myrmepropagandistMay 16, 2023

If you were strangled on the subway how long would it be until they arrest your killer? Or would they arrest him at all? give him a medal?

Maybe you have no criminal record, maybe you have been paying rent. Maybe you are a pillar of your community and help at the local community garden. But maybe you aren’t white, aren’t Christian, or have “radical antifa” ties online. Maybe you live in a “bad” neighborhood (or like me in a good neighborhood that outsiders assume to be bad)

Show threadmyrmepropagandist

I find it prudent to weigh such thoughts before I get on the subway. Would it matter that I’m a teacher? that I like to study ants? The focus could as easily be how I had depression once.

Deborah Danner was 66 years old when NYPD shot her in her home. She lived in my neighborhood, studied Computer Science, had schizophrenia— but also an awareness of her disease she wrote essays about it. A bright interesting person. Gone forever. Her death excused. Her killer acquitted.

May 16, 2023 at 12:40pmWeb
Show threadmyrmepropagandistMay 16, 2023

I reject the comforting fiction that this could not happen to me, or to you.

That is part of what allows it to persist, to escalate.

This most recent murder is an escalation. No excuse of the killer being a cop. Just “a marine” who cares if he was a marine? Why is that little nugget always repeated as if it has any meaning?

Brownshirts self appointed violence spigots. Are we to treat every ex-cop and “military man” as exceptions to the rule of law? It is disgusting that the police hesitated

Show threadLinebyline→mastoart.socialMay 16, 2023
@futurebird Marine (it's usually Marine or maybe Seal, not plain old navy or army or air force) seems to be, like Police Officer, one of those Badass Patriot Who's Better Than You categories of people that fascist LARPers look up to and aspire to be.
Show thread𝗺𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿May 16, 2023
@futurebird
Being trained to kill is an exacerbating not a mitigating circumstance in a murder.
Show threadRobert CassidyMay 16, 2023
@futurebird Fascists eventually come for us all. It’s little comfort that they aren’t coming for me today.
Show threadDamnKimberleeMay 16, 2023
Until we’re all equal--no one is safe. @futurebird
Show threadBen RosengartMay 17, 2023
@futurebird Thank you for saying this. I feel the same way. The reasoning is always reverse engineered to produce a predictable result.
Show threadRyan RichardsonMay 16, 2023
@futurebird So sad ... thank you for sharing this ...
Show threadDear HeartMay 16, 2023
@futurebird You say that you like to study ants…my 7yo grandson just read a book on ants by a Harvard prof and now has set his sites on attending there. He’s a serious child so I’m just curious whether you could suggest a competitive alternative.
Show threadAlex WildMay 16, 2023
@N2Priest @futurebird I don't think that's a question that needs to be approached until the time comes- there are a ton of great universities with ant scientists, but in a decade it's going to be a somewhat different set, and when it becomes important career-wise is graduate school, rather than undergrad.
Show threadDear HeartMay 16, 2023
@alexwild @futurebird
So true
Show threadbaguetteladyMay 16, 2023
@futurebird The cops kill so many folks with mental illness, especially schizophrenia. It's absolutely abhorrent that it happens, and the fact that they get away with it fills me with impotent rage.
Show threadNoctisEqui 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇪🇹🏳️‍🌈May 17, 2023

@futurebird

That is terrible! What a tragic event, an end to a person who was so brave and courageous.

May I extend my deepest sympathies for this loss and also offer my outrage at the injustice of it.