Icon from a picrew by grgikau. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
If sexual activity between same-gender people became illegal, the police would be the ones enforcing those laws.
That’s why police are not welcome at Pride. Pride is for unconditional supporters, not for those who would become enemies as soon as they’re ordered to.
the #1 way police enforce anti-sodomy laws is the same way they enforce every other law: by lying. they say they saw your car in a parking lot and you were giving your partner a blow job. they went to your house to ask about a neighborhood disturbance and saw you having anal sex. it’s the same way they claim they saw the suspect throw drugs in the bushes or they swear the guy reached for his waist to pull out a gun. they lie because they can.
even if it’s not enough for a conviction (which, let’s be very frank and recognize that police lies are often very much enough evidence to convince the right jury), the police have still arrested you, which you have to disclose when getting certain jobs or applying for housing or getting government assistance, they’ve kept you away from work / home / family / your responsibilities, and they’ve humiliated you in open court. they enforce whatever laws they want, whenever they want, however they want, because they can
The situation, as you can imagine, is fucked. Two huge areas in south/southeast Atlanta have been bought & there are plans to raze the forest. One to build MORE film studios for Blackhall Studios (think Venom, Jumanji), and the other – Cop City.
There is a massive plan to essentially make a fake-city for APD and other law enforcement agencies to train in, to practice their increased militarization. The plan is bigger than the NYPD training ground iirc.
The Cop City news caught a lot of citizens surprised, and after a lot of push back, Atlanta City Council was basically like “Okay, fine, here’s a day everyone can call in and comment”. I think it was something like 13 hours of calls, 65% disapproval of Cop City. And City Council approved anyways. They pulled the same stunt with the juvenile detention center in Decatur like 20 years earlier.
And I’m sure no one will be surprised to hear that this is in a predominantly black neighborhood in ATL. City Council would never dream of allowing forest to be destroyed & Cop City to be built in Buckhead or other whiter, wealthier areas of ATL (not that it should be built at all!!)
There’s a ton more information on their Twitter & their other social media in the linktree. Talk to your neighbors, call city council, provide aid to the forest defenders if you can.
“Having spent many years observing cop behavior, reading news about cops, and occasionally even asking them for help, I have come to a pretty simple but comprehensive answer: They do what is easy, and avoid what is difficult. Seen through that rubric, much cop behavior suddenly becomes much more explicable … It is easier to arrest a child for stealing chips than it is to apprehend an armed adult shooter. It is easier for several dozen police officers to arrest two unarmed people than it is for a cop to stop any single armed person. It is easier for hundreds of cops to kettle a largely unarmed left-wing protest than it is for an entire department to stop any armed right-wingers from entering a government building. It’s easier to clear homeless encampments than it is to investigate sexual assault. It’s easier to coerce confessions than it is to solve crimes. It’s easier to try to pull a guy over than it is to offer any sort of help when he crashes his car. It’s easier to arrest a mango vendor in the subway than to stop someone from bringing a gun into the subway. It’s easier to arrest a fifth grader than it is to save one’s life.”
