#the end of policing

[muffinlevelchicanery]

[onebluebookworm]

February 2024 Book Club Picks

My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family's Nazi Past by Jennifer Teege: Raised by foster parents, Jennifer Teege had very little knowledge about her past. She had minimal contact with her birth mother, knew that her father was Nigerian, and that her grandmother Ruth committed suicide in 1983, but that was it...until one day she stumbled upon a book in her local library. A book about Amon Goethe, the notorious Nazi commandant, the “butcher of Płaszów", a monster hanged in 1946 for the heinous murders he committed for Hitler's Reich. And in that book, she finds pictures of her grandmother and mother, listed as Goethe's partner and daughter. Everyone wants to know who they are, where they come from. But now Teege must reckon with what we do when we learn that we come from something dark, twisted, and almost too horrible to talk about.

The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale: Recent years have seen an explosion of protest against police brutality and repression. Among activists, journalists and politicians, the conversation about how to respond and improve policing has focused on accountability, diversity, training, and community relations. Unfortunately, these reforms will not produce results, either alone or in combination. The core of the problem must be addressed: the nature of modern policing itself. Drawing on groundbreaking research from across the world, and covering virtually every area in the increasingly broad range of police work, Alex Vitale demonstrates how law enforcement has come to exacerbate the very problems it is supposed to solve.

Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror by Jordan Peele (editor): Two Freedom riders find themselves stranded on a lonely road in Alabama. A prison warden discovers a horrible secret in the facility where he works. A young girl descends into the bowels of the earth to destroy the creature that killed her parents. Peele collects there stories and more from some of the most gift black horror authors writing today in an anthology sure to thrill, chill, and linger.

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire: When Antoinette "Antsy" Ricci becomes the newest student at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, word spreads quickly that she can find anything. When resident irresistible mean girl Laurel tries to strongarm Antsy into finding Laurel's door for her, she's forced to flee with a small group of friends through a series of doors...which eventually lead her back to the Shop of Lost Things. And now that Antsy is back, she intends to make sure Venita and Hudson are keeping their promise

Ejaculate Responsibly: The Conversation We Need to Have About Men and Contraception by Gabrielle Blair: Why are women expected to shoulder the majority of the burden for preventing unwanted pregnancies? With fertility that's harder to track and birth control that's more invasive, more hazardous, and more difficult to obtain, it seems almost counterproductive that the men in the pregnancy equation are expected to take less or even no responsibility in pregnancy prevention than women. In 28 concise arguments, Blair lays out a new way to look at birth control and abortion, with one, simple thesis underlying all of it - men can prevent 100% of unwanted pregnancies if they simply ejaculate responsibly.

[bean-spring]

Hot take and not to be a killjoy or the shipping police but people treating Viktor or Jinx's aroace headcanons as if they were canon is not the revolutionary take people think it is.

Headcanons are always all right but we have to acknowledge that they are somehow damaging when they apply to stereotypes. It might not be the case for everyone but most of the time people unconsciously assume that disability/mental illness=asexuality. These headcanons erase the freedom of attraction from people who are already seen as unable to have sexual/romantic experiences/desires, when it's completely untrue and harmful.

You can headcanon Viktor and Jinx as aroace, but I have seen people changing their minds once Viktor is no longer disabled (s2 with all of his other forms) and Jinx is no longer as mentally ill (alternate universe Powder). And it speaks wonders of how people see these characters.

"I never thought about Jinx being able to feel romantic/sexual attraction until s2!" To believe she's actually only capable of that when she's not "damaged" is incredibly disturbing. Especially since Jinx has always had a bit of a flirty personality too.

"I've always seen Viktor as asexual, I don't know why!" That's fine. You can headcanon him as ace. But I believe there is a reason behind it, most of the time, if for some inexplicable reason the "vibes" of the disabled character are making you think he's ace.

I say all of this being aroaspec myself, by the way. Headcanon all you want but going to people's posts commenting how "it's weird for you that they have romantic/sexual plots when they're clearly aroace" is not a win at all. It's a headcanon, after all, and it should be treated as such, and that's fine. But it also is damaging to spread stereotypes like these.

Of course the disabled character is asexual. Of course the mentally ill character is aromantic. It's not as revolutionary as you might think, tbh.

Fandom is not activism and it's all right to have any headcanons you want BUT some of them are filled with damaging stuff and perhaps we should look into ourselves more before treating these assumptions as something canon.

[morganbritton132]

AU where Tim, age nine, walked three miles to his neighbor’s house, held up his bleeding hand to Alfred, and asked if he could please have a bandaid. He got stitches instead, and a hug from Dick, who squeezed him tight and asked, “Can we keep him?”

And then Tim never went home again.

He learns gymnastics with Dick and reads in the library with Jason. He shows Alfred how to reset the wifi and rambles on to Bruce about his latest obsession (shipwrecks), and he never sees his parents again.

Behind the scenes, there was a kid left alone in a mansion while a whole international incident played out. It included a kidnapping, a ransom, a failed hostage negotiation, and two dead parents never coming home.

It pokes at a wound in Bruce when he is told about the Drakes and he has always been productive in tragedy. He knows how to shove the hurt away and build something strong on top of it.

The adoption was seamless. The sell of the Drake Estate was effortless. The trust for Tim. The memorial. The scholarships in Jack and Janet’s names. Bruce does it all methodical and singleminded.

And somewhere. Somehow. They forget to tell Tim.

Sometimes he misses his mom and dad. He misses his old room and being alone in a big house, but months turn to years and he likes it here. He really does. He has brothers here and Alfred, and they say they’re his family. He likes that.

They said they wanted to keep him, so they kept him. Kept him forever.

Then Damian is there.

Tim comes home and there’s a new boy, about the age he was when they got him. Tim asks in a whisper, “Did they take you too?”

[phyrophoenix]

Marisa goes to jail

[super-nova5045]

its always “we should beat up and kill rapists and abusers!” but the moment someone actually does you all turn on them

[zuzu-draws]

Long-Haired Obito Art Request for @lucynda ! Your ask was a bit too long for me to post so i'm answering it in this way ;D This version of Obito is like...one of the most vicious and brutal renditions of him ._.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

demanding a series in the same vein (heh, vein) as Dexter/Hannibal wherein a prolific serial killer plays cat & mouse with the police--except the serial killer in question is a preteen schoolgirl. this would make for compelling television due to the fact that middle school frequently causes girls to become deranged, and more media should reflect this

[workersolidarity]

🇺🇸🇵🇸🚨

COLOMBIA UNIVERSITY VIOLENTLY STORMED AND SHUT DOWN BY NYPD

📹 Scenes from the violent dispersal of Colombia University protests after police stormed "Hind Hall", named by students in memory of 6-year-old Hind Rajab who was killed by the Israeli occupation forces along with two paramedics in the Gaza Strip.

Protesters are violently assaulted and arrested by NYPD, among the most notoriously violent police in the country.

News reports meanwhile claim no tear gas was used in the raid, and say no one was injured in the assaults, video evidence to the contrary.

#source

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[starry-bi-sky]

do yall ever think about bruce/batman!clone danny standing in front of his bathroom mirror after finding out he was a clone and silently tracing his face. The slope of his jaw and point of his chin. The high angle of his cheekbones and the shape of his eyes, the curve of his brow bones and the shape of his nose. The volume of his hair and the way it curls and gets fluffy when it gets too long.

His hair is black the same way a crow's wing is black. His dad's hair is black the same way a black bear's fur is black. His dad's eyes are blue like the ocean is blue. Danny's eyes are blue the same way a glacier is blue.

His dad has a square jaw and straight flat hair, and he tans and gets a face full of freckles when he's out in the sun for too long. Danny burns like a lobster and his face remains untouched. Danny has a sharp jaw and tall cheekbones, and Sam says when he's not smiling there's almost something regal about him. You would never call Jack Fenton "regal" when he's not smiling.

Sam says when he's not smiling he looks scary the same way a stone statue is. Jack Fenton when he's not smiling looks scary the same way that german shepherd staring at you across the street is.

Do you ever think he grew up wondering if he was adopted. Because of course, he has black hair and blue eyes like his dad. But having the same color doesn't make you someone's child.

Or, worse, things he's heard from the other kids and the other parents and even some of his teachers growing up; that he was the product of an affair. And that his dad was just too stupid to notice. And Danny would defend his parents until the day he died, because Jack Fenton wasn't an idiot and Maddie Fenton wasn't a cheater.

But doubt comes in with fickle tongue. his parents swear up and down that he is their child when he asks about either. That Danny just had his grandparents' features, but he was their son and they loved him.

But Danny doesn't look like either of his parents. His mom's eyes are blue like an aquamarine and Jazz's too. And they burn like lobsters in the sun too, but Jazz gets freckles on her face and so does Maddie. And as Danny grows up he doesn't bulk up or get stocky like his dad did, and when he hits puberty he doesn't shoot up like a tree like Jack Fenton did.

He stays small, and they say he's a late bloomer (and he is), or that he just has his mom's height. But he's fast and has good stamina, and some days it feels like he's built entirely different from his family. That the things they went through growing up just didn't apply to him. Jack and Maddie Fenton both had acne and breakouts when they hit puberty, and Jazz inherits it and he's seen the amount of skincare products she keeps on her side of the bathroom.

And then he hits puberty and breaks out maybe once or twice, but his skin stays clear for the most part and the problems and changes his dad went through just don't happen to him.

And the truth is worse than all of the lies.

How horrifying.

[ottostoast]

playing around with some spider-KID designs

[headedfawns]

you’ve got to throw yourself upon the gears and upon the wheels! Follow the apparatus and make it stop!

[sayruq]

Palestinians have endured a never ending barrage of injustice since 1948, 75 years before Operation Al Aqsa Flood

[arrimorr]

My ocs, Sir and Ser, aka the eldritch malevolent policemen 😔

[uncanny-tranny]

The whole "breasts shouldn't be politicized because the primary purpose of breasts is to feed babies!" can be a fine jumping-off point, but I really wish people thought deeper than that when we talk about the ways in which bodies are politicized and restricted.

Like, why's it that when we talk about breasts, they must have some Higher Purpose? It's true that breasts aren't inherently sexual, but they aren't valuable solely because they can potentially feed a baby. A human body doesn't have to serve a Higher Purpose in order for it to not be legislated against or policed, and I just wish people would remember it isn't always about babies, about other people, about anything else other than the people who have that body.

[workersolidarity]

🇺🇸🇵🇸 🚨

VIOLENT SUPPRESSION OF AMERICAN PROTESTS INTENSIFIES

📹 The heavily militarized American police continue to violently suppress student protests against the Israeli occupation's ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Police have assaulted and arrested over 900 demonstrators since April 18th, in service of the Israeli occupation and US defense contractors profiting off the genocide of Palestinians.

#source

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews