What would we do without the cops to keep us safe?!?

"From 2016 through 2022, 38 percent of all LAPD arrests and citations combined were of unhoused people, including nearly 100 percent of all citations and over 42 percent of all misdemeanor arrests."

#LosAngeles #LAPD #Homelessness #Abolition #ACAB #Police

https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/08/14/you-have-move/cruel-and-ineffective-criminalization-unhoused-people-los-angeles

Walmart profits jumped to $15 billion in 2023.

Did it substantially increase wages or lower prices? No.

It spent $9B on dividends and buybacks — with most of the benefits going to the children of Walmart's founder, who together own 46% of the company's stock.

Textbook greed.

I'm NOT saying billionaires and powerful ppl aren't DIFFERENT than you; I'm saying they're not SPECIAL.

Of course they're different than you; because you'd stop. There would be a point for you, where you had enough. There would be a number of bodies piled up where you said "*I* am not bigger than this; the cost is too great"

They clearly, do not have that point. Whatever excuses they make is irrelevant; YOU wouldn't be able to sleep at night. But it's an ABSENCE of human empathy, not "wisdom."

i think it's important to state that the term "harm reduction" comes out of a very specific set of politics that are oriented around substance user survivance. specifically resistance to criminalization, the war on drugs and the way it hyper-accelerated mass incarceration in PoC communities

for the fact that the phrase "harm reduction" gets utilized to prop up politicians who happily engage the expansion of the carceral state is a slap in the face to that past, present, and future organizing.

a slap in the face that many of my friends who do safe supply and actual harm reduction organizing have been warning and raging about, but get drowned out every time the U.S politricks machine drones on.

so when i say the workings of the political machine is not harm reduction, this is what I'm referring to

It mildly terrifies me that a lot of things we think are natural are just things that were invented by American advertising agencies in the 40s and 50s

The nuclear family, diamond engagement rings, owning a motor car, etc are all works of fiction that we have subsumed into being part of our culture, instead of it being astroturfed by a bunch of skilled marketers

The Trump campaign aims to use today's shooting as a sort of Reichstag fire to incite his supporters to step up street violence while calling for more state repression targeting his enemies of choice.

The Biden campaign has already paused all outbound communications and withdrawn their television advertisements, ceding the entire field of narrative to Donald Trump, who will have no compunction about using his status as a victim to advance his efforts to victimize others.

One of the classic mechanics of totalitarianism is that protecting the safety of the leader becomes a justification for violence against large swathes of the population.

As centrists join the far right in paving the way for totalitarian rule under Trump, we have to organize to defend our communities. If you have been in denial about the challenges ahead of us, this should be a wake-up call to find each other and prepare for them.