#local bastard cop says acab

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

You are not ACAB. You're an asshole

SO this post has been a long time coming and I have sent a rant to several people to look over it for me just so I could get opinions. And most agreed with what I had to say. However it was mean, callous, and too "I'm ok being an shithead" for my taste.

If I am being 100% honest, people hate cops just to hate cops. It's not because there are cops that do wrong. It's just because they are told to/programmed to hate cops. Ok, so why do I say that?

Well a few reasons.

For the past 40 years *minimum* it has been a point of the media to showcase any time a cop does anything bad. Because what better way to "Reach the people" than to assuage them with a "Hello fellow Americans. Doesn't it suck with cops get on our ass about stuff".

Social media has been using bait for years in order to get more traffic to more links and articles. This alone has made rage baiting as an entirety more of an issue.

Because of both of the above, there was a time when alt media *at the time* and social media worked in tandem to constantly show off instances of cops being assholes or outright doing things that were illegal.

So what does this mean. Well it means that you are under a notion that is already provided to you. "Cops are ruthless bad guys that don't do anything for anyone at all".

Except that's not even remotely true. What is true is that often, any positive stories involving cops is buried or glossed over and only ever talked about in very local reports. What's more a cops job is to do the right thing. So when a cop does do the right thing, the understanding is that they are not meant to receive praise. However, that is lopsided in how it works. It more or less means that you are under the LARGEST of microscopes, and if you fuck up at ALL, then you end up as a youtube video that reinforces that "Cops are bad guys" or "Cops are stupid and annoying". Rather than the truth which is that cops themselves are human beings.

Now. I can already see the comment from the shitheads. "ACAB EXISTS BECAUSE-" Shut it. I don't care. Unlike most of you I understand nuance. And more than that, I've had poor run-in's with cops. I have also had to work along side them as private security as well. And my mother, who's not shy about telling people they fucked up, worked as Dispatch and as a Secretary for the PD in the small city we lived in. "Oh well then your brainwashed", you can say that but it does not make you right.

Unlike you, clearly I'm able to think critically about subjects where as you are not. Am I a "Back the Blue" cultist? Absolutely not. I'm solely in the camp of Abolish Unions and hold officers to account for what they do wrong.

However, having said that, Cops duty to uphold the law sometimes manifests in ways that we don't like. Like Uvalde. The cops were in their rights to stop the shooter, but the top brass would have decimated any officer that decided to not follow his order of standing down. I don't think that's ok. Hell that entire chain of command should have faced a lawsuit. But where they DID properly enforce the law, is stopping parents from going in. Because had a parent gone by cops in order to stop the shooter, at that point, it legally could have been considered vigilantism.

Regardless of the moral implications of that, fact is, that's the truth.

So why am I making this post? Mostly because ignorant people exist in this world and their only reason for living at all is just to hate. "All cops are bastards"? Are you so sure? I wonder how many people in the US over the past 100+ years have been saved by cops. I wonder how many kids have been rescued from abuse. I wonder how many women have been saved from rape. I wonder how many kids have been save from gang violence or drug dealing.

Saying, "All cops are bastards" is no different than saying, "Yes all men". Functionally you are saying the same thing. And while you may say, "Hey that's not the same one is an immutable trait and the other is a job", to which I'll say, sure. Except you are making a gross generalization. Which IS the same. And ignores every single decent, good, great cop that exists out there. And every single good cop that has ever existed.

In my last post talking about this, I stated that people that are ACAB don't really hate cops. They just hate that they can't break the law without consequences. And I still believe that, but let me add a bit of nuance to that.

Most of the people that hate cops are programmed to hate cops. Because, like the media does, it picks something that will engage you, and will put it in front of you any way it knows how to. There are also a lot of people out there that hate cops because they can't break the law. That's also very true.

However there is another group that exists and it's Anarchists. Now, I have followers and people that I follow that are Anarchists. And while I view them as different from Tankies, Fundamentally they share the same, "Ideal Utopia" idea. Which is that, "Under my ideals, the world would be better". Except it won't be. It will be warlords and dictators forming groups. Assuming that we don't get taken over by Islamic Extremists, China, or the UN. Their ideals aside, they hate "The State" in all it's forms. And if you are fine with any form of "State" they will quite literally go off on a tirade of why you are a bootlicker. *Sigh*

Now, the last of these groups is just people that either 1) Do not understand what goes into being a cop and just hates them based on baseless notions, or 2) People that have had bad run-in's with cops and take that notion out on ALL cops.

So for these last two sets, things are difficult to deal with. Because they will go out of their way often to not care about how hard it is to be a cop. What do I mean?

Well for starters, cops are expected to be perfect at all times.

Perfect Aim

Perfect knowledge of all laws both federal and local

Perfect judgement at all times

Perfect execution of force at all times

Perfect response at all times

Perfect awareness of surroundings at all times

Perfect ability to listen to the law but also not piss off people breaking the law

And I could go on. Humans are fundamentally imperfect. They always will be. So expecting a cop to be perfect is like asking your SO where they want to eat every day for a month and them knowing right away. Unless you're a LIAR it's not going to happen. Same such, cops can't be perfect. Combine that with having to both uphold the law AND be sure to follow the law at the same time, then combine that with the dangers of the job, the fact that human beings are ANIMALS that are violent by nature, and unpredictable on top of which, with use of force laws. And yeah. You don't have a good time. It becomes a huge issue of people that are like, "Why didn't just just tase him?" or "Why didn't you just shot the gun out of his hand" or better yet, "He only had a knife and was threatening to kill someone. Why'd did you have to shoot him, you are not judge jury and executioner."

And that's where you are both right and wrong.

Right in the fact that they are not a Jury. Wrong about the fact that they are not acting in their capacity to judge a situation, and execute those that are too great a risk to subdue. And if you ever talk to a person that does MMA, subduing a person is not as easy as you think. More over, Tasers are not considered, "non-lethal". In a lot of cases they are considered lethal because you are delivering a shock, meant to incapacitate someone. Meaning that you have the risk of permanently injuring them, OR killing them if their heart stops. Hell you could also in theory turn them into a vegetable.

But sadly no one considers all of these things. And only people familiar with cops and how their jobs work, know any of this.

Am I justifying bad, or even evil cops with this post? No. I think cops fundamentally need more training. I also think that they need frequent psychological evaluations to see the effect of the work on them. Because some of the things you see in your capacity as an officer can be gruesome. Dead bodies. People that have been mutilated. Dead kids from drugs or gang shootings. And the list goes on and on and on.

Recently I made a post talking about how since the summer of 2020, there have been less good cops. And fact is, because of the 2020 riots, a lot of good cops did quit their jobs. That's a fact. Many actually put in for early retirement. And not because "They were being held to account". No. It was because they were told, "If you do your job, we will riot outside your station. Firebomb your cars and homes, and we will find a way to railroad you into prison".

So what do we see in NY and LA? Car break ins. Looting. Beatings in the streets. Cops that will literally stand down while people are being hurt. Why? Because why the hell would anyone be a cop when you are under a microscope SO LARGE, that even the SMALLEST twitch in the wrong direction could end your career and possibly your life.

It's easy to say, "Yeah I'd stop those looters and assaulters". Sure. Right up until the are a protected class. Then enjoy your media crucifixion, loss of work and likely stint in jail. As well as your family getting death threats for years to come. So given all this, I made a point that a lot of hires over the last 3 years have probably been scraping the bottom of the barrel. Because in truth, knowing all the above, why WOULD anyone be a cop? Certainly there are still good cops. But a lot of the good ones quit.

What's more, Now a days it's better as a cop to just NOT enforce the law. Because why risk everything I mentioned. You protect the law and you make the conservatives happy but piss off the woke. And the woke currently more or less control law and media. Good luck getting shanked in jail. If you don't uphold the law, you piss off people who want you to enforce it but you probably get to live another day.

At that point you may say, "OK so why be a cop at all then", and the answer is easy. It's a job. And it pays. Why excel at all when you are expected to be a bastion of perfection? What's that? Didn't use the PERFECT amount of force? Death Penalty. Oh? You shot a guy that pulled a gun on you and you didn't just take the shots to the chest? Well clearly you deserve to be put in jail for the rest of your life.

Cops are treated like they are supposed to be absolutely perfect at all times and it's stupid. I HATE police unions mind you. But you know what I hate more. People that have no idea the risk to their lives that cops are put through day to day just for putting on the badge. The fact that cops NEED wiggle room within the law in order to enforce it.

Remember "Hands up don't shoot"? Yeah. So do I. I also remember that it was a fucking lie, and that there are people to this day that still believe that lie. And if not for Police Unions, he might have rotted in jail for the rest of his life. There is no PEFECT in this life. Not for cops, not for anyone. Cops are not superheroes. They don't swing in on a web shooter and punch the bad guy JUST hard enough to knock him out without killing him. And with morality as fucked up as it is in the west, even just in the US, Law enforcement is in a no win situation. At all times.

But I want to find every person that has ever been saved by cops, and force you to tell those people that all cops are bad. And tell them about how whatever they were saved from doesn't matter because "ALL cops are bad". Tell the women that were possibly saved from rape, "You should have just been raped. Cops are all evil." Or tell the kid that was saved from the person that kidnapped them, "Yeah no, you should have just been a sex slave. Cops are bastards and clearly they didn't WANT to help you". Stop making assessments about ALL of any group of people. Because the likelihood that you'll be right is near zero.

There are good cops. And there are bad cops. Police Unions need heavy reformation. Accountability needs to actually be able to happen. And people need to understand how hard cops actually have it. All of these things can be true at the same time. And none of it is justifying evil or bad cops or even ones that don't enforce the law. It's a nuanced topic. And as such, it should be treated so.

[dawn-the-rithmatist]

Okay spoilers for ssp1 and ssp2 here, so if you haven’t read them both and want to avoid spoilers, keep scrolling (and also blacklist the tags if you want to save yourself spoiler pain in the future!)

It’s fascinating to me how obviously these books were written in a global pandemic. Like, obviously we knew that, but I’m so interested in the way that influence is showing up in the books.

In Tress of the Emerald Sea, we start the story with a girl who Does Not Leave Home, under order of the government. Breathing the air outside of her home is Definitely Fatal, and there are many variations on the Very Fatal Things you could inhale. People wear masks to protect themselves, but it’s hardly exact protection. You’ve even got people with a long-term version of the spores living under their skin until they die, in the form of the aethers. Tress is a pandemic novel, where the spores are covid, and someone is risking exposure for the sake of someone they love.

The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook For Surviving Medieval England is a mouthful of a title. BUT it also has some really interesting influences too! Right at the start of the book, we learn that the main character is a cop- and we learn it in the most copaganda series of sentences I think I’ve ever read. Then later, we learn he is not a cop, but his friend is, and that friend is subsequently portrayed as Absolutely Perfect Person Arbiter Of Justice. Then later, we see that the cop-friend is just a bastard in so many ways. Through Ulric and the whole idea of buying dimensions, we see capitalism ruthlessly profiting off of people who have no say, usually making their lives actively worse for money or entertainment. We see medical tech that can protect you from terrible diseases, and we get hints of people who refuse to use it.

To me, ssp2 (NOT typing that title again) shows so much of what was happening culturally during lockdown. ACAB, with a bastard cop character throwing locals and “losers” in harm’s way, when the other characters want so desperately to believe that there is someone doing actual justice in a fucked up world. Vaccines, and antivaxxers. Killing entire dimensions of people who don’t have a say for the sake of a profit SURE SMELLS LIKE THE WAY ESSENTIAL WORKERS WERE TREATED.

Idk, I just think that it’s very fascinating to see the way that the pandemic is so present in these novels if you scratch even a little bit beneath the surface

[polyamorouspunk]

If you’re like me, you’ve probably heard of “skinheads” being racist. You might have also heard that not ALL of them are racist. So, what’s the deal?

Out of curiosity and not being able to sleep, I did a quick Wikipedia read.

It’s probably not news to you that there are distinct generations of punk. We’re, of course, in our own.

The skinhead movement started in the late 50s. This is where you get your work boots, straight pants, etc. look. Only, they weren’t skinheads just yet. This movement was known as “mods”, “a youth subculture noted for its consumerism and devotion to fashion and music”. The consumerism part doesn’t sound a whole lot like punk today, but the “devotion to fashion and music” sure does.

From there in the late 60s there was a split between “peacock mods”, or those who were more into the latest fashion, according to Wikipedia, and the more traditional working-class image of punks denoted by their shorter hair. It’s not entirely sure if the cutting of hair was more for defiance against “mainstream” hippie culture or for ease’s sake as a working class, but I suspect it’s probably a mix of both and so much more.

From there the skinhead movement became heavily influence by Jamaican culture, which is extremely fascinating! Around this time there was also a break off group in Australia.

In the 70s skinhead culture, which originally was said to be apolitical, started diverging into other groups. However, late 70s is where the punk movement we think about today really kicked off. This is where some skinheads started joining up with far-right groups. It doesn’t really say why, though.

From here we narrow in our focus away from Britain and the United States towards Germany, which has a big cultural impact in the punk scene. In West Germany factions of neo-nazi groups and anti-fascist groups were at arms. In East Germany two factions were also forming: one focused on the aesthetics of punk and one focusing on the ideals of punk. Gone were the days of apolitical skinheads in Germany.

Going back to the UK, in the late 70s and early 80s, however, there WAS a group of apolitical skinheads. These were characterized by the Oi! subgenera of punk.

In other parts of Europe, groups of skinheads seemed to be left-wing and antiracist since it’s original conception in the 60s. There’s also mention of racism from both black and white skinheads against South Asians in the UK.

From this, though, grew fractions that were vocally anti-racist, notably “redskin” and “anarchist” skinheads. The use of the word “redskin” is interesting, looking back from today’s perspective and how the term has been historically used over here in the United States with racism against Native Americans, and the push to remove the word from popular American Culture, like in sports teams.

It was skinheads, actually, who supposedly brought the term “ACAB”, or “All Cops Are Bastards” into popular usage, from a punk song.

And so, I bring us to today: where neo-nazism is still alive and well, and goes hand-in-hand with antiblackness, and so much more. I think these days we use neo-nazism as a broad term for people who are loudly outspoken against more than just violence against Jews, however, it’s important to realize that violence and discrimination against Jews is the biggest and core part of neo-nazism.

We look back at the legacy of a movement we’re trying to uphold today, but a movement at it’s core is just people. People laughing, people drinking, people smoking, people just being people. So… how do we tell what is okay to reblog and what isn’t?

Well, some things are obvious, at least. Does someone have a swastika? If so, is it crossed out, or is it displayed prominently. See the word “nazi”? What’s the context around it?

Somethings are less obvious. Lace code. Patches that reference things from long ago. What bands you’re listening to, what local underground movements you’re supporting. These are less obvious to know the history of, to the average tumblr blogger in 2023.

So what can we do?

Well. We can learn the history for starters. I’m not saying we need to go and learn about every particular subculture and band and movement and code and this and that and-

But you can Wikipedia the history of a movement you’re not really sure about. That’s a start, at least. You can learn some terms, “buzzwords”, if you will. Learn what some symbols you see often mean. Learn what bands the antifacist punks were listening to and what bands the racist punks were listening to. It’s a start.

You can also talk to people who still identify with the skinhead movement here on tumblr or in real life if you can find them. Get their opinions and see what they think. Hear what they’re saying and decide for yourself what you want to support. You should do that for pretty much any movement, not just skinheads.

Today it seems like skinheads have a gay subculture. Was that a part of history that’s been largely ignored or erased? Or is that something that’s come about in more recent years?

The punk movement is a very broad one with lots of overlapping cultures and subcultures and branches off- a great way to see that is simply falling down a rabbit hole of tumblr blogs or Wikipedia articles. It’s easier than ever to see all the parts of something. But that can make it overwhelming. It’s okay to break it down as needed.

Source

[loving-n0t-heyting]

.

Why does it inspire this ineliminable little spasm of terror whenever I hear ppl decry “cops” as a class? And cannot criticise any other profession except by suggesting they are cops by analogy? Seems a bad fit with my politics! I, too, hate law and order jagoffs, and wish they would explode. So I don’t think it’s a fear of the criminality police departments are supposed to mitigate

Might it be that “cop abolitionism” is either a dubious reformist negotiation tactic or a not merely unworkable but fundamentally ambiguous and conceptually elusive utopian pipe dream? Maybe that’s true, but that is no reason for fear. And accordingly I’m not really spooked by, say, similarly vague sloganeering about “prison abolition”

Is it that plenty of the ppl to have patiently instructed me in terror and self-loathing would invoke “ACAB” with a kind of religious fervour. Well again sure that’s the case but they also spoke English and drank water. There needs to be smth more to make sense of the fear

Perhaps the best explanation is this. When such ppl remind me that all cops are bastards, they are not merely denouncing the opposition but defining themselves out of it: whatever powers they wield and summon abd permit, those must not be “cops”—even when, say, they are local state and federal law enforcement agencies! It is, functionally, a prelude to subjugation. When they talk about their fervent unironic unhyperbolic desire to massacre classes of ppl to whom I plausibly belong, that can’t be policing! That can’t be lynching! Are you really having trouble understanding the legitimacy of the anxiety that drives bougie shits to tell the cops on you for walking strange? Don’t yk that when a 19yo commits suicide when facing decades in federal prison bc they slept with another teenager that’s just facing the consequences of your actions? Don’t yk that doxxing some miserable edgelord chud for having stupid (and completely ineffectual) internet politics so you can encourage ppl to douse them with fake spiders to trigger their arachnophobia is just uhhhh, self defence?

And [redacted]? [redacted]? How did this contradiction (“contradiction”) never even fucking register?? (Tho ofc it is not really a contradiction: it is an addendum to constrain the interpretation of their original terms, which relies precisely on its not being inconsistent with the earlier formulation under that intended interpretation. They are not rejecting or negating what they said before but clarifying it.)

I’ve had to learn that this isn’t everyone who memes about 1213. #NotAllAcabs. And as a political motivation this fear is probably counterproductive. But I’m fucked up about meds rn and it’s getting me angry and what is this blog for if not venting my frustration with the political communities I find ultimately most germane?

[skreekies]

I Used To Say “All Lives Matter.” Here’s why I stopped, and think you should, too.

I hope this reaches someone who is confused, scared, and unsure, just like I was.

Hello. My name is Emma. I’m a white kid from North Carolina, raised by a couple of Canadians. Not terribly long ago, I was one to believe that it was impossible for all police to be bad. I was also one to do research into the negative effects of the Black Lives Matter movement’s actions. I don’t even consider any of these anymore, but I see people I love exhibiting these same ideas and values. I’m writing today to explain to you how and why I changed my mind, perhaps so you can understand.

When I was 14, Michael Brown was murdered by his local police. I was heartbroken and angry. But, while I did speak up in support of BLM, on the side I dug deeper into the idea that it might not be a great thing. I was quicker to be willing to dismiss the growing revolution than I was to join in. Why?

Looking back, I believe I was truly overwhelmed, and did not realize how overwhelming I found it all. I had a quiet desperation to neutralize everything, to say, “not all cops” and “not all black people” at the same time. That made it easier; processing the un-processable sorrow of millions of black Americans that I truly wished was not real. I was a pacifist. I wanted every breathing creature to live in peace and happiness. I still do. So why am I not going about it the same way now?

Let’s talk about ACAB. Why ARE all cops “bastards”? This acronym, as I understand it, was not made to suggest that each individual cop is a horrifyingly racist monster. What ACAB represents is the fact that police who work for the police system, which is historically and systematically racist in and of itself, who continue to work for that system and/or are silent in the face of these great injustices enacted by it, are part of the problem. Being silent is the least helpful thing anyone can do. It says: “No matter how I feel, I can’t bring myself to fight for the change I may or may not want to see”. So, yes. All cops who do little or nothing to help in the reconstruction of their rotten system are, indeed, bastards.

Now, why do I no longer indulge myself in researching the unsavory acts of “the good guys”? Why am I fast to jump in with the anger and protest and slow to join in on talk of the repercussions of their actions? This is because I’ve come to understand that anger is not an evil emotion- anger is liberating and powerful and is the cause of many great successful protests. Stonewall and World War II were not seen or won by peacefully roaming the street singing Kumbaya; they were won with destruction, passion, and anger.

I’m one to believe no one is beyond saving. But I understand now that bigots and killers are only salvageable if they choose to listen. Racists of past and present have made it abundantly clear they are not interested in hearing what black people have to say.

Black people have tried being peaceful. They have tried taking a knee. They have tried befriending and loving those who hate them. But it has never been enough and never will be enough. Love alone cannot save everyone, and it cannot prevent more innocent black people from being murdered. Hitler would never have surrendered; he had to end his life before his terrorism was stopped. We cannot sit and wait for another 6 years to see if the police system has a sudden change of heart. Change must rip violently through it from the inside out.

And yes, I did wonder why we didn’t just say “All Lives Matter” instead of "just" black ones. I’m no longer entirely sure of why this specifically was. Perhaps I wasn’t used to feeling excluded due to my sheltered, white only-child life. But now I have a crystal-clear understanding that, duh, all lives matter, but that’s not the point. The point is black people have been treated like dirt for centuries, and THAT matters. White people have always inherently mattered to the United States, nobody even needs to SAY white lives matter, we've NEVER had to say that. It’s the black ones who are in danger, have always been in danger, and who need all of our help.

Now, the looting. Is it bad? Yeah. Is it worth writing an essay about instead of a black man having his neck knelt on for 9 minutes, resulting in his death? No. I can acknowledge the fact that some actions of protesters are wrong, and still not give it the time of day in favor of the bigger problem. That is what the system wants; for you to be angry at something easier, like I was at the age of 14. Be mad that a perfectly fine Arby’s was burnt to the ground, make 3 Facebook posts about THAT instead of the murder of George Floyd.

The buildings will come back. Target themselves have stated that they are not concerned with having to rebuild their stores; that’s what insurance is for. If they’re truly a good company, their employees will get paid leave, too. If not, that’s a whole other nasty problem that needs fixing.

Small businesses are another story, of course. Target and Arby’s are big business. They can afford to rebuild and keep paying their employees. Small businesses cannot necessarily, and I do condemn those who light them ablaze (unless, of course, they are known to be owned by racists and/or other nasty types of humans).

Here’s where things get tricky. We haven’t forgotten about the pandemic, and there are plenty of protesters with no masks. I support the protests 100%, but not those who go without the proper protection. With masks, gloves, and other such precautions, protests become doable- just like going to the grocery store. Without masks, you put yourself and others in danger. It’s a very tricky situation, because indeed these protests are necessary. You can agree or disagree with that all you like. No change has ever come from taking no action.

The fact of the matter is, I and millions of others are tired and out of patience. I do not have the naive faith I had at 14. I understand now that it is up to all of us to make our voices heard and not ever shut up. I do not have faith in the police to sort itself out; I have faith in us.

I understand that talking about this can be uncomfortable, exhausting, and heartbreaking. I certainly felt all those things when I was 14, and I feel them now. But now I know how to manage myself, how to take care of my mental state in the face of a world on fire.

I am no longer afraid. I am enraged, loud, and tired. I stand with Black Lives Matter now and until the day I die.

I’m angry. And I won’t stop being angry until I or this broken racist system dies.

[socialjusticefail]

Early in the pandemic, local police units were lauded for driving by kids' houses to honk birthday wishes (since they couldn't have birthday parties). Then June happened; all of a sudden the same people who commended the cops cheering up their kids are saying- and continuing to say- All Cops Are Bastards (ACAB). So f'n sad. 😿

I actually wouldn’t be surprise if the people commended the cops back then are not the same people that are criticizing cops.

[depressinglyrelevant]

I eat this tumblr rhetoric up, all cops are bastards, it's terrifying and disturbing that they can kill us with impunity and get punished with a cushy retirement...

But. Um. In my last local election I had to research a Sheriff to vote for and 2/3 of the candidates were disturbingly radicalized.

"All Cops Are Bastards" is an incredibly useful slogan for countering the "hero" propaganda that lets them abuse thier power. But looking at the real people attempting this job and the stupid blue-line flag they follow and their -- the guys in my area have a cop podcast??? It's way overproduced and they sit on YouTube with shelves of expensive liquor behind them and what the fuck, I'm pretty sure nurses and firefighters don't do this, how do they not see how this looks like an overfunded violence cult --

What I'm saying is -- ACAB and "we all hate cops" are some great divisive slogans for social media but I'm worried there's not enough language to de-radicalize cops away from being a cult.

Yes, it should NOT be the victim's responsibility to correct the killers but -- is it really our responsibility to further enflame someone who can kill us?

You can say that they'll kill you and gas you regardless of good behavior. That's true.

But at the end of the day, they wanna hear shit like "You have a really hard job, officer! Thanks for keeping us safe! My Uncle is a cop!"

I wanna believe that just like the phrase "I invoke my right to an attorney" helps you stay silent maybe kissing a little ass helps you stay safe.

I dunno. I'm scared, I don't see how we can reform the police if they're radicalized, and yet I don't see how we can turn people away from copaganda without these divisive slogans.

this is the gay agenda and i LOVE it

[ancomcatgrrl]

WHAT IS ACAB

ACAB also known as “all cops are bastards” is a political phrase that quickly gained popularity during the BLM protests of 2020. In short, when one says this they believe that there’s no such thing as a “good cop” in an already corrupted system; all cops are complicit in a system that devalues BIPOCS, criminalizes property, mental illnesses and addiction.

“BUT NOT ALL COPS ARE BAD!!!”

While yes, not all cops are technically bad people; ACAB is a hyperbole and political statement that goes deeper than the acronym. As I said before, ACAB is a phrase that talks about how the police force are the main perpetrators in the countless murders of innocent black lives, and are the cause of criminalization of mental illnesses, addiction and property.

WHAT DOES “DEFUND THE POLICE” MEAN?

“Defund the police'' is a phrase that also gained rapid popularity during the 2020 BLM protests. To defund the polices means taking away funds from the police, and putting them(the funds) into things like job training, counseling, and violence-prevention programs. Local government and the state spend upwards of 100billion USD each year on law enforcement; But, out of 10.3 million arrests made each year, only 5% of those arrests are for things like r//pe, murders, and serious offenses. With the other 95% of arrests being for traffic violations, marijuana possession, unlawful assembly, etc. This means that the bulk of money funding the police is being used for minor incidents that don’t violate public safety or interfere with everyday life. The arrests for these minor incidents lead to a mass of criminalization and incarceration for BIPOCS.

WHAT DOES “ABOLISH THE POLICE” MEAN?

This statement usually goes alongside the defunding the police statement. The statement is a hyperbole, when people say “abolish the police”, they don’t mean to actually abolish the police. To abolish the police means to reform the police. To rebuild the law enforcement from the ground up. Abolishing the police means to rebuild law enforcement so that there’s serious changes in its way of operation.

[thewickedbohemian]

A Confession And An Unpopular Opinion

Confession: When all this cop discourse started I never thought acab meant all cops are bastards until I actually searched for the acronym, even if it wouldn’t make sense in context of certain posts I thought it meant something even weirder; assigned cop at birth (the point in saying that if it was what they were saying would have been that for some people it’s basically “once a cop always a cop” and even if they quit for good reasons they would always have that mindset)

Unpopular Opinion: Maybe it’s just me being a nerd but if most copaganda discoursers don’t have a problem with (at least fictional depictions of) lone detectives (the ones that do think the unconventionality of the detectives and the necessary ineptitude of the police still supports toxic results-first thinking), they should have no problems with superheroes and therefore should welcome a potential replacement of their local police forces with costumed vigilantes (assuming those people underwent the proper physical training to stand a chance) if they’re truly that anti-cop

[korrasera]

This post is a good example of performative leftism that's both inaccurate and harmful to the leftist fight for true liberation.

Essentially, the point behind this post is to argue that teachers, medical professionals, and social workers are all another form of police, as though all teachers are bastards, all medical providers are bastards, and all social workers are bastards, just like the cops.

Fortunately, we can put a name to this kind of misinformation so it’s easier to discuss:

False consciousness

Or what you call it when someone tries to mislead you in order to pit you against your fellow workers. Whether done intentionally or unintentionally, it’s a powerful tool used by capital to divide up the working class so that we’ll be too busy fighting each other to fight them.

Instead of having a discussion about the problems of the educational system, let's just say that teachers are commit the same evils as cops.

Instead of talking about how social workers work within a broken system, let's talk about how they're abusers.

Instead of confronting the problems in the medical system, let's say that all medical professionals are basically just evaluating which of us are allowed to live and which of us are left to die.

Psst: Also, don't look at the power dynamics involved, because the poverty faced by teachers, nurses and doctors, and social workers might suggest that they're being exploited rather than being the exploiters.

Yeah, it sucks that we’ve all run into people in these professions that are harmful and abusive. That doesn’t mean that everyone in those fields is actually participating in a second layer of policing, and yes, that’s even accounting for the way that those systems are broken and can do serious harm.

The educational, medical, and social safety net systems all have huge, glaring problems. Pretending that the people who are being exploited in those fields, some of whom are indeed terrible people, are on the same level as police is complete nonsense.

There's nothing wrong with talking about the horrible experiences that many of us face at the hands of professionals from these sectors, but neither does that demonstrate the kind of systemic violence perpetrated at the hands of police forces.

Plus, this explicitly positions workers with no real power as oppressors in order to divide the workers against each other. If you believe this claptrap then you might not be interested in supporting your local teacher’s union, or fighting to defund the police and distribute some of that funding to the social workers in your municipality so they can set about trying to keep people who need mental health interventions from getting murdered by cops.

These kinds of narratives, whether created intentionally or unintentionally, prevent us from creating solidarity and raising class consciousness by driving a wedge between us. Instead, might I suggest that you support teacher's unions, support nursing strikes, informed consent models, and healthcare reform, and support distributing funding from police to social workers. Things that can have a real and meaningful effect on helping these workers fight back against the exploitative forces that plague their own industries.

-

PS: Since I can’t leave well enough alone, this isn't even what soft policing is either, which actually refers to police strategies in which they implement plans work with a community rather than against it. That means adopting policies that rely on persuasion, like community outreach programs and the like, rather than engaging in the kind of coercive and literal violence that police are well known for. And for the record, there’s a lot of skepticism that police can actually engage in soft policing because they see themselves as authorities that don’t need fixing because...drumroll...they act as the enforcement arm of the capitalist class.

After all, there’s a reason that people say ACAB, and it’s not because they’re part of a broken system that hurts people unintentionally. Police are part of a system that’s working as intended that hurts people intentionally and that alone makes it completely unlike teaching, health care, and social work.

I rly think more leftists need to realise that it is not just the police who serve the state and not the people, that it is not just the police that are inherently corrupt institutions that are not made better by the few good ones.

Teachers, medical professionals, social workers etc all commit the same evils for the same reason. All are willing to cause unimaginable harm to protect the interests of the state.

[nieloxychen]

ive explained to my dad pretty clearly that, and why i think all cops are bastards. he says thats fine, as long aß i dont say "acab" or write it on his house (he laughs)... did he not listen to me or ist it really possible that theres such a huge disconnect?? (he also said hed stop supporting me if i "did that".. which, i literally couldnt tell if he was joking or being honest bc on one hand, i dont believe he would but on the other, ive been surprised before? and im too worried to ask lmao) all this came up w me just now bc i saw someone had drawn acab on the local police station (good on them, hope they didnt get caught)

[rose-coloured-angel]

My family says they hate antifa and the BLM movement. They embrace cops and claim that the protesters are animals, are not acting peacefully, deserve whatever Trump's administration does to them.

FUCK. THAT.

If I'm the family freak, so be it. Another innocent black man was murdered, GEORGE FLOYD, and these riots were a long time coming. The cops are pushing their own propaganda and started the fires, the violence, the weaponization of a peaceful protest. All cops are BASTARDS. They bastardized the name of justice. They serve the upper white class and destroy the lives of the poor and minorities. This is a nation divided under G-d. If you cannot riot in the streets, then riot online, or in your homes, against the people who choose to lift up a racist, classist system, who choose to ignore the countless murders of innocent black men, women, and children that would not have happened if those people had just been WHITE. Spit in the face of anyone who tells you to shut your mouth. Deface and destroy your local KKK members and white supremacists before they kill you.

I am not black, but I hear you.

I am not black, but I stand by you.

I am not black, but I will lift up your voice.

I am not black, but I mourn with you.

I am not black, but I am tired of seeing you be beaten and held down and I am sick of being told to ignore you, or worse. I will NOT allow my family to control me just because they're a bunch of Trump-loving bootlickers who think it's okay to be a Nazi or wave Confederate flags around because it's "a right".

You know what else is a right? Life.

You know what else is a right? Freedom.

You know what else is a fucking right? Peaceful protest.

When a bunch of white motherfuckers stormed the capital with ARMS, they did NOTHING. When a bunch of POC gather to protest the death of George Floyd, they use underhanded tactics to slander them, incite violence, and cause injury that businesses refuse to treat. This is FUCKING BULLSHIT. I will NOT sit back and refuse to talk about it just because a bunch of MAGA hat wearing family members tell me to. I am OUTRAGED. I can hardly imagine what the black community is going through right now. I have the privilege to walk through this world unafraid of the police or backlash or death threats over my beliefs. Black people should not have to fear being innocent. White people can drive cars, play with fake guns, even bring REAL, LOADED WEAPONS INTO BUSINESSES, and be CELEBRATED AS FUCKING HEROS, while black children who are "suspicious" are mowed down. BLACK LIVES FUCKING MATTER.

I am not trying to speak over black people. I am not trying to make this about me. But right now I am trapped at home with people who DO NOT believe that Black Lives Matter, and I am filled with an unconquerable rage that otherwise cannot be vocalized. So I'm leaving this here. This blog is going to be very aggressive for the next couple of days...ACAB and BLM.

[mysydneymemories-blog]

A butcher, a nurse, a yoga teacher: Paris protest arrests show why Macron made right choice

A demonstrator kicks a tear gas container back at police during a protest of the yellow jackets.Credit:AP But some of the 412 people arrested on Saturday began appearing before magistrates on Tuesday. Loading Among the mostly male people charged appeared to be exactly the kind of ordinary, frustrated, low-paid workers from rural France that had inspired the movement. According to local reports, they included a 22-year-old business student and finance worker at the national post office, a 45-year-old butcher who had never joined a demonstration in his life, a 50-year-old nurse from Nice who regularly practiced yoga and meditation (she was among several instantly acquitted because police had no proof she had done anything wrong). These are the ordinary people of France, angry at their President and their government over a range of issues, from tax to the minimum wage and even simply the attitude of Emmanuel Macron. Hence the French Prime MinisterEdouard Philippe'srueful tone on Tuesday. The anger, youd have to be deaf or blind not to see it or hear it, he said.

A burned out car and the slogan, "Babylon burns" in Paris on Sunday.Credit:AP The French who have donned these yellow vests want taxes to fall and work to pay. Thats also what we want something must change. No tax is worth putting the nations unity in danger. To be sure, the group in the courts did seem to include some more troubled characters, according to local reports, too. Loading One truck driver was caught with an extendable metal baton, another man had a long history of crime and alcohol abuse, saying ruefully alcohol ruins everything after he was caught allegedly flinging rocks at police on Saturday. Another 30-year-old unemployed man was described as an anarchist and arrested wearing a black sweatshirt with "ACAB" (all cops are bastards) on it. According to French media, extremists involved with the loose gilets jaunes alliance were trying not just to change the law but overthrow the system. More experienced with violent protest, they had melted away at key moments on Saturday leaving police to arrest others. One researcher told the French press that around 300 ultra-right militants were there on Saturday, hoping the chaos would feed its political agenda and support its message that immigrants and Muslims were a threat to French societys cohesion.

The so-called yellow vests, named after the vests every driver must keep in their car, protested new fuel taxes and the rising cost of living.Credit:AP A brochure distributed before the protest claimed it was a fight to save our nation and our civilisation. Far left groups had wrestled with their consciences (many had environmental campaigning background, and the tax being protested was intended to reduce diesel pollution). But they also turned out, in the hope it would overthrow what they see as a right-wing government. More protests are planned. Indeed they are inevitable passionate political street protests are a tradition in this country. Their size and makeup will tell a story, whether anger has been sufficiently soothed by a big sign the government is now listening to its people. Nick Miller is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Most Viewed in World Loading https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/a-butcher-a-nurse-a-yoga-teacher-paris-protest-arrests-show-why-macron-made-right-choice-20181205-p50k8s.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

[rosecorcoranwrites]

All excellent points^^^

Also, I feel people who hold the ACAB position are too privileged to have ever had to call the cops. They've never been robbed from or witnessed people about to come to blows or stab each other or anything.

Putting aside my personal, non-work experience, like living at a house that got broken into twice in one month (and then a third time after I moved out), and calling the cops more to have them make sure the person wasn't still inside waiting to assault me than to get any of my or my aunt's belongings back, we have to call the police often at my work.

I work at a public library, and we have to call 911 about once or twice a month. Sometimes, that's to get paramedics to assist somebody we can't wake up (technically we don't care if you sleep in the library, but if we can't rouse a person at all when we check on them, we have to call in case they're experiencing a medical emergency), sometimes that's to get cops to come remove someone who drunk and disruptive (we don't care if you're drunk and minding your own business) or is threatening library staff or patrons. One time it was because there was a group of people in our parking lot fighting over a knife that one of them was threatening to use on herself or others. One time it was because a dude, after tearing off the tag from one of our Library of Things items and being told, specifically, that we could reattach it and that he could check it out at either counter (ie "we're onto you"), just walked out the door with two kits totaling $400; happy to say, the cops found him less than an hour later and got our items back.

But here's a specific story that happened yesterday. I went out from my office into the library and saw two cops talking to a lady and my colleague watching them from afar, livid with rage. I asked what happened, and she said some guy had called the cops after complaining to her about the lady coughing and talking to herself. My colleague had told him that, as she was not talking loudly, that she was not acting against our policy (we are not a quiet library). He told her that he would call the cops in that case, and apparently he did.

Now before we conclude, here's a little backstory, from our and the cop's perspective. We have tons of patrons who talk to themselves, are experiencing homelessness and/or poverty, etc. Some people like to complain about them, and that rightfully ticks us librarians off. Why? Because these people aren't usually the one's causing disturbances. 99 times out of a hundred, they use the library like everyone else: hanging out on computers, reading books, sitting on our comfy furniture, etc. If "talking to oneself" were a reason to call the cops, we'd have to call them multiple times a day.

As for the cops, you might be wondering, why did they even show up, and why two of them? Because earlier that day, they had to respond to a fight that broke out at the entrance of our library, and there had been a separate 911-call-and-hang-up from our location (later, after the incident with the lady, two patrons almost came to blows by our computers. It was one of those days.). So, given that there's a lot going on at our location at present, they both showed up.

Back to the present: my coworker is ticked, and tells the police that the man shouldn't have called them and that the woman wasn't doing anything wrong. They said, and I quote, "Yeah, that's what we determined. We gave her some info on how to get an ID and offered her a ride, but she didn't want one." Then they left. Bastards, am I right? Give me a freaking break!

The vast majority of cops, like the vast majority of people, are decent human beings. Unlike most people, they often have to deal with violence that the rest of us get to wash our hands of. They also, like it or not, also have to deal with mental illness simply because no one else will show up. Literally: there was a time I called our local mental health agency whose whole deal is "call us so you don't have to call the cops" and got put on hold for 8 MINUTES trying to get them to come talk to a suicidal patron. I ended up hanging up and calling 911, and the cops were the ones who bothered showing up.

There are some cops who are criminals and abuse their power, but like any criminal, they should be prosecuted. But if you truly think ACAB, you are no different from someone who thinks all Muslims are terrorists or all Germans are Nazis. IE, you're a bigot who probably hasn't actually met that many cops.

[ @captain-acab ]

So, hear me out. What do we think about radicalizing (or, I guess, de-radicalizing?) police-state-loving right-wing youtubers by swatting them?

Worst case scenario, they get murdered by a pig, which is the pig's fault. Best case scenario, they become vocally anti-pig.

How many times do you think this could be done before all those white conservative men whine and cry enough about it that something is actually done to reduce swatting at a policy level? In other words:

1 - Reduce the number of vocally pro-cop right-wingers (and possibly make some of them start leaning left) 2 - Decrease popular support of police in the general public 3 - Possibly produce some actual police reform (at least by reducing drop-of-a-hat SWAT calls, which would make everyone safer)

Love to hear everyone's thoughts about this completely-hypothetical proposal!

Well it depends a lot on what you're trying to accomplish.

If your goal is to convince Republican voters that they can't rely on the police to lower the rise in crime that followed the 2020 riots and they should switch to lynch mobs of angry Hispanics, saving huge amounts of money on procedural costs like "state-appointed defense attorneys" or "keeping people alive in prisons instead of just extrajudicially executing them on the spot" or "maintaining a chain of evidence instead of just going by what some asshole said on Twitter,"

Then this is a great plan. It will be absolutely awful for race relations and hate crime statistics, but if you think literally nothing has changed in the country since 1850 and that isn't just cynical bullshit rhetoric to convince low-information voters to support the latest plan to nationalize the health insurance system, then you think the situation couldn't possibly get any worse.

If your goal is to convince right-wing streamers that Communists want to kill them all and that they need to support whoever will kill the Communists first... well they already believe that in a sort of distant, general, abstract sense due to all those times Communists killed large numbers of people in the past. But you could convince them that Communists want to kill them immediately, right now, instead of some abstract distant hypothetical. A broad campaign to do this to lots of streamers would be effective here.

If your goal is convincing the government to finally cryptographically secure the phone system so that all callers can be reliably identified and sued, this might also have some effect on that. Republicans might even pass a law that sends SWATters to federal prison for 10 years.

As a positive side effect, the phone network would become usable again due to the reduction in spam calls.

If your goal is to convince right-wingers that it's a good idea, and that they are morally required to, permit crazy people with a dozen prior convictions whose lack of impulse control causes them to push women in front of subway trains, to roam freely among the rest of society out of some dipshit view that all human beings are perfectly identical and that such a guy is, like, a victim of Society, maaan...

It won't work for that.

"You morally have to accept getting a brain concussion from some lunatic because we've deemed him more marginalized than you" just leads to "fuck your morality," which is usually written "Based."

[zephyr-sketches]

Initial Group Sketch:

Cherry Wood:

Retired Housekeeper

Thrown into Prison by her Crazy Ex-Husband for Practicing Wicca

Always wanted Kids, Now she has Literal Hundreds

Now Has a NY Times Best Seller Memoir filled with Recipes, Spells, and Her Time in Prison

Has Three Tattoos on her right side visible at most times

Her Right Shoulder Has a Cobweb, Meaning a Lenghty Stay

Her Right Hand's Knuckles say ACAB; All Cops Are Bastards

Got it for her ex

Between her Thumb and Forefinger, are 5 Dots in a Box, Meaning Time Done in Prison

Has PTSD

Loves Harold like No one Else

Fire Cracker:

Trickster Poltergeist with No Memory of his Life

Flame doesn't Burn Others, but Can be Hurt if Flame is Doused

Usef to be Tortured by Wardens this way

Lovable Asshole

Only listens to Cherry, but Understands Boundaries and Never to take the Joke too Far

Shooting his New Standup Netflix Special, Burn Baby Burn

Leslie Dracona:

Lizard Woman from New Orleans

Practices Voodoo

Lesbian, which she was forced into conversion Therapy in Prison

Cherry Helped her Feel Good about Her Sexuality Again

The Whole Grew Goes Out to Gay Bars Now

She Loves All Things Cute and Frilly, and The First Thing She bought for Herself when She got Out, was a Beautiful Pink Velvet Couch

Jimmy:

Shadow Figure

Imprint of a 25 year old Artist from a Violent Death

Nonbinary, and uses He/They pronouns

Has OCD, but is Working Through It

Cherry asked him/they to give her Tattoos when he/they wanted to try out stick n pokes

Calls her Mom and Lives with Her while Readjusting to Society

Works at a locally owned Pizza Place and dating the Owners' Son

Harold "Loud Mouth" Larkin:

Golem

Created by an Irish Immigrant Witch for his Daughter's protection in 1873

Loves Jazz, Swing, and Kasey Muskgraves, and Niel Gaiman Audiobooks

Blind, but Can Hear by Feeling Vibrations

Communicates Through ASL and Limited Speech

Works as a Mortician

The smartest Person Cherry Has Ever Met

They Love Each other

Mom and Dad to Everyone Else

Don't Tell Anyone but He Plans on Popping the Question Soon

Reginald "Reggie" Largum

Half Goul, Half Human

Son of a Goul dad and a Witch mom, who grew up together

His dad served in the military with a glamour

His father was killed in the line of duty

Had a glamour that wore off when his mom passed, which was when he was found and thrown into Prison

Was forced to wear a Muzzle for the entirety of his time in Prison

Has Major Depression Disorder

Lives with Leslie, they're Practically Siblings

Good guy, everyone Knows and Loves Him

Is dating a really sweet Gal Right Now, and Life is Looking Up

Glor'glax:

Insectoid Alien

He's the Roswell Alien

Was Forced to Create Technology for Years

Everything from Artificial Intelligence to Smartphones

Has Extreme Anxiety

Very Nervous

Lives With Harold, Jimmy, and Cherry

Everyone's Baby

Having the Hardest time Readjusting to Normal Human Society, but is Making Great Strides

Oof, I love this Family so much!! I'm working on a bust for Glor'glak right now, but I figured y'all would like to see them. I also put some of my head cannons up there.

I hope y'all like them!!

They had locked you up without ever once trying to find out the truth. It had been a tragedy, a horrific one that would stain peoples minds for many years to come. Such a violent murder deserved to be punished. They should have searched for the true killer, should have actually tried to make an investigation. But they had appearances to keep up, and this murder was a blight on their record. So they needed a scapegoat.

They came with no warning, and gave no explanations, claiming that they had irrefutable proof of your guilt. They chose you because you were a nobody, someone that few would miss, in their minds. You were nothing but a get away free card for their ineptitude. Due to your “horrible deeds” you were being sent straight to prison before the trial, a “just in case” measure, they claimed.

They threw you in the deepest darkest prison they could find, in the hopes that you would be killed by the powerful prisoners they housed there. The prison was filled with the worst of the worst. Creatures of supernatural abilities, who’s abilities were too great to be set free on the world, and were thus locked away for their nature’s. 

They expected you to be torn apart, an attempt to silence you before you could be put on the stand, without any ties to the culling themselves. They hadn’t expected you to survive the months they delayed the trial, and certainly hadn’t expected you to make friends.

By the time the date of the hearing was only a few days away, you were ready. When you put so many powerful entities in one place, show them cruelty for so long, simply because of their nature, its funny just how readily they attach themselves to genuine kindness.

You weren’t what you were when you first entered that prison, thanks to your new friends. You had found a kinship there that you hadn’t expected, and in return for your genuine kindness, they gifted you things, that no humans had ever been gifted with. Not all at once at least. 

When you left, you would be ready. Your new friends had been locked up long enough for simply existing… perhaps it was time that changed.