Historical amnesia is a dangerous phenomenon, not only because it undermines moral and intellectual integrity, but also because it lays the groundwork for crimes that lie ahead.
Noam Chomsky (via noam-chomsky)
Month: March 2012
In Britain between 1998 and 2009, there were at least 333 deaths in police custody, 87 of them after restraint by officers. Not a single officer was convicted. Of all the more and less unsubtle ways young Londoners — those not from Chelsea, from Bloomsbury; those not rich — are told that they are not terribly important, none are as overt or as cruel as this.
Standing so straight on a raised dais, in so immaculate a uniform that he looks like a ventriloquist’s dummy, the Metropolitan Police Service’s new commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, tells the conference in an avuncular voice about his plan for “total policing.” He is enthusiastic but nebulous. Details are vague. He enthuses about large forces zooming into small areas and clamping down on minor infractions. He mentions uninsured vehicles.
Helen Shaw, co-director of Inquest, an organization dedicated to the investigation of contentious deaths in official custody, has a different understanding. She suspects that total policing will mean “a much more aggressive police presence, a stance that’s more aggressive, and more about fear.” Indeed, Hogan-Howe says he wants “to put fear into the heart of criminals.” Shaw is more stark: “We think we’ll see more deaths.”
The police have not had a good couple of years. Constituencies not traditionally antipathetic have been shocked by its fervent enthusiasm for “kettling,” corralling demonstrators tightly without charge, food, water or release, for hours. The brutal policing of student protests on Dec. 9, 2010, left one young man, Alfie Meadows, in the hospital with brain injuries. At that same protest, the police hauled Jody McIntyre, a 20-year-old with cerebral palsy, from his wheelchair, dragging him across the ground. At a demonstration on April 1 the previous year, an unresisting and uninvolved newspaper seller, Ian Tomlinson, was hit by the police and died shortly after. And then Mark Duggan, about whom each rumor initially leaked — that he shot first, that he shot at all — was shown one by one to be untrue.
China Mieville writes about London in the New York Times (via neil-gaiman)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sxv1VNXKkc
Black March Message
Original Black March Message – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWzRHnVbw5I
New Black March Message – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7DkMrC57TE
Transcript:
Greetings citizens of the world. This video is in reference to operation Black March. I encourage you not to see any movies in theaters during March. Do not purchase or download any movies or music, legally or illegally. Do not buy or rent a single video game. Do not buy or download a single book or magazine. This will cause an extreme drop in profits for the organizations pushing for radical censorship laws. It is easy. In order to send this message, you must simply do nothing. Do not purchase or download any of these forms of media & they will notice.
I encourage anyone and everyone to repost this to their Facebook status, Twitter and / or YouTube bulletins and to encourage their friends and family to do likewise. The more widespread we are able to make this movement, the bigger the impact these organizations will feel. Show them the consumer holds power in this relationship. We made them what they are and the power they hold over us is only to the extent that we allow.
Some of you may be wondering, why you cannot download it illegally as that will not put money in their pockets. The answer is this. One, this movement aims to beat these companies legally. We do not condone disobeying laws that operate at a level of fairness. We believe companies deserve money for their media works but we will not tolerate their methods of radical censorship.
Two, organizations keep records of how many times a product is downloaded illegally, even if they are unable to track it. This shows the level of addiction that their product causes. The more a product is downloaded legally, or illegally, the greater the potential to make money.
If it is done illegally, many will be caught and charged with piracy with heavy fines. Either way, the company profits. The only way to truly hurt them is to legally boycott them. This will send the message that the consumer owns the product and not the other way around.
Please join us this March 1st, 2012 through March 31st, 2012, in not making any media purchases or downloads during Operation Black March. The message is clear. The method is simple. The result is keeping media in check to preserve our freedoms.
We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us.(by StupidButCunning)
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
I wish this was pointed out more often.
Common sense!
THis one goes out to Communism Kills!
Hope you like it! 😀
Are you a writer?
I mean seriously, do you write in hopes of being published one day? (Not that folks who don’t publish are not writers.)
Do you care about your craft?
Why Anti-Authoritarians are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill
Why Anti-Authoritarians are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill
“Gaining acceptance into graduate school or medical school and achieving a PhD or MD and becoming a psychologist or psychiatrist means jumping through many hoops, all of which require much behavioral and attentional compliance to authorities, even to those authorities that one lacks respect for. The selection and socialization of mental health professionals tends to breed out many anti-authoritarians. Having steered the higher-education terrain for a decade of my life, I know that degrees and credentials are primarily badges of compliance. Those with extended schooling have lived for many years in a world where one routinely conforms to the demands of authorities. Thus for many MDs and PhDs, people different from them who reject this attentional and behavioral compliance appear to be from another world—a diagnosable one.
I have found that most psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals are not only extraordinarily compliant with authorities but also unaware of the magnitude of their obedience. And it also has become clear to me that the anti-authoritarianism of their patients creates enormous anxiety for these professionals, and their anxiety fuels diagnoses and treatments.” (via)