For some reasons people feel compelled to point out, both here and on Bluesky, that police carry guns in other countries than the US

As if it's the massive popularity of pictures of German police online that's biasing models made by US companies towards rendering pictures of armed police.

FFS!

@baldur I always find the presence of armed people shocking.

Mostly because of the intrusive thoughts whenever I see one that I should absolute snatch it from its little holster and shoot the owner, while screaming "do you feel safer now, you dolt?"

@baldur just recently, an article went around on how genAI will easily show you people of X culture, taking a selfie (native americans, yuan dynasty chinese, aztec warriors, neanderthals, you name it) – except they all have that grotesque rictus toothy smile they use in the US.

i found that to be such a good example: on the surface, it purports to show historic (or prehistoric) people in a lively manner, not like exhibits. which would be good! but also, it makes painfully evident that it will impose a highly regional, very present-day idea of ‘liveliness’ upon it.

@baldur is that a runic alphabet on one shoulder and Hebrew on the other?

Sorry for polluting the world with our unique disease

@baldur

It is horrific, that the icelandic police force did not notice how revolting the image was for icelandic people before publishing.

@baldur The Los Angeles Unified School District has their own police department. Armed of course.

When he was in elementary school my son had several classroom lockdowns due to armed individuals being pursued by police either on campus or nearby. They had a bucket in the room in case the kids needed to relieve themselves during the sometimes lengthy delay before the all-clear.

It would be nice if this bs could be expunged from American childrens' school experience.

Much more on the LASPD at the Meta clicky: https://www.instagram.com/p/C-k-RE4vErI/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

#uspol #guns

@baldur
I see this post and can't help but remember that some US schools have armed police IN schools to keep the schools safe.

I also recall being told in school in the event of a school shooter event, we had shut off all lights and get under desks and stay quiet. We were to avoid the shooter since the police might immediately shoot anyone with a gun. This was of course on one of the "school shooter" drills.

@baldur I mean, there’s kids missing fingers, floating busses. The kid front and centre with a helmet on is putting a second helmet on. And the cop is also carrying the abyss inside him.

He is death

@baldur

Police carry guns in Australia now, but I still haven’t got used to it. Always surprises & distresses me.

@baldur It should be shocking.

The fact that people would not only not find it shocking but defend it as totally unshocking and acceptable is, well....

...so very American. (I was going to say "shocking", but I've been living in this cursed timeline for awhile now and I've come to expect that level of awfulness on a routine basis.)