#Also before anyone accuses of any mental health issues or conditions trust me I got tested. Only have ADHD. Nothing else.

[random-chaos-and-stuff]

Silly Game Time: Have you ever seen or heard a ghost (or what some might've considered to be a ghost)? If so, when and where?

Ohohohohohohoh I’ve been looking for an excuse to share some of this shit.

Short answer, yes, a while ago, twice at my house, and once on an island.

long answer is under the cut because I’ve been looking for an excuse to ramble about this stuff and it got a bit out of hand, aka horrifically long. So just be warned I guess.

So for context my mom’s side of the family has a history of some mildly supernatural stuff happening, and being able to sense stuff and all that jazz. Not in like the Hollywood type of way, just occasional feelings of a presence, or seeing something weird out of the corner of their eye, or encountering something strange for a bit, stuff like that. Overall pretty mild. And lucky me, I got it too. Maybe not ghosts or demons in the traditional sense most of the time, but definitely something else on occasion. Most of them are harmless, or just curious, but some are more malicious and all of that stuff. You can usually tell the difference based off vibes. Now here’s the thing, if you can more easily sense them, they can more easily sense you, and tend to get curious and interact a bit more because of it. I’ve encountered a couple of weird situations, none of which I can logically explain away easily (maybe the last one was my brain playing tricks on me, but considering it was on an island where a murder occurred on the next island over and was known to have many ghosts on it and literal graves I don’t think so), and I’ll share the ones I can think of right now here.

So this first one I don’t actually remember, because I was a newborn at the time. But my mom has told me about it a bunch. She said that when I was a baby and had just been brought home, I’d sometimes start randomly crying in my room. Now all kids do this, but she said I sounded almost scared. I’d always stop a while later, and when they checked on me I was fine. But she said that she felt a weird presence in my room sometimes. Now one time my mom apparently was putting me down for a nap, and I was all fine and dandy, the room all warm, and I went to sleep, and she left. A minute later I started crying really badly, so she rushed in, and apparently caught a flicker of someone looking at me by my crib, and the room was no joke several degrees colder, like actually cold in there. She immediately grabbed me and left the room, before telling whatever it was to leave, because it was scaring me. Sure enough, after that it left, and didn’t come back. It had just been curious.

The next thing I remember encountering was when I was like 10 or 11, it’s hard to remember, and wasn’t really a ghost I don’t think, but it was definitely something else, and it was definitely not nice. It possessed a stuffed monkey toy, one that came with a car in the trunk for some reason, with that cartoony smile and black eyes. It was cute for a while, until one day, it just. Wasn’t. Its face didn’t change, but somehow it felt more malicious, and like there was something behind it that meant us harm. It was in my younger brother’s and I’s room (we shared the room at the time), and there were several occasions when it moved on its own. Every single night it moved a little closer to my brother’s bed, inching across the room every time, though neither of us had touched it out of fear. Finally one day it got too close, and I was scared enough to go throw it out in the kitchen trash (downstairs, and across the hall/house from the at the time family room, which is important later), thinking that it would be gone in the morning. But instead, that morning we found it on the desk in the family room, laying across one of his other toys, as if nothing had happened. (I later asked both my parents and neither one had removed or touched it.) So my brother and I were scared, and I went and put it laying down in the kitchen on the stove, which was completely empty by the way, and went to talk with my brother. When I went back in, it was sitting straight up, propped up against the cookbook on the stove, just… staring. That freaked me out really bad, so I did the only thing my kid brain could think of (based off the limited media I had consumed at that age and what I had) and did an exorcism of sorts. I figured that crosses repelled demons or whatever, right? So I grabbed some lavender cough rub (which ended up working really well), drew a cross on it, and pinned it in a bike helmet so it couldn’t move and hung it in the breezeway. Repeated the cross thing a few more times, until it no longer felt actively malicious, and threw that thing away. It never returned.

Another one was a more complicated one, but I remember it really well. I think it was when I was 12 or 13, again, hard to remember. It was on an island, which was known for among other things, apparently having MANY ghosts, for many reasons. But I was playing a game of manhunt (basically a game of hide and seek mixed with tag for those who don’t know) at night on the island with some other kids in the group I was in, and it was all dark. I had started to feel a bit nervous and also didn’t know how long the game would last, so I started heading back to the hotel area/lawn area with lights and people, the main meeting place where everyone generally is, and people went after getting caught or opting out of the game. I began walking down this path, and kept seeing little blobs of shadow moving out of the corner of my eye, so I kept going to get back to the hotel area, not running or trying to catch their attention (seriously if you don’t need to draw supernatural attention then you probably shouldn’t, it rarely ends well), until I stopped for a moment because I saw a HUGE blob of shadow leap over the path, behind a fence into a garden or something, and disappear. I began walking to a more defined path after that, and soon began walking along the gravel path. After maybe a minute or less of walking, I heard footsteps behind me on the gravel path (a very distinct sound) and soon picked them out from my own. After a minute I stopped and turned around to see who it was, but nobody was there. But I still heard the footsteps on the path, getting closer. That’s when I bolted and absolutely LEGGED it back to the lawn area, to the nearest largish group of people with lights, and sticking with them for a while, until some of my friends showed up, having been caught, and we sat on the hotel area steps for a while under the lights.

So yeah, I definitely have. That’s not all of them, but they are the most memorable ones

[laundryandtaxes]

you've made me change my opinions on gun control but the parkland students have me question that again. what's your take on their activism?

I mean my views aren’t based on current events, they’re based on what seems to be effective and what doesn’t seem effective to me. “Ban assault weapons” sounds cool to lots of people but 1) we did try banning “assault weapons” (used in the Clinton ban to mean semi auto rifles that looked scary) from 1994 to 2004 when they were actually hard to get- if our goal was to limit availability this was the PERFECT TIME, when they cost a grand and there weren’t many of them in the country- and EVEN though the number of them actually ROSE during the ban as manufacturers designed around the ban 2) there’s no conclusive evidence that it managed to reduce spree shootings, as shooters just switched over to other kinds of semi auto rifles and handguns. So it’s a bandaid solution that doesn’t even seem to work well under the best conditions- when they are already hard to get and there aren’t that many of them in the country. There’s an estimated 3 million AR-15s in the country now ALREADY, I would guess that number is -at least- 5x, and maybe even 10x, lower than the actual number, there are kits being sold to build lower receivers in your garage with a $200 press and some time, and on top of that you can build a decent (not premium, not shit) rifle yourself for $500, you can buy one off the rack for $400. There is no future for this country where, imo, knowing what I know about availability of parts, an AR is all that hard to get. The people I’m personally worried about anyway (violent neonazis) are watching the news and will have 5 or 6 more before midterms elections. Nobody is gonna turn in their rifles when asked or even when compensated- I’d be surprised if you got 1 million back under a buyback. Like if we had seen a massive decrease in spree shooting during the AWB of ‘94, I would support bans. But not only did we not see that, not see any impact on violent crime, but we saw a modest decrease in the use of banned weapons specifically in spree shootings (which, no, does not mean less lethality when the round an AR shoots is also in plenty of other rifles that look less scary and like hunting rifles) and all rifles from hunting rifles to the AR account for less than 5% of all gun homicides in the country. Even when considering that rifle rounds seem generally to kill at a higher rate, .223 in particular is so underpowered a round the military is likely to switch away from it soon and it’s not uncommon for people to survive 3 or 4 shots with it, so this idea that the AR is outrageously lethal doesn’t hold up. Your odds of making it after getting shot with it aren’t great but they’re better than if you’re shot with grandad’s bolt .308 or.303 rifle.

“Ban so-called large capacity magazines” also sounds cool to lots of people but it takes an amateur less than 3 seconds to reload and a well trained shooter hardly over a second, and cops have a habit of showing up to spree shootings and waiting for shooting to stop completely rather than directly getting in there- this fantasy that anybody, let alone cops, will wait for a reload to try to get a shot is a fantasy. Cops are not legally obligated, as of the most recent court cases, to come into a dangerous situation and do shit to “protect” you. They’re gonna wait outside and fret while people die. So those idea that 10 rounds is a magical number where your shooter won’t just switch magazines when cops are not going to intervene anyway is silly. What I WILL say is your odds of surviving a handgun shot in this country are great (if I’m ever shot with a pistol I have 80% odds of making it out alive) and rifle rounds tell to have a higher lethality rate because of what we have good trauma care for. I would be less upset to see them go than ARs because, again, you can just reload quickly. A 10 round magazine doesn’t mean 10 people get shot when you can just buy more magazines.

I don’t ideologically oppose licenses for firearms purchases, and we have them in my state- minor annoyance to get but 10 bucks and not difficult, and even though mine required no test or class (unlike my concealed carry license) I don’t think requiring a sort of written and shooting exam to ensure basic proficiency is that unreasonable. I also think it does nothing to prevent violence. Someome capable of handling a gun well enough to kill people should be able to pass a basic course, and someone who plans their massacre for months is going to laugh at a waiting period. Most of these men have plans and there’s no reason to think they couldn’t just plan to take a course too. So I don’t actively support licensing measures- again because I have no reason to think they’d be effective. When building policy the goal is to do things that work. Not just to do a thing for its own sake.

So the three most common ideas to stop this stuff are both likely to just not be effective and I don’t support them for that reason even BEFORE you consider my ideological oppositions to disarming regular people and leaving cops with tanks. I do think this kind of violence might be better prevented with something like my state has where if you’re under a restraining order (as many men who eventually commit domestic violence are before committing that violence) then a friend or the state is required to hold your guns while you fight it in court. Judicial oversight is critical though- I don’t trust judges but I definitely don’t think anyone should be deprived of a constitutionally guaranteed right with no chance to appeal. It goes a bit further than barring domestic abusers from owning guns- which is ALREADY FEDERAL LAW, the ATF just doesn’t actually enforce that law by searching whether someone just convicted of domestic violence has already bought guns. If you’re just barred from buying more but have 10 in the house, that’s obviously stupid. Oregon has a new law where neighbors and friends can suggest to a judge that you be disarmed, but it doesn’t require the ���accused” to even be in court as it’s figured out, which is bullshit. It is a good idea that a judge has to actually look at evidence and make that decision, and that it can be appealed. With any kind of rights revokation I think judicial oversight is a good thing. I also think it's an issue that 12 states don't report well to NICS because the background check system only reads what records it has- and I think we need a law REQUIRING military and law enforcement agencies to report internally investigated affairs that bar someone from owning firearms. The Air Force just quietly slipped 4000 more personnel names to the FBI that it hasn't submitted to it. That has to stop. Cops being domestic abusers (when they abuse at almost 50% higher rates than the general population) should not happen and should not be preventable by internal investigations. Committing a crime that prevents you from owning and using firearms should actually...prevent that. I do not think that law enforcement and military agencies should be able to investigate themselves at all in any capacity anyway in addition to...all the other things I also think about these groups. The Sutherland Springs shooter having been not reported to the FBI, many cops having DV investigations handled internally and still carrying a gun every day, these are ACTUAL loopholes around current law.

I think a lot of people see this stuff and go “Oh my goodness gun violence” and think this is what drives national gun murder numbers. It isn’t. Remember than murders using “assault rifles” account for less than 5% of all gun murders, not even counting other kinds of homicides like stabbing. There is one approach for spree violence- these men all seem to have histories of violence against women as the greatest single common thread between them and I still think addressing that (like with the restraining order law we have here) is the single greatest measure you’ve got, although that requires not just women reporting but women being BELIEVED by judges. If you wanted to actually talk about gun violence in general, you would be talking about handgun murders since they’re the majority of those in the country. But “gun violence” and “spree shootings” are not at all the same phenomenon and don’t really have a single set of solutions between both.

I have no interest in bullshit about mentally ill people being violent- not only are mentally ill people more likely to receive violence than cause it, but someone who plans a massacre and puts peices together, and carries it out, and even escapes after, is not IMPAIRED BEYOND ABILITY TO CARE FOR THEMSELF as is currently the legal threshold for disarmament; somebody who’s depressed (which, it can be depressing world- lots of people are depressed) should also not be stripped of firearms rights without judicial review spurred by someone seeming to be a threat to themself or others; no diagnosis should allow someone to be stripped of a rigjt automatically and anyway I domt want the FBI looking at people’s health records without good cause when there is no diagnosis thst means you’ll murder someone. Plenty of mentally ill people manage not to kill someone every day. Sometimes people are just bad and the goal here is to limit the damage they can do. I don’t have answers but I also don’t pretend to. What I can say is that this kind of behavior displayed by the Parkland shooter (including, my newest CNN alert says, holding people at gunpoint) should be grounds for at least temporary disarmament. I also have no interest in talking about it in terms of “needs,” considering there are all kinds of dangerous things (harder to get than guns but available) that I also don’t need, like an excessively heavy truck or a car that goes over 80 miles an hour or a sword of literallt any kind.

So no, my opinions haven’t changed because I don’t have new information about the efficacy of the measures most people are still calling for. We tried an “assault weapons” ban and it didn’t work when they were 10 times harder to get and twice as expensive and much less commonly owned than they are now. We have no evidence it worked. Whatever we try, it needs to be something other than an ineffective policy that didn’t work under the best conditions for it. Typed this on mobile and may add links later when I can/this probably has some good ole phone typing typos.

[citrus-feline]

going on facebook is always awful cuz ill want to share something with my dad but then see his most recent post is talking about “commie liberal shitheads” like. dad. is that what he thinks about me? he is definitely at least semi-aware of my political views. he’s accused me of being a communist in highschool back when i thought there was a point in talking to him about issues (but hes not going to change his mind). i dont get it either because he will get livid when i say that capitalism in its current state in america is ruining us despite being one of the people affected most by it. i grew up like hating late-capitalist ideals because i saw what my dad went thru and the hardship he endured trying to raise 3 kids all by himself when he was already having money issues. he grew up poor in a house with 5+ kids in it. is it just conditioning where he trusts a system that is so against him? he only just recently finally got a job that pays fairly for the amount of hardwork he does and his reaction to that isn’t being thankful to his hardwork or even his company, but making posts on facebook about how much he loves the president :/. dad... you’re opposed to raising min wage..... like....... he deserves the money for the work he does cuz hes like a genius with the machines he works but dude. go back 50 years and a job in a similar environment would be min wage. im happy he is getting more money but i wish he would like thank himself or his company instead of someone who perpetuates late-stage capitalism despite all of its harm.

generally i actually think my dad is okay but then i look at what he’s saying about people like me and it upsets me. i once made a post about how older people are so unsupportive to newer generations and he got so mad!! but im expected to see his posts that i can easily apply to myself and just be okay with it. im not gonna fight with my dad cuz like even the possibility of being told to move out will be really hard of my mental health and he takes care of me but........ i wish he was more respectful....... say what you will but the meanest i am to conservatives is when im venting about upsetting things i saw in the news on this website. when it comes to actually talking to people with different views i am really kind and understanding, and even on here i’ve experienced that. i’ve made angry posts before with keywords that attracted conservatives and have gotten angry asks about it before and my response is almost always “im sorry i upset you with that post, i was venting. but i am happy to have a conversation with you about this stuff.”..... i have only like once ever had someone take me up on discussing things in a mature way and separate from a personal post but i like to think that the way i handle it is respectful despite my own disbelief in those types of politics.

him going off on facebook is so bizarre to me because i’ve seen him fight with people in comments before. i’ve heard my sister (who is much stronger than me emotionally) address his posts before only to get into arguments where she will avoid visiting us for months aside from popping in after work or something. and she barely does that anymore. i dont get how he is so happy to keep making such rude posts on a platform that everyone he knows will see. i post on here knowing that maybe one or two people i know in real life will see it, if even that. and THAT makes me nervous! i’ve deleted plenty of posts i was typing up mid-rant because i realized i didnt want people who know me personally to see that! like i know looking at my blog it seems like “oh she doesnt have a filter” but i do!! like once a day i will start writing a vent post only to delete it all without ever posting because i realize it could cause some kind of misunderstanding or bitterness between me and the people i care about who check my blog.

all “bleh i hate capitalism” aside, i don’t understand the disrespect at all. i just dont. i can theoretically look at very conservative people as a group and be bitter about that, and i do sometimes, but i usually try to be mindful that people have opinions for their own reasons and i have to remember that everyone’s experience is different. despite people saying things i disagree with, i still respect them as people and i’m willing to talk about things gently. i much prefer a mature conversation about more heavy stuff as opposed to being yelled at. a mature conversation can lead to things being learned, on both sides. being so vocal about your disdain for people who you could potentially have an actual conversation with upsets me. i go off about politicians and stuff on here but for real if one of them talked to me, one-on-one, i would absolutely still be respectful despite everything i dislike about their policies and behavior as someone of power. the only time i wouldn’t treat someone with respect is if they not only treat me disrespectfully but reject my attempt at keeping things civil. and even then i would give multiple opportunities in an attempt to keep things calm and respectful. when i discuss stuff with people who i disagree with, i listen to them. lots of the time i feel the same about the issue at the end, but hearing a point of view is important. brushing all people who disagree with you away is just in bad taste in my opinion. because there are people who will not believe in what you do but also show respect despite that. there are people who will listen, even if they are secretly a little upset about what you’re saying. conversation is important in any kind of society and for one so polarized in political beliefs like ours i think it should be a requirement to show SOME kind of respect.

it just upsets me how i wont even be heard with some people, like my dad. people who are so stuck in their beliefs that they refuse to even consider looking at them critically. i know the stuff i align myself with isn’t perfect. i know some things people who are head-speakers for in the political groups i openly say i agree with aren’t always exactly what i think. and i know that lots of things won’t be treated as serious as i want them to be. focus can easily be put on things that i think should come later compared to what i care about. i know that “liberals” aren’t perfect. a lot of kids i went to school with were heavily and openly liberal and generally i agreed with them but now and then they would go too far with something, or even just be one of those people who are so up in arms about political stuff that they don’t have any real personal experience with (which is fine, i just wish they wouldn’t act like it was them being attacked instead of the actual people suffering from the real-life issues). i know my beliefs, MY personally beliefs, aren’t perfect. i used to have a lot of trouble realizing something i believed in was not what i thought it was, but now its kinda normal for me. my beliefs for lots of stuff is fluid, but of course because its me, i usually end up aligning with most “liberal” ideals (but, again, theres stuff i disagree with in those groups too). i will ride in my dad’s car where the radio is still on a political station he listens to and some of the stuff they say makes me sick because i disagree with it so much. and i like to think that my dad doesn’t believe all of that. but i dont know because whenever i’ve tried to figure out i’ve just been called a communist who hates freedom, lol. he’s not open to conversation which is really weird to me. cuz like. things change?? opinions aren’t static? people are able to look at things from different angles. its not that hard imo? maybe its just cuz im overly-empathetic but like. i dont... get how its so hard for people to put themselves in others shoes... thats what i primarily do when talking to people about stuff where theres any sort of disagreement. lots of the time ill put myself in their shoes and still come out feeling the same about the topic, but its still important to do that kind of thing to at least get SOME kind of grasp to why they believe what they do.

im not sure why im making so many long political posts lately compared to usual but i feel like this is important stuff to talk about... i dont expect anyone to change their views on shit just reading a post where im getting my frustrations out, but if anything is questionable, i want people to know that i AM open to talking about it personally. if you approach me with respect, i’d be happy to talk to you about stuff. it’s something i practice regularly with non-political stuff in my relationship and with close-friends when something touchy comes up. lots of the times core ideas aren’t changed but we all come out of that stuff with a bit more understanding of the other person and why they think what they do. people aren’t perfect and you will disagree about things. that’s why it should be handled respectfully. if i reacted the way my dad does to people trying to make conversation about more serious things, im pretty sure i wouldn’t have nearly as many friends, lol.

[fair-fae]

I love watching all these people telling you how you stood up to this person who attacked you. Having read the post several times you can clearly see you changed your entire stance from "I’m not going to pretend I know whether this has or hasn’t happened because all I’ve got is speculation just like anyone else" to "I know that someone lied about a suicide attempt, serious injury, and being in critical condition, and frankly, that’s all I need to know." You either know or you don't. Pick one.

Hi, anon! I made the original post before certain developments, such as:(under cut for length/sensitive content)

A) The person posting selfies days after the accident with no visible signs of injury, distress, bandages, or stitches on their face/neck/hands/wrist, no sign of the neckbrace they claimed to have been given just a day earlier, copious amounts of jewelry and no hospital gown (nor even comfy clothes/pajamas), and outside and seemingly unsupervised in/near a parking lot after just having allegedly thrown themselves in front of a moving car, being comatose for over a day and on the verge of death, and just having awoken from a coma and allegedly being very high on intense pain meds when by all rights she probably should have been on bed rest and considered a suicide risk. Selfies also featured a hospital wristband that didn’t match the wristband featured in the GoFundMe, and were promptly deleted when others pointed out these things.B) The person being incredibly defensive and aggressive to anyone who doubted them, and yet typing very legibly for someone who was supposed to be high af on pain meds and just suffered likely head injury, and also offering no answers/explanations for the holes others pointed out in their story and resorting to dramatics and pity-me antics and insults and weird remarks about people wanting to see her tits/ass when no such thing had been brought up to deflect attention instead.C) The person seeming to have unsupervised and unlimited access to social media in general, which is usually cut off entirely for days in cases of hospitalization related to psychiatric issues, specifically in the case of someone who had a mental breakdown/suicide attempt that was related to social media and was “confirmed” to have been harassed enough online that her “boyfriend” was claiming to be looking into legal action. Her “boyfriend” also claimed her family would be keeping her away from social media and the game and encouraging her to quit, yet couldn’t keep her away from it during a single day while hospitalized, and she willingly chose to immediately return in full force to these things that just almost ended her life?D) Several people who are current friends and acquaintances of this person confiding their owns doubts to me, many former friends of this person reaching out to me and telling me that I was right not to trust them and that she had done similar things with them in the past (down to familiar claims of her being in a car accident or throwing herself into traffic), that she had catfished pretending to be her own “relatives” often in the past (namely her “brother”) to manipulate others, and that the “new” Discord her “boyfriend” was using to communicate with her Discord contacts was actually a pre-existing Discord account used in the past by her “brother.”E) Multiple(?) anonymous sources claiming the wristband photo used in the GFM was used by her on previous occasions, and one claiming the GFM had been edited to add spelling errors, presumably to make it look more like her “mother’s” writing/less like her own writing. No confirmation on these ones, but still cause for added suspicion.F) The person still regularly using tumblr and being in game like nothing happened when by all rights for their physical and mental health, any half-way decent medical team would probably still have her hospitalized, and probably still have her distanced from the internet if not cut off from it entirely.G) Multiple people, including those who live in the UK and have experience receiving both physical and mental healthcare there and knowledge of private care, insisting that 5k euro (the set goal of the GFM) is a vastly higher price than could possibly be necessary.E) This person temporarily deactivating their FB profile after people began posting well-wishes on her wall and contacting her family, hiding all information on her family, and deleting her FFXIV contacts from her friends list. These things have confirmed my suspicions beyond any doubt, and I came to learn them after writing the original post. All this + my doubts and the evidence already pointing to it being a lie were unignorable. I know it’s wild, that someone can be unsure of something when they have limited information and later feel confident in their knowledge when they have learned much more. It sounds crazy, but I recommend trying it before you come here slinging accusations at me with such certainty about what you “know” when you could have taken what you “thought” and looked into it first (maybe then you might have spared yourself the embarrassment of sending this ask right after a post about people jumping to conclusions and attacking others on false assumptions to try to play the internet hero, yikes) as I have done myself with this incident. But thank you for illustrating my point, in more than one way, about how it’s good to look at evidence before forming a conclusion.So no, I do not have to “pick one.” People can change/solidify their stance as they’ve gained more information. I recommend going the “solidify” route, because then you don’t look like an ass making a completely false claims with confidence and then having to eat your own words when you end up being wrong. I didn’t know, and I said I didn’t know. Now I do know, and will say I do know. I did my homework, now you do yours.

[nchyinotes]

Race, Mental Health and State Violence: A Two-Day Symposium. (Panel 1 - Critical Intersections)

April 9 2018

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/race-mental-health-and-state-violence-a-two-day-symposium-tickets-43160409948?aff=erellivmlt

Thoughts: I was only able to attend Day 1, Panel 1: Critical Intersections. All of these talks were important and provided some really great statistics & sources, but the one I found most interesting was the first by Fatima. I found her insights about personal experience as a (female) researcher fascinating, and I enjoyed hearing select interviewee’s stories in detail. I also appreciated distinction she raised between the perception of Black vs Muslim looking men and that intersection, as that was actually a conversation my Muslim Egyptian friend (hi Alshymaa!) and I were talking about at a war on terror exhibition a few days before this talk. While I still found the talks informative, I felt like they definitely focused a lot more on race than they did mental health. While I don’t know much about mental health in the criminal justice system, I did my final year research essay on mass incarceration in the US, so I am quite aware of how race factors in. So while the British statistics were different from the sources I studied (and it was helpful to see UK centric numbers), I personally wish that there was more about mental health in these talks.

intersections of muslimness, race, gender & mental health (fatima rajina)

form of biological racism - south asians perceived to be muslim even if they aren’t. stopped & searched based on how police perceive them.  

black muslims?

grenfell, palmers green, london bridge, manchester, ??? bridge - all the attacks last year happened during research period

muslim men, a lot of people were getting paranoid in being interviewed in public about (counter)terrorism

female interviewer - men more comfortable in crying & opening up & showing emotion in front of rather than men

one young interviewee, 20 yo been harassed since 16: active on college campus in east london, group of muslims organised a petition against a legislation, teachers weren’t happy about it & saw them as a nuisance. thinks one of his teachers gave his name to counterterrorism (prevent officers)??, wakes up and saw two police outside his house in the morning, being interrogated there & then.

way they spoke to and addressed him —> lots of coercion

offered a role as a snitch (role in counter terrorism)

got random no caller ID phone calls at ridiculous hours, asking if they’ve thought of their proposition as a snitch

really struggled during this time, was wetting the bed

felt like an attack on his masculinity - cannot express himself, how he was treated by police

white irish in SE london, muslim convert:

was accused of being a terrorist within 2 years of converting

in 2006 he travelled to syria (way before the conflict kicked off in 2010), looked like your typical white backpacker. was interrogated at this point, visited by the police + put on control order (“secret evidence” used against you, essentially on a tag, like severe bail conditions)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/feb/03/civil-liberties-control-orders

https://nearlylegal.co.uk/2007/11/control-orders-and-secret-evidence/

felt his masculinity was constantly being questioned, wasn’t offered any compassion

was unemployed, forced to go to this police station an hour away

2 year legal battle to be freed [famous case, been covered nationwide]

whiteness has been stripped off of me because of my religion (when became visible muslims in public - gets questioned where they are from)

they tried to break him down - he had to seek therapy, be put on medication. they were aware of the context of him breaking curfew etc but still treated that as a penalty

black jamaican, muslim convert

when police stop him its not because he’s muslim (or has a beard), only when his name (arabic) comes up does the intersection kick in

black male supersedes whether they’re muslim or not

interviewed about 8 girls (non/muslim)

female muslims have experienced violence from CT officers through male in their lives - “the conversation" was had at like 11. sisters responsibility to look out for brothers, if they’re present may calm things down with officers?

south asians, generally associated with islam already: paki bashing (her parents gen) —> muslim bashing  (her gen)

terrorists - white or brown. black people are “gangsters”, not terrorists. they never get told to go home ??

arrested safety: intersectional police violence, neoliberal securitisation and abolitionist visions (Vanessa-Eileen Thompson)

increasing securitisation (ie. policing) in parts of post colonial europe - urban policing, slow violence

recognisability of criminals?

“districts of danger” - police can check anyone without any individual suspicion, generally where (san p?? in hamburg, in 2001)

criminalisation of right to exist, to space and to move

forces you to decriminalise yourself in front of others

institutional racism makes it hard to counter racist policing on legal basis - swiss legal ?? black person ??

policing as a form of property, appropriating radicalised bodies

black people call police for help, but they are then being abused by the police instead - outside of the safety they’re supposed to enforce. repressive measures + criminalisation that can lead to death.

death of dominic ?? in germany, 2006

christy schwundeck - shot in job centre. struggling with depression, trying to get child out of foster care

race, gender, migration status, mental health —> threat, unworthy of safety + protection

pathological threat instead of a subject worth of safety and care

for them the police never means safety

mental inferiority is so much part of colonial projects (slavery) —> mental health is at centre

quality of life crimes - public nuisance

police + prisons have become substitute solutions to mental health crises

more likely to cause them to get in contact with these institutions + everyday triggers & makes it worse

starts with racist profiling

networks of communications + warnings - counter control maps, text messages, calling someone became the primary ???, stoplecontroleaufacies.fr (documenting cases to stop the normality of this phenomenon)

how does a society without policing look? caring instead of punishment. rooted in methods of care rather than institutional violence

reinstitutionalisation in an age of deinstitutionalisation (Zin Derfoufi)

S136 Mental Health Act - police detention power

to remove people who appear to be in “immediate need of care or control”

can use reasonable force if necessary, detain for 72 hours + possible extension

really about social control at the end of the day

reliable numbers by NHS digital vs detentions recorded by police (FOI requests) - 352 people are detained by a police force every year

lack of continuation of care —> many people end up back in

race and differential experiences - completely ignored in the debate about mental health

people from ethnic minorities are more likely (esp. black) to be detained

there isn’t much good data out there, because the forces have not been recording it properly

“mixed ethnicities” much higher to be detained under mental health act?? (even than just black - v surprising)

social control actors - general rise in use of powers

law and violence at the intersection of race and mental health in custody environments (Dinesh Napal)

public sentiment - demonising victims of police brutality + increased militarisation and state violence

law has failed to act as an apparatus to protect people from state violence

data is a medium for representing scale of issue, should never be held in higher regard than stories of individuals

in 2012, blacks 30x more likely than white to be stopped and searched (in england/wales)

dismantle idea of BAME/POC - dilutes the ways in which distinct racial groups face unique ways of oppression

black people targeted under MHA

chinese at the bottom (even below white)

laws on use of force: reasonability and responsibility, lack of clarity in enforcement

no convictions

statutory provisions are not enough

deaths in custody = state sanctioned deaths, extrajudicial killings

scope to rethink definition of ^ - no accountability for over 500 deaths of POC in police custody

should be treated as murder/homocide cases from outset

summary executions, state sanctioned murders? burden of proof moved on to individual officer + institution

channel 4 documentary released over weekend

panel

one sided reproduction of an argument, using police numbers, rather than critically investigating

security state is criminalising + capitalising on poor

parents generations likely to call police, because they come from bangladesh / ghana (where the perception is corruption), and there’s an element of trust here in britain. —> youth centres are the ones that get the respect - community orgs.

black/brown police are even worse bc they have to prove their loyalty to institutions / white colleagues — way more traumatic

role of trade unions

creating archives of resistance - what worked, what didn’t, why, how this can be applied transnationally

the police state is organising transnationally - they are traveling + communicating all the time (biometric systems for asylum seekers)

pro restraint should be eradicated