Gator3000
Cindy Milstein (they)I would never, ever (ever) equate “joy” with “cops.” Exactly the opposite! Yet never say never, right?
In scrolling through my thousands of still-unused photos of street art from over many time periods and many geographies—often taken while prowling alleys—it hit me that there is indeed joy in the #AllCatsAreBeautiful genre related to cops.
This feline form of #ACAB street art—of which I realized tonight, I have a hefty amount of photos “capturing” kitties who snarl at cops and purr at anarchists—seems to me to point toward the joy of a world without police. In thinking of cats raises a smile of comradely recognition at their ungovernability, for one. But more prefiguratively, it conjures images of playful abandon, abundant cuteness, cuddly tenderness, scrappy inventiveness (oh the things a cat can create from a simple cardboard box!), and lots of other warm-and-fuzzy feelings—the kinds that exude joy, yes, and also aid us in imagining how sweet life should and could be. (Who hasn’t asserted at one point or another, “If I’m reincarnated, I hope I come back as a cat!)
Plus cats, contrary to popular perceptions, are loyal and stick side by side with their human friends, thus they would never, ever (ever) talk to the police (they might yowl at them or loudly scratch the door, but refuse to open it, if the cops come knocking).
So here’s a small sampler of some street cats, as seen in Pittsburgh, Vienna, and Athens.
The world is pretty damn shitty—like the messiest of litter boxes. So it’s worth finding all the tiniest of joys, creeping quietly toward us on cat paws.
GrapheneOS
Nils Wilcke
geekiviste
Anne Kerléo
sebsauvage
