebellion. He wanted to make sure that whites, Asians, Latinas and Blacks did not fi ght the police together. That might have led to a historic defeat of the NYPD in East Flatbush. It would have proven what we know to be true: when they unite, oppressed people can defeat the police.” The Flatbush Rebellion zine
US MILITARY planning on testing weaponry on this island
“…[W]e seek to go as far beyond the myth of the FBI as a crime-fighting agency as is possible, given the information available to us. We posit that Hooverian propaganda [the narrative that the FBI was or is anything but a self-glorified political policing agency] was never so much an overstatement of the Bureau’s gang-busting exploits, or even a pure fabrication, as much as it was a deliberate and sophisticated ruse, a calculated and intentional diversion of public attention away from the FBI’s real purpose from the first day of its existence. Specifically, we argue that the Bureau was founded, maintained and steadily expanded as a mechanism to forestall, curtail and repress the expression of political diversity within the United States. Viewed as an essential component of enforcing the socio-political status quo, the Bureau’s receipt of unwavering governmental support regardless of its “abuses,” even at the moment when it was conclusively demonstrated to have so far exceeded its authority as to have temporarily threatened the stability of the status quo itself, begins to make the most fundamental kind of sense.” — Ward Churchill & Jim Vander Wall | Agents of Repression: The FBI’s Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement (1988)
TRIGGER WARNING: Photos Show Detainees Sodomized and Raped- Torture Continues During Obama Presidency
How the NSA Plans to Infect ‘Millions’ of Computers with Malware | FireWorks
Next Sunday! Militarization, Domestic $ Abroad! #waronthepoor airs on www.soundcloud.com/on-resistance and KPFK 90.7fm.
Feel free to send links for our info-drop, or share questions and suggestions at www.onresistanceradio.tumblr.com/submit
bump
Promises (2001) / Faris Odeh was shot to death by an Israeli soldier on November 9, 2000 during the Second Intifada in Gaza as he crouched down to pick up another stone.
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.
1. Restrictions on association – gang injunctions
2. Restrictions on providing services on the street to those in need
3. Restrictions on shared housing
4. Restrictions on occupying your automobile
5. Bonus: Bicycle Licensing
These are all laws that would further restrict the quality of life of poor, resource-less or houseless people. These laws would further empower the City Attorney to prosecute those most impacted by them. They would give the police more license to stop, harass, detain, arrest and/or brutalize those impacted.
The City Council seems to believe that police, enforcement, fines and punishment are practical solution-oriented ways to keep poor people safe. Never mind that it won’t keep them out of the clutches of the factory-like court system and our ever expanding for-profit Prison Industrial Complex.
Police obstructing streets to keep us from MARCHING.
radical womyn snatched during the G20 protests in Toronto
