Police are legally unaccountable for the abuses they commit. That is what makes them police. #AbolishThePolice

http://ift.tt/1fMVclA “‘The government doesn’t want us to know how many people the police shoot every year,’ Fisher said. ‘And that’s because they shoot more people every year than we think.’ . . .” #AbolishThePolice

#AbolishThePolice

“. . . In the mother’s day 2013 issue, Dawn describes how little the PREA [federal Prison Rape Elimination Act] has helped women prisoners. In fact, she says ‘the only people who suffer because of PREA are the same ones who were supposed to benefit from it.’ According to Dawn, what ‘zero tolerance’ has actually meant is that women are forbidden any physical contact. She was once admonished for giving another prisoner a high five. A few abusive guards were removed and charged with crimes since PREA passed. But the Department of Corrections (DOC) also implemented their own new rule. The new rule makes it a serious infraction for a prisoner to falsely report to authorities. Dawn says that, since they added the new rule, many women won’t make reports because “‘. . . history has proven that any kind of reports true or false are found to be false. When it was found to be false the people were immediately found guilty and sent to administrative segregation (ad. seg.). One lady was only having a conversation with an officer, not ‘reporting’ anything, just telling him a rumor she’d heard about a guard putting money on an offenders account for ‘favors’. This officer went and reported their conversation and she was cuffed, taken to the hole and subsequently written up for Class 1 False Reporting and placed in Ad. Seg.’ “Does it sound to you like a few new policies are going to make a difference when people still accept the mass dehumanization and incarceration that creates such an ideal environment for abuse without consequences? . . .” -Melanie S. Pinkert

This is state violence against women. (If you don’t believe me, try to resist a “lawful detention” and see what happens to you.) It is also an atrocious assault on anything even resembling civil liberties. “Police in Arizona have been rounding up sex workers and bringing them in handcuffs to a Phoenix-area church to meet with investigators and choose between a diversion program or possible jail time. “Police and students from Arizona State’s School of Social Work have detained more than 350 people since 2011 in twice-a-year raids. “THE SEX WORKERS ARE NOT OFFICIALLY ‘ARRESTED,’ police told Vice, BUT ARE ‘LAWFULLY DETAINED’ in windowless church rooms WITHOUT A LAWYER PRESENT. . . .” #AbolishThePolice #DecriminalizeSexWork

Registration for Summer and Fall terms begins today. Apparently every language class in the University is scheduled for MWF 12-1pm.

Venezuelan anarchists: Rafael Uzcátegui on “A French Questionnaire” about the situation in Venezuela. (Apparently trans. into English by the author.) http://ift.tt/1eWBWlx

Countdown: there are only 18 more hours remaining until PÄ…czki Day.

Fun fact: under current copyright terms, nearly all books under copyright by their original authors stay under monopoly for the life of the author + 70 years. To put that in perspective, Paul Avrich’s books on Voltairine de Cleyre or on the Russian Anarchists will become available in the public domain in 2076, just over 10 years after the invention of warp drive and First Contact with the Vulcans. #AbolishIntellectualProtectionism

Seriously, who cares whether “Wisconsin” is ready for anything? Whatever the landmass, or the social mainstream, may think, any Wisconsonian who is already smoking marijuana is certainly more “ready” for legalization than they are for prison. And that’s a good enough reason to end prohibition immediately, completely, and forever.