but in terms of the human rights violations happening in America right now, here’s something more immediate you can do.

fairfightbondfund.org/ lgbtqfund.org/ communitybondproject.org immigrantfamilies.org freedomforimmigrants.org

If you’re in a financial place to make donations, check out these links. If not, spreading the word on any tangible way to make a difference will help; if you have a twitter, you could retweet the original thread here: twitter.com/sarahmirk/status/1143201552657575937

i cannot tell you how many times, that people dont think i am chronically ill. because i’m brown. even on tumblr, the amount of people who immediately assume i am not chronically ill because i talk ab racism at the same time.

when i talk ab racism and racism with white spoonies, you all white ppl default to assuming i am not a spoonie myself. that is just. racism like you wouldn’t even know.

if you knew the racism that doctors perpertuate against chronically ill people of colour you would shut the hell up.assuming a nonwhite person talking ab racism with white spoonies to not be chronically ill is a form of racist medical violence

The fact that homeless people do not have housing is a wrong done against them, not a sign they did something wrong.  To then try and ban them from public spaces and existing in public (including doing things we all have to do, like sleep or eat), is yet another grievous wrong.

Being angry at human beings for just existing and trying to survive because you find the horrible conditions society puts them in unpleasant to look at makes you an asshole.

They’ve Always Been Watching Us: From COINTELPRO and Martin Luther King, Jr to the NSA’s surveillance program, the US Government has been keeping a close watch on the American Left for a long time.

by Andy Warner and Jess Parker

yall already know i got cervical cancer and need a hysterectomy and that’s $8k that i do not have any way of substantially earning.

i can do divinationl. i can draw, and i can write fanfics and poetry, you can PM me if you’re curious about these things.

the biggest, most blessed thing you can do for me, is to donate. even just a dollar, anything, so i can survive. please feed me, medicate me, and help me get this cancer scooped out. let me live.

coretta scott king was a huge proponent of lgbt rights and while king did write an advice letter to a gay man that sounds dismissive to our modern sensibilities, ultimately coretta believed that king would have been just as staunch of an lgbt supporter during the 80s etc. as she was, and i take her word on that.

Specifically, do not open the door; tell them to slide their warrant under the door. Read it carefully and check to see if it’s a JUDICIAL warrant, which will have specific information like the time and location where they’re allowed to search, and a specific description of who or what they’re allowed to search for. ICE practically *never* have this; they’ll have an ADMINISTRATIVE warrant, which is just their orders from their boss telling them to arrest a particular person. It does not give them the right to enter your house.

ICE *can* enter your house if they have probable cause, such as if they see the person they’re looking for through a window or door (which is why you don’t open the door). Other forms of probable cause include kids telling agents that they were born outside of the US. Agents will trick people into chatting with them, especially kids who serve as translators for their parents, asking things like “What part of Mexico are you from?” Staying silent keeps the onus on them to prove in court later that they had evidence someone isn’t here legally.

It’s important to remember that for now, at least, every person ICE wants to deport has to go before a judge, and ICE has to provide evidence that they know this person is undocumented and that they were arrested without violating the 4th amendment (against unreasonable search and seizure). We know that cops lie and that judges usually side with them, but agents would rather go for a sure bet from a targeted raid than risk wasting their time and energy on arrests that could be thrown out. Knowing your rights and being prepared makes you a more difficult target.

“I do not consent to entry without a warrant.”

ACTUALLY, ICE will wave around anything and call it a warrant and unless you’re a lawyer chances are you won’t be able to tell, so call a lawyer. ICE often comes in civilian vehicles and clothes, will often conceal their badges from you and will even lie about who they are, and they’ve been known to work with police. You shouldn’t open the door. Call your lawyer, a volunteer lawyer group that assists immigrants or a response network* first. Never say anything that might reveal you’re an immigrant at all to any cop, not even if you are arrested for something else. Call your lawyer and let them deal with it.

ICE presentara cualquier cosa y la llamara un warrant, y aunque usted sea un abogado, probablemente no sabra la diferencia, asi que llame a su abogado. ICE muy seguido se presenta en ropa y autos civiles sin marcas, obscuren sus placas y pueden hasta mentir aceca de quienes son, aveces hasta trabajan con policia local para hacer arrestos de immigracion. No habra la puerta. Llame a su abogado, un grupo de abogados voluntarios que asistan a immigrantes o un grupo de respuesta* primero. Nunca diga nada que revele que es usted un immigrante a ningun policia, ni siquiera si usted esta ciendo arrestado por ortra razon. Llame a su abogado y dejen que ellos lideen con ICE.

Here is what a Judicial warrant looks like:

Asi es como se ve un warrant judicial:

This what an immigration warrant looks like:

Asi se ve un warrant de immigracion:

If the warrant looks like this, you don’t have to let them in. Either way, call your lawyer and if you see ICE or suspect you see them, call someone who responds to ICE raids.

Si el warrant se ve como este, usted no tiene que dejarlos entrar. En qualquier caso, llame a su abogado y si ve a ICE o sospecha que los ve llame a alguen que responda a raids de ICE.

*Response networks. Research online if there’s a network of people in your area who respond to ICE raids, you can also ask at local temples or churches if they know of one. These are people whom you call on the phone, they give you brief instructions and send respondents to your location to assist you, serve as witnesses and document what happens so you can use that information to your defense.

Navajo Relief Fund: http://www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=nrf_index

Navajo Water Project: https://www.navajowaterproject.org/

Okay, this is going to be a longer explanation.

If I’m going to be honest here, I think that anarchists often oversell this notion, mostly due to a totally legitimate emotional response to oppression that people endure at the hands of the state. This is why you’ll often find really frustrating arguments between anarchists and other people that look something like this:

Person: “Well my uncle is a cop, and he’s a nice guy, and he puts his life on the line every day so stop generalizing a whole group of people due to the few bad ones”

Anarchist: “Fuck your uncle, it’s not my fault he decided to be a pig”

Person: “Well, I never! *huffs away*”

And nobody ever gets anywhere. The problem here is that when anarchists say “All cops are bastards,” what anarchists actually mean is “the role of a cop is systemically and inherently immoral, since they violently enforce the power of the ruling class at the severe disadvantage to the poor and marginalized, sometimes including murdering the poor and marginalized with zero repercussions.” And I suppose anarchists could just say that every single time, but it is easier to just say “all cops are bastards.”

But let’s examine that second sentence for a bit. Due to a lot of popular media presentations (like Law & Order), cops are often presented as these heroic figures that do mostly good things like protect people from murderers and stop child predators. But the reality is, the vast majority of things a cop does is not like that at all. You could probably even ask a cop and they would agree with the notion that most of their job is not like that. In fact, the vast majority of things a cop does is enforcing pointless bureaucracy that only serves the ruling classes and oppresses the poor for no reason. You could even say that all a cop really is is a bureaucrat with access to military grade weaponry, and you would be pretty on the nose.

For an example, lets talk about the disparate response to two actually common occurrences that cops often are called in to help with. In one case, we have domestic violence, and in another case, we have someone who is driving a car without a license plate. Okay.

So, if somebody calls the police to help with a domestic abuse situation, often times the cops don’t show up until the domestic abuse has already gotten way out of hand. The person being abused has already been harmed to some serious degree. So the police didn’t do anything to actually prevent the abuse. Once the police do show up, sometimes the person who is being abused is disbelieved, or the police decide that both sides are to blame. Sometimes the abused person isn’t even taken out of harms way of the abuser. If the abused person is believed, then they have to file a bunch of paper work, find a shelter, occasionally pay for a hotel or some other place to go, and generally go through tons of hoops of bureaucracy in order to actually leave harms way. And the police officer is there the entire time ensuring that the proper bureaucratic steps are followed. That’s really their job. That’s their actual role in the case of a domestic abuse. They have to make sure that all of the proper paperwork is correctly filed and the steps are taken just so. This is why I said in a previous post that 24-hr women’s shelters and other forms of help against domestic abuse do far more to actually combat domestic abuse than any cop has ever done. Because they are just helping for the sake of helping rather than being the bureaucrat.

Compare this to driving without a license plate. If you drove around town in a car without a license plate, there would be a cop on your tail probably within 15-30 minutes maximum. And if you refused to do what he said, you would probably be handcuffed and whisked off to jail and you would probably be charged with multiple crimes, including possibly resisting arrest, which is a felony. All of that for just not having a license plate on your vehicle and then not doing what the cop asked. None of those things have anything to do with helping anybody. They are just bureaucratic rules put in place by the ruling class. But cops are way more likely to be found enforcing rules like that then actually helping anybody. Because that is their actual job. They are the violent arm of the bureaucratic state.

And all of this without even bringing up the fact that they also have access to military grade weaponry that they can basically use at their own discretion, for any reason, with no real risk of repercussion. And the laws and regulations of the state change all of the time - and cops are basically just told to enforce those rules, no matter what they are. So in a neoliberal capitalist state, they are bureaucrats with access to military grade weapons. But in a fascist state, they easily become concentration camp operators or SS officers. And their role never really changes. They are just the violent enforcers of the state bureaucracy.

The waiting woman was still clearly pissed but she didn’t say anything because she knew I wouldn’t have her back. That’s all it took to keep some poor lady just trynna scrub up from getting harassed.