There was an arrest across the street from my place in Oakland one day – three cop cars with a bullhorn and guns out – and before I could even get out the gate there were a couple people posted up and one of them was filming and another one was narrating in a calm but very loud voice, just

“HE IS COOPERATING! HIS HANDS ARE EMPTY! HE IS DOING WHAT HE IS TOLD TO DO! HE IS HOLDING STILL! HIS HANDS ARE EMPTY! HE IS NOT BEING THREATENING! HE HAS PUT HIS HANDS BEHIND HIS HEAD AS ASKED! HE IS NOT RESISTING!”

and that was something I hadn’t thought to do before. It certainly let the cops know what the narrative of eye witnesses was going to be. 

I especially liked “his hands are empty” because this statement would still be true and a witnessed reason the police should not become violent even if it turned out he had a weapon on his person somewhere.

I see people in NYC stop and record a lot. Even if they are just being nosey, that’s still witnesses if shit goes down.

Daniel Sloss- “Jigsaw”

ROMANTIC LOVE IS NOT MORE IMPORTANT THAN PLATONIC LOVE!!!

do not ignore this

our momentum is slowing down. we can’t let our dashes go back to normal when the world is not normal. so, if you are reading this, you are ~legally~ obligated to choose 2 numbers below; you must complete the task of those two numbers today. don’t pretend you didn’t see this. either do them right now or set a reminder to get it done before the sun goes down. the timer starts now. choose two. 

stop acting like BLM is over and that its now fine to ignore petitions that still need to be signed + voices that still need to be heard. black lives will always matter and i'm lined up to go to multiple protests within the next week so i implore everyone to continue supporting black people however you can and to not let this die

Protesters kneel on the neck of Edward Colston’s toppled statue for eight minutes, Bristol, UK. It was later thrown into the harbour

Edward Colston ran a company that shipped 84,000 kidnapped African men, women & children to the Americas - 19,000 of these are estimated to have died during the crossing

in case you or anyone you know has been hurt or arrested during the protest, here are some people who offer free care or legal aid. stay safe everyone and watch out for eachother

Doctor Who - 5x02 The Beast Below

pretends to be shocked

rb to make a trans person feel loved 💕

already seeing some “J.K. Rowling is a muggle!!!” no you clowns she’s a gleefully transphobic bigot use your grownup words 

I have now also spotted a “J.K. Rowling is voldemort” courtesy of twitter and I assure you she’s really not, there’s nothing magical or grandiose about her brand of evil it’s entirely run of the mill ignorance. Joanne is not a supervillain she’s just a shitbag. 

listen y’all. I get it. the real world is overwhelming and difficult to process sometimes, and if a work of fiction first helped you conceptualize a complex real world issue and brings you comfort when shit gets hard, that’s rad. but it’s so important to engage with real issues that affect real people head on instead of filtering them through simplified fictional lenses. do not water down hate speech and violence that has real consequences on real people’s lives; that is beyond trivializing and disrespectful. 

BLACK LIVES MATTER

Stop closing your eyes, stop scrolling past, stop thinking it’s not your problem. I’m a white person and might be talking especially to white people out there not being enough aware. It’s the time we say stop, and we need to stop standing still, it’s not a “Black People’s problem”, it’s not a problem “out of our community”, it’s humanity and decency and rights to live and BREATHE not in constant fear. We have voices and privilege that somehow makes our voices worthier to whatever else? So we have to use it, to fight RACISM and SYSTEMIC RACISM that’s sitting inside all of us and in our everyday lives. We need to be all on one side, so there won’t be sides anymore.

I’ve been following all the recent news since the George Floyd murder and I’ve found some good stuff to stay informed, understand what’s happening and start do something. I thought about sharing.

Please SIGN all these petitions and help demand JUSTICE for Black People that have been murdered and their names forgotten. All you need is 10 minutes of your time to sign all the petitions on both pages, every petition has a paragraph explaining the history of what happened to that black person and what you’re signing for. We’re also talking about black children murdered, a pregnant black woman beaten causing the loss of her unborn baby.

Keep reading if you want to do more as you should.

If you can DONATE (not to change.org, donations won’t go to associations but to them to “support the cause” but you better donate to help the protestors and/or the victims), TEXT or CALL asking for justice and help bring awareness and justice for Black People.

STAY INFORMED on what’s happening (by @utenas). Other ways to support/be an ally (by @calmholland). Stand with #BlackLivesMatter. Enough to be silent. Make posts, talk to people, raise awareness and learn.

Watch and read these:

+ understand and recognize your privilege, hear the call to action to not just be not-racist, but BE ANTI-RACIST:

#SAYTHEIRNAMES

It’s not Black People vs. White People. Black People are fighting for their rights to BREATHE and LIVE day after day without the fear they could be the next. Put yourself in their shoes: it’s not whites and blacks, it has to be people AGAINST racism. It’s JUSTICE, it’s EQUALITY, RIGHTS that Black people deserve as they’re humans like all the other people and have nothing less than them.

Goodnight.

So after APD violent attacked protestors, including a pregnant woman, gave brain damage to a college student, and fired on field medics, the Austin City Council voted to increase their budget the next day.

If that's not signal enough of whose side these people are on, I don't know what will.

And before anyone says anything, yes, Austin is in Texas, but we have similar voting patterns to LA and Chicago. Every single member of the Austin City Council is a Democrat.