For those of us who are not in Ferguson right now, it is easy to feel completely helpless about the situation. But there are things all of us can do, no matter what resources we have to spare.
If you have no time, money, or energy please still:
- Sign this petition…
(via rendigo)
Hedy Epstein, a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor was arrested on Monday during unrest in Ferguson Epstein, who aided Allied forces in the Nuremberg trials, was placed under arrest “for failing to disperse.” 8 others were also arrested.
“I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager. I didn’t think I would have to do it when I was ninety," Epstein told The Nation during her arrest. “We need to stand up today so that people won’t have to do this when they’re ninety.” Epstein is currently an activist and a vocal supporter of the Free Gaza Movement.
Fucking hell?!
(via vickorano)
Officers have tanks now. They have drones. They have automatic rifles, and planes, and helicopters, and they go through military-style boot camp training. It’s a constant complaint from what remains of this country’s civil liberties caucus. Just this last June, the ACLU issued a report on how police departments now possess arsenals in need of a use. Few paid attention, as usually happens.America Is Not For Black People (via wilwheaton)
The worst part of outfitting our police officers as soldiers has been psychological. Give a man access to drones, tanks, and body armor, and he’ll reasonably think that his job isn’t simply to maintain peace, but to eradicate danger. Instead of protecting and serving, police are searching and destroying.
If officers are soldiers, it follows that the neighborhoods they patrol are battlefields. And if they’re working battlefields, it follows that the population is the enemy. And because of correlations, rooted in historical injustice, between crime and income and income and race, the enemy population will consist largely of people of color, and especially of black men. Throughout the country, police officers are capturing, imprisoning, and killing black males at a ridiculous clip, waging a very literal war on people like Michael Brown.
(via neil-gaiman)
Tibetan Monks living in exile in India flew to Ferguson to show support for Mike Brown and community.
(via amuseoffirebane)
Stay mindful of the time stamps when these Twitter images are passed around in the following dayz.
(via cylo)
kars:
holy shit the mike brown petition only has 15k more signatures to go
It only takes a couple minutes if not less to make a difference, every signature counts.
(via nevertoomanyspiders)
These tweets (and one retweet) are from my friend Ryan, a journalist who has been on the ground in Ferguson for the past few days. (His Twitter account is here, and it’s a great source of updates on the situation there [x]).
I just wanted to remind everybody that while spreading word about Michael Brown’s unjust murder and the horrifying events of the night of August 14, 2014, please do not oversimplify or ignore the complexities of the situation.
Journalists in the town have been doing what journalists do: focusing on all the negative aspects about the community to try and make it look like a hell-hole in order to sell their own pictures and stories, and basically all many of them want to do is further their own careers. But focusing on all that negativity only paints the picture of one side of the story, ignoring a lot of other important things going on there.
Please do not fall prey to the media’s game. Anger at the actions of the police in Ferguson is totally justified, but in the midst of that we cannot allow the people who are living with the situation every day to be dehumanized. Despite all this tragedy and chaos going on around them, they’re still a community and in many ways they’re pulling through all of it together. They want peace. Anyone looting or burning things down is a very small portion of the community. The whole story is so much bigger.
A story doesn’t need tear gas to be interesting. We need to hear every side of this story, not just the horrific parts.
TL:DR: please don’t fall prey to media attempts to dehumanize and oversimplify the situation in ferguson!!
(via nevertoomanyspiders)
BOOST
just in case there’s anyone in Ferguson who’s following info on tumblr as well
sadly, with the way the police are out, marching, and ready for the curfew (with dogs), there are some people that may need this
“We are prepping for a night if jail support. Call 314 862 2249 if you or friend arrested.”
(via kingcheddarxvii)
Guys there is shit going down in ferguson right now and I am not seeing anything about it.
As of RIGHT NOW they are being tear gassed like before.
Please see the livestream it’s important.The police have forced the media into a small area.
And then they very purposefully used tear gas to force the peaceful protesters back out of camera range, and you can hear shots being fired off camera, as well as more tear gas canisters.
(via avianlights)