#prisoners of peace

[quakgrass]

[Image Description: A digital drawing of Talis (in the body of Rachel) and Greta from the book The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow. Rachel is a pale woman with short black hair, Talis has a fed up expression and carries Greta bridal-style. Greta is in shock, looking extra pale, with her long red hair in a braid. She is holding her broken hands in front of her chest and wearing white clothing. End ID.]

Stop the presses!

[captainjonnitkessler]

Sometimes I wish we would start calling out the performative radicalism on this site for the poser bullshit it is. "Remember, it's always morally correct to kill a cop!" "Don't forget to firebomb your local government office!" "Wow, it sure would be a shame if these instructions on how to make a molotov cocktail got spread around!"

Okay. But you're not killing cops or firebombing government offices. You are posting on a dying microblogging website to a carefully-curated echo chamber that has radicalized itself into thinking that taking the absolute most extreme position on any subject is praxis but that anyone discussing the most practical way to effect actual change is your sworn enemy. You do not have the street cred OR the activist cred to be talking about killing cops, babe.

[teethkid67]

YOU LOOKING FOR SOMETHING :)?

+1 face closeup

[ottosbigtop]

they endear me so now I will put them in little outfits

[mxflowercheck]

So, I'm listening to TMA (ep 93) and well, the whole "You are tied to the Institute, and the Institute is tied to me" revelation from The Rat Bastard (Elias) happened recently And I'm just getting into the lore, I don't know shit, so when I had a silly idea, I asked my friend: "Hey, Elias is the heart of the Institute or whatever he is , will it hurt him if you kick shelves or slam the door on purpose?"

They said no (sad), but that doesn't stop from thinking about a crack fic like this? Like:

Elias, with a slightly twitching eye: everyone stop. Immediately. Melanie, scribbling on the table with a knife: stop what? Daisy, methodically breaking the corner of the baseboard with her heel: don't know what you're talking about Basira, forcefully throwing a tennis ball at the wall: we're just having our lunch break Martin, stumbling and spilling boiling water on the floor (again): Yeah, I was going to make us some tea.… Elias: I would advise you to come to your senses and- Tim, actually returning from lunch and slamming the door so hard that plaster falls from the ceiling: hi everyone! Elias: Murderous eldritch screeching

also I like the headcanon that Jon has a cane. So in this lil au I imagine him taking his cane, walking around the Archives and hitting the shelves with it, whe he's particularly annoyed by Elias

[wizardingsworld]

Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore in HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN 2004 | dir. Alfonso Cuarón

[7cfc00]

home is where the heart is (and yours is gone)

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

(Not sure if this idea has been floated already, I'm relatively new to tumblr)

I'm convinced the finale is going to have plenty of callbacks to the Bad Batch's intro story in TCW (I mean, we've already gotten a few callbacks).

So...

Since Tech was the one who directly helped Rex find and retrieve Echo, and then carried Echo through the shafts...

What if Echo is the one to find Tech and carry him out of Tantiss???

[justmenoworries]

Asterius in Hades: affable sympathetic character, pretty nice guy, adaptational sympathy, making his backstory of being imprisoned and then killed more tragic than a glorious tale about a hero vanquishing a monster Polyphemus in Hades II: Nah everything bad you heard about this guy is onehundred percent accurate

[nade2308]

Never getting over this phone call. So much was said in those few lines. The request Alex made to Michael, and the promise Michael gave to Alex. Despite everything, it showed how far they had come, from being hunter and prey, then enemies to acquaintances in Sona, to whatever secret third thing they became during season 4.

I absolutely had to make these gifs.

@thethistlegirl

[thegoodmorningman]

"Hey speaking of having made my peace with it, you wanna go do some forced labor for our kind owners, the shareholders?"

[rotzaprachim]

at this point the attractiveness of giving Bibi, Putin, the Hamas leaders, and the ayatollah of Iran a Boy Scout pen knife and then locking them all in a box with only a half pack of Oreos for sustenance

[authorafterhours]

I just know Will and Hannibal are featured in so many true crime podcasts and documentaries.

[anghraine]

Speaking of my TOS watch, I've noticed that the writing for Kirk in particular has gotten sharply worse overall in S3 (also for other characters, but less obtrusively), yet when it's good, it's really satisfying.

I loved both Kirk and Spock in "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky", for instance. It's a good episode in general (maybe one of the least awful about women in TOS) and a really nice McCoy episode as well, but I enjoy how Kirk and Spock are kind of confused about McCoy's marriage but ultimately willing to support their friend. And it ends not only w/ McCoy's cool wife surviving and becoming even more of a leader of her people than she was before (and this framed as unambiguously Good) but Kirk and Spock iirc assuring McCoy that they'll figure out the occasional detour to her colony so McCoy can visit her without leaving his career behind. And while Spock was a flanderized dick in "That Which Survives" (if in a way that can easily be read in K/S terms), it's got one of my favorite Kirk moments:

Kirk [to Sulu]: Your report covers all vegetation? Sulu: Yes, Captain. All vegetation is inedible. Poison to us. McCoy: If the Enterprise has been destroyed, you know how long we can survive?? Kirk [grimly]: Yes. [pause] I don't see any water, but there must be some to grow the vegetation. A source of water would stretch our survival. Did you see any evidence of rainfall?

Shatner doesn't overplay the moment IMO, but there's a quiet weight to him being The Starvation Expert of the team given uhhhhh his personal history—and also the fact that this episode is one of few that (in a completely different scene) explicitly acknowledges other TOS episodes.

[crazysodomite]

it can be annoying to hear people say 'things will get better' when you literally know they won't and it's quite impossible for them to be in fact. but i get it. its hard to find any actual words of comfort when everything and every possible aspect of life is genuinely horrifically bad beyond belief. empty platitudes of 'we need to live because things will get better' are all we can have bc we cant actually stand up and risk our lives for change

[coochiequeens]

Rest In Peace Debrina Kawam

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/31/nyregion/coney-island-subway-burning-victim-identified.html

Debrina Kawam of Toms River, N.J., was burned alive on Dec. 22 in a videotaped killing that shocked New York.

By Chelsia Rose MarciusAndy Newman and Shayla Colon

Published Dec. 31, 2024 Updated Jan. 1, 2025

Investigators have learned the name of a woman who was burned alive — and beyond recognition — aboard a Brooklyn train last week.

The police identified the woman as Debrina Kawam of Toms River, N.J. She was the victim of an apparently random attack captured in videos that showed her bracing herself against the doorway of an F train in Coney Island, her body engulfed by flames. Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, has been accused of setting fire to Ms. Kawam with a lighter and was charged with first-degree murder and arson.

Ms. Kawam’s identity was confirmed on Monday through fingerprint analysis, said Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner’s office. Ms. Kawam was 57, though police officials initially had said she was 61.

Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference at City Hall on Tuesday that she briefly stayed in the city’s homeless shelter system. “No matter where she lived, that should not have happened,” Mr. Adams said.

Just watching that tape — I couldn’t even watch it all the way through,” he added.

Investigators had used every means possible to identify the woman, the Brooklyn district attorney, Eric Gonzalez, said at a news conference last week. They took her fingerprints and collected DNA evidence. They gathered surveillance footage from the subways, hoping to find a clear image of the woman’s face before the fire.

The fragmentary traces Ms. Kawam left behind in yearbooks and public records sketch a troubled life.

She appeared to have graduated from Passaic Valley Regional High School in Little Falls, N.J., four decades ago. Her yearbook entry from 1985 — illustrated with a photo of her with long, feathered hair — mentioned memories of freshman and sophomore cheerleading and trips to the shore. It listed her ambition as airline stewardess and said that her “secret ambition” was “to party forever.” In a senior poll, she was one of three girls voted “most punk” and one of three girls voted “million-dollar smile.”

A 1985 yearbook photo shows Debrina Kawam, the victim of an apparently random attack on the New York subway.

Credit...US School Yearbook

According to Ms. Kawam’s Facebook profile, she studied business and marketing at Montclair State University; a spokesman for the school said Wednesday that he could not immediately confirm her attendance. From 2000 to 2002, when she was in her 30s, Ms. Kawam was a customer service representative for the New Jersey-based pharmaceutical giant Merck, a company spokeswoman said.

But municipal court records going back 20 years include dozens of minor cases against a Debrina Kawam in cities and towns along the Jersey Shore, in Jersey City and in the suburbs of New York. Most were citations for public drinking, trespassing or disorderly conduct, including the most recent, in July, for public drinking in Atlantic City.

Homelessness in America

Jump in Homelessness: Homelessness soared to the highest level on record in 2024, driven by high rents, stagnant wages and a surge in migrants seeking asylum, the federal government reported.

A Search for Meaning: Religion is often overlooked as a factor in the lives of the needy, but those who gather at a Bible study for the homeless in Virginia say it helps sustain them.

Berkeley’s Toughened Stance: The progressive stronghold in California plans to target large homeless encampments, relying on a Supreme Court decision handed down by a conservative majority.

In a 2008 bankruptcy filing, she wrote that she had not been working “due to illness.” After her father, William Kawam, died in 2009, she posted on a tribute page that he was the best father a daughter could have had, and that “I will always regret that it took me later in life to figure that out.”

Roxann Krammer, a Toms River resident, said that her late husband, George Krammer, had been Ms. Kawam’s romantic partner from about 2011 to 2014 and that they had lived together. The relationship, her husband had told her, had been chaotic.

The police gave an address for Ms. Kawam in Toms River, a small, gray one-story home that had been owned by the victim’s mother in a sprawling retirement community. A neighbor said that until the house was sold in 2024, she would see an older woman and someone Ms. Kawam’s age coming and going.

The older woman seemed to be taking care of the younger woman, who appeared disabled, and would lead her by the hand, said the neighbor, Valerie Waskiewicz.

“I had the impression that the older woman had her hands full taking care of the younger woman,” she said.

The current owner of the home, Olga Corpion, said she had never met Ms. Kawam or her mother, but that in May, shortly after she moved in, a stranger came to her door.

“She said ‘I’m Debrina, I want to see my mother,’” Ms. Corpion recalled. Ms. Corpion said it seemed odd that someone would not know that her mother had moved and Ms. Corpion said that Ms. Kawam seemed troubled. She said she offered to call Ms. Kawam with information about her mother, but Ms. Kawam told her she had no phone and quickly left.

Ms. Kawam was in New York City as early as April 28, when the police issued her a summons in Midtown Manhattan for drinking on a public sidewalk, according to city records. She was scheduled to appear in June, but did not show up. Her social service records show that she stayed at a women’s shelter in the Bronx from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2.

On Dec. 22, around 7:30 a.m., Ms. Kawam was sitting motionless on a subway train, apparently asleep, when Mr. Zapeta-Calil walked up, took out a lighter and set her on fire, according to prosecutors and the police. He then stepped out of the train and sat on a bench on the subway platform, staring as the smoke and flames overwhelmed Ms. Kawam, the police said.

Then, video of the incident shows a man who appears to be Mr. Zapeta-Calil rising and approaching Ms. Kawam. Instead of trying to douse the blaze, he waves a shirt at her, appearing to fan the flames. At least one police officer can be seen walking by her as people on the platform scream.

Officers who came to the scene did not appear to focus on Mr. Zapeta-Calil sitting on the bench as they tended to Ms. Kawam. But their body cameras had captured him and the clothes he wore: a gray, hooded sweatshirt; a wool hat; tan boots; and paint-splattered pants.

The Police Department released the photos publicly and soon after, three teenagers called 911. They said they had recognized Mr. Zapeta-Calil from the photos and that he was aboard another train in Brooklyn. The police ordered the train stopped and arrested him.

The authorities do not believe Ms. Kawam and Mr. Zapeta-Calil knew each other. She was already on the train when he boarded it in Queens, and they both rode to the end of the line in Coney Island, the official added, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity. People often sleep on subway trains in cold weather; the outside temperature on the morning Ms. Kawam was killed was 16 degrees.

Mr. Zapeta-Calil is an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who was deported in 2018 only to illegally return to the United States, according to federal immigration officials.

The suspect had been living for the past couple of months at a shelter in Brooklyn for men with drug and alcohol problems, according to the police and residents of the shelter. A grand jury indicted him last week on first-degree murder, second-degree murder and arson charges.

After Mr. Zapeta-Calil’s arrest, federal officials issued two immigration detainers, according to Jeffrey Carter, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Detainers are requests to the police and the city Department of Correction that they notify the federal agency before Mr. Zapeta-Calil’s court case is done and is released from jail.

City sanctuary laws prevent city agencies from sharing immigration information about defendants with federal officials, including when they will be released from police custody or from jail. However, the laws let the agencies tell ICE about noncitizens who have been convicted of any of 177 serious offenses, including rape and felony assault.

Susan C. Beachy contributed research. Shayla Colon reported from Toms River, N.J.

Chelsia Rose Marcius is a criminal justice reporter for The Times, covering the New York Police Department. More about Chelsia Rose Marcius

Andy Newman writes about New Yorkers facing difficult situations, including homelessness, poverty and mental illness. He has been a journalist for more than three decades. More about Andy Newman

Shayla Colon is a reporter covering New York City and a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers. More about Shayla Colon