An Insufficient Number of Kittens

“The police spend very little of their time dealing with violent criminals—indeed, police sociologists report that only about 10% of the average police officer’s time is devoted to criminal matters of any kind. Most of the remaining 90% is spent dealing with infractions of various administrative codes and regulations: all those rules about how and where one can eat, drink, smoke, sell, sit, walk, and drive. If two people punch each other, or even draw a knife on each other, police are unlikely to get involved. Drive down the street in a car without license plates, on the other hand, and the authorities will show up instantly, threatening all sorts of dire consequences if you don’t do exactly what they tell you. The police, then, are essentially just bureaucrats with weapons. Their main role in society is to bring the threat of physical force—even, death—into situations where it would never have been otherwise invoked, such as the enforcement of civic ordinances about the sale of untaxed cigarettes.”

One of the earliest studies of police work found about one-half of the calls received by police dealt with problem solving rather than crime fighting. Similarly, Wilson’s classic study of the calls received by the Syracuse, New York, Police Department found approximately 10% of the calls police received were related to law enforcement, 30% to order maintenance, 22% to information gathering, and 38% to service calls. Other studies of calls to the police in St. Louis and Detroit found only 16% were related to law enforcement functions. Research that examines official police records indicates only a small percentage of what the police do on a daily basis directly involves crime fighting or law enforcement activities.

“The police spend very little of their time dealing with violent criminals—indeed, police sociologists report that only about 10% of the average police officer’s time is devoted to criminal matters of any kind. Most of the remaining 90% is spent dealing with infractions of various administrative codes and regulations: all those rules about how and where one can eat, drink, smoke, sell, sit, walk, and drive. If two people punch each other, or even draw a knife on each other, police are unlikely to get involved. Drive down the street in a car without license plates, on the other hand, and the authorities will show up instantly, threatening all sorts of dire consequences if you don’t do exactly what they tell you. The police, then, are essentially just bureaucrats with weapons. Their main role in society is to bring the threat of physical force—even, death—into situations where it would never have been otherwise invoked, such as the enforcement of civic ordinances about the sale of untaxed cigarettes.”

Couple-three years ago I absentmindedly left my back door unlocked after taking out the recycling, and was working-from-home in my upstairs home office when a woman I didn’t know stumbled in and yelled for help.

The way I got some family members to come around on the whole cop issue is this. Cops are told that their job includes:

“The police spend very little of their time dealing with violent criminals—indeed, police sociologists report that only about 10% of the average police officer’s time is devoted to criminal matters of any kind. Most of the remaining 90% is spent dealing with infractions of various administrative codes and regulations: all those rules about how and where one can eat, drink, smoke, sell, sit, walk, and drive. If two people punch each other, or even draw a knife on each other, police are unlikely to get involved. Drive down the street in a car without license plates, on the other hand, and the authorities will show up instantly, threatening all sorts of dire consequences if you don’t do exactly what they tell you. The police, then, are essentially just bureaucrats with weapons. Their main role in society is to bring the threat of physical force—even, death—into situations where it would never have been otherwise invoked, such as the enforcement of civic ordinances about the sale of untaxed cigarettes.”

So there’s an interesting point here: as I’m sure everyone from the ME generation can tell you, large groups of humans need a person whose entire job is to go say ‘okay, your neighbor has an annoying yappy rat they call a dog, BUT you cannot put flaming dog shit on his porch because it’s summer and we now have half the neighborhood burnt down’.

“The police spend very little of their time dealing with violent criminals—indeed, police sociologists report that only about 10% of the average police officer’s time is devoted to criminal matters of any kind. Most of the remaining 90% is spent dealing with infractions of various administrative codes and regulations: all those rules about how and where one can eat, drink, smoke, sell, sit, walk, and drive. If two people punch each other, or even draw a knife on each other, police are unlikely to get involved. Drive down the street in a car without license plates, on the other hand, and the authorities will show up instantly, threatening all sorts of dire consequences if you don’t do exactly what they tell you. The police, then, are essentially just bureaucrats with weapons. Their main role in society is to bring the threat of physical force—even, death—into situations where it would never have been otherwise invoked, such as the enforcement of civic ordinances about the sale of untaxed cigarettes.”

since i think many will have had the memory slip with just how many other atrocities have occured in the past 11 years, or are simply too young to remember, the last bit about the sale of untaxed cigarettes isn’t just some hypothetical, it’s a reference to the killing of eric garner

THIS!

You'd think the complete and total failure to detect changeling replacements until they start acting weird would clue somebody in regarding the smell thing, but unwildlife ignorance is truly astounding.

The urban fantasy show I actually want to see is a hospital drama with a dedicated wing for supernatural illnesses.

Cafae Latte has Wendy the Wraith, who feeds on negative human emotions and also runs a rape crisis center.

I can suspend my disbelief for a lot in Star Trek, but for some reason one of the things I have the most trouble with is the idea that entire species have one single language. (This is very much not a unique thing in Star Trek and basically all sci-fi does this, I’m just specifically talking about Star Trek here.) How is there one single Vulcan language, one single Klingon language, one single Bajoran language, etc.? I know it’s just done to simplify the writing process, but it’s so unbelievable to me. Even the idea that there might be one “main” language for each species and then a few other dialects which is occasionally hinted at feels unconvincing for an entire species on an entire planet.

I mean, Bajor currently only having one language kind of makes sense. Given what we know about Cardassia having been taken over by the military and having an intensely conformist culture, their government probably deliberately wiped out all variants of Cardassian for a standardized language, and probably did similar to Bajor out of a mix of cultural genocide and reducing the extent to which plotting can be done in language they don't understand.

“Egypt Manager Hossam Hassan Raises Palestinian Flag After Historic World Cup Win (3 July 2026)” 37K upvotes on this in popculturechat but nobody will talk about the fence between Egypt and Gaza and how Egyptians treat Palestinians.

When you hear about a disabled (or "vulnerable" or "mentally ill" or "off their meds" or "prone to wandering") young adult being a "missing person," be aware that the most likely scenario is that the person has left of their own volition and does not want to be returned to their family of origin.

also keep in mind that shame + guilt are not conducive to growing as a person. when it comes to "checking yourself" it should be a non-judgemental process. it's not about flagellating yourself for every bad thought or trying to purify your mind of all corruption. it's only when acknowledging your own racist thoughts doesn't fill you with dread that you can really progress past the white guilt of it all.

The thing is, most people who use "antiracism" and champion it as a concept are really into flagellating. Just look at White Fragility, a book that is frequently recommended and heavily worshiped among the antiracism community: she actually says outright at one point that when people come up to her at the antiracism workshops she's running and ask her for practical ways they can help, that's an excuse to avoid sitting with their guilt and doing internal work and she tells them as much. (And she describes precisely one of her own mistakes in order to discuss the extremely self-flagellating way she responds to realizing she's been rude to the Black IT person at work.)

Every so often I catch a glimpse of the book drama going on over on the Insta/Threads sphere of the Internet, and it makes me so glad I’m considered too Tumblrina to sit at their tables.

“But if people read it for free they might like it want to buy the rest of my work!”

I am staring directly into the camera like I’m on the Office in Librarian. Libraries are literally an author’s best friend. We get books to people they never would have known about otherwise, & create Fans out of disinterested bystanders. And! Libraries are often paying MORE for a book than the average user, at least for digital editions, because it is expected that the library will lend it to more people, so theoretically we need to pay more to compensate the authors! (This is not I think how it works in practice, it more often just benefits the digital lending company instead of the actual author but. Greed is ever thus). Also, in some countries (sadly not the US, boo hiss) authors get paid for every checkout of a book. So, you can literally get royalties on those “free” books. (Also, they’re not free, they’re paid for with tax dollars for the good of everyone). How some fool can think temporary freeness on Amazon Kindle is superior to libraries I cannot fathom. Like, how does this person even manage to function in the real world?

#I thought if you were self pubed#you basically couldn't get into the library#sounds like being mad at a club#that won't let them in

When the health food store unionized, something wild happened that I thought was just a goofy one-off, but makes more sense now.

I think it was coming from a background that viewed labor as necessary to accomplish anything, but advocated for the equitable distribution of the gains made by labor... and then being thrown in with people who just thought labor was icky.

Just to put a bow on it:

I was on leftie tiktok (as a creator) for a bit and I saw this attitude there as well. I specifically remember one argument around cleaners where someone said that employing a cleaner was, like, ethically bad, and that "after the revolution" we wouldn't have cleaners.

Yeah, that really sums it up. There's stuff that needs to get done, so I'll never be of the opinion that it's degrading work. I worked in kitchens for a long time, and every other position is reliant on having clean dishes, so nobody can really be "above" washing dishes. The shitty thing about washing dishes or busing tables is how people treat the people doing it. The work itself is vital.