#and then seeing the damage you caused

[hedgehog-moss]

(TW POLICE VIOLENCE)

France has been feeling like a police state this week, there were 5000 cops deployed in Paris yesterday (watch this video and tell me this is a normal amount of cops and they're behaving normally) and they keep acting like they have total immunity*, to beat up protesters, to arrest protesters, or just random people walking in the vicinity of a protest. My 70+-year-old dad tried to go to a peaceful protest and had to abandon the idea because of all the tear gas being used by police.

*Which they do—as Le Monde pointed out, the cops who are violent risk nothing because they can't be identified because almost none of them wear their identification number even though it's supposed to be mandatory. They're not being penalised for not wearing them, so why should they?

If you can stomach it, please have a look at the photos and videos on this Twitter account documenting French police brutality against protesters—as I write this, the most recent tweet is about a journalist who was beaten up by a BRAV-M cop* using his steel baton; he had his head cracked open and his hand broken.

(* BRAV-M is a motorised repression corps—cops on bikes—a unit that was dissolved in 1986 after some of them beat a student to death, who wasn't even attending a protest but walking near one. Macron changed the unit's name, from Voltigeurs to BRAV-M, and reestablished it to suppress the Yellow Vests protests. This week, a BRAV-M cop deliberately drove over a 19-year-old's leg at a protest after chasing him on his bike. The victim said he heard a cop say to others "Smash him." Another BRAV-M punched a protester unconscious on March 20. And today Le Monde published an article about BRAV-M cops being recorded bragging about "breaking elbows and faces.")

In Paris last week the CRS arrested a 14-year-old kid because they took him for a dangerous black bloc protester I guess?? A child spent a night in police custody without knowing why. They've also arrested several 15 / 16 year-olds. Let's teach the youth what happens when you exercise your right to protest!

On March 16th in Paris, within one evening, they arrested 292 people, and 283 were released without charges, which means they're mass-arresting people for peaceful protests as a strategy of intimidation. The student I mentioned in my post the other day, who spent 48 hours in custody and was eventually charged for refusing to have his DNA samples taken and filed, asked the cops why they were arresting him + 4 other people who were walking down the same street and they said "Because you look like fucking leftists."

The government tells us "We fully support our brave police forces" when the cops are arresting people for "looking like leftists." How are we still a democracy? The guy also mentioned that during the time he spent at the police station, the police was mostly arresting Maghrebis, though they made an exception for him, a Black guy. There are videos from the past week of cops beating up women, tear gassing protesters in the face from 20cm away, kicking protesters in the face when they're already on the ground, crushing their heads under their boot, brutalising a homeless man and old ladies, tear gassing crowds with young children in them. I'm having trouble finding links to these specific incidents I remember because there are so many videos circulating.

Look at this video, they're violently striking the back of people's heads with steel batons even when the protesters are already going in the direction they're told to. The little old lady shoved around and trying to protect her head from the strikes is breaking my heart.

Surely at the point when enforcers of state authority are arresting middle schoolers, beating up citizens for exercising their rights and gassing and pepper spraying elderly people, children and babies in strollers, the government might want to make some sort of statement condemning this state of affairs, but instead they have been telling us they're proud of & grateful for their police forces, which of course angers people and makes protests more violent. The Minister of the Interior, who supervises the police, praises them wholeheartedly and excuses all instances of deliberate brutality as 'isolated incidents' due to 'tiredness'.

Here's a thread in English describing a protester's experience—"Yesterday (March 23) the level of arbitrary police violence clearly leveled up. I was tear gassed three times without being able to move in a very dense crowd; policemen took advantage that people were unable to move more than 20cm to pounce on us and bludgeon us in a totally arbitrary manner." (you can see an example of this behaviour in this video from a different protest)

Yesterday, after a day of nationwide protests that brought a fresh new wave of video evidence of cops beating up protesters and making reckless use of tear gas—at the end of a day when a special ed teacher at a protest got her thumb torn off by a tear gas grenade—this is what the French Prime Minister said:

They're not even trying to play it off like "both sides made mistakes" they're telling us they condone everything the police is doing, that this is what they're deploying them for:

(screencap from this video)

(this is from this video, in which you can hear a woman screaming "Stop it! You're strangling him! You have no right! I'm filming you!" The cops don't seem to care about being filmed. They're beating up citizens with the government's full blessing after all.)

Macron's government is trying to intimidate people into giving up their right to protest, by deploying cops in huge numbers and publicly voicing complete support for their behaviour, by allowing them to beat and arrest hundreds of people and to use tear gas indiscriminately. Tear gas has been completely normalised as a means of state violence, it's very practical that it doesn't leave traces of blood or broken bones I guess, but it's still violence, it burns, it's a chemical whose effects on people's health we don't know a lot about.

^ Paris (from this vid; caption: "one tear gas grenade after the other")

Macron condescendingly told us there's no "magic money" which is why the pension reform is needed, but he did find the money to stockpile these apparently unlimited amounts of tear gas grenades to suppress protests against his reform to make poor people work longer.

^ Nantes (screencap from a vid in which the cops throw three or four grenades at once and you can hear people say "oh come on, seriously? this is crazy. Why? go fuck yourselves" in a tired tone)

We've also found out yesterday that three Corsican MPs were pressured not to support the Assembly's no-confidence vote against the government—by being told if they didn't vote it, a teaching hospital would be built in Corsica.

The island of Corsica is the only region of France that doesn't have a teaching hospital; due to lack of medical resources Corsicans often have to travel to mainland France for healthcare. Just last month the Minister of Health said sorry, still no teaching hospital for Corsica, it's just not possible right now. Then last week some "magic money" was apparently found to build it but only if the Corsican MPs didn't support the no-confidence vote. I know this kind of thing isn't exactly unique in politics but Macron has been slashing hospital budgets to the point that 20% of French hospital beds are closed due to lack of staff, and he used the health of 340,000 French citizens as a bribe to save his ass. The three Corsican MPs ended up voting in favour of the no-confidence vote despite of that, as it was what their constituents wanted (honour to them). Macron's government survived the no-confidence vote by only 9 votes.

Whatever legitimacy Macron has as a President right now is being clung to by MP corruption and police repression. How do we move forwards knowing that, I don't know. How does he have legitimacy to govern on any issues after the way he handled this reform and the following protests? His police forces are drowning city centres in tear gas, a chemical whose effect on birds and other fauna is not known, and we're supposed to listen to him talk about the environment? They're wasting thousands of litres of water using water cannons to disperse protesters, and we're supposed to listen to him talk about low groundwater levels and how we need to save water? I was going to say, what about his legitimacy abroad but other Western governments don't seem too bothered so far by his handling of the protests—though I'm grateful that Amnesty International did condemn it, and that a Belgian deputy made a speech in Parliament this week asking his government to condemn Macron's use of violent police repression.

[Wait, I just saw that as I was writing this post, the Council of Europe condemned the "excessive use of force" in France. Saying that 'sporadic acts of violence' of some protesters can't 'justify the excessive use of force by agents of the State' or 'deprive peaceful protesters of their right to freedom of assembly'. This is the opposite framing as the one our government is standing by—sporadic acts of violence by cops that are either justified or excusable—it's refreshing.]

Between that and Charles III cancelling his visit (and lots of tourists cancelling trips to Paris which is bound to piss off the tourism industry) and our own media waking up and starting to talk about the government's brutality, I hope Macron starts being held accountable. He has been fanning the flames of this crisis at every turn, by telling us that the crowds protesting in the street have 'no legitimacy', by sending cops to break strikes even though striking is a Constitutional right (but the only part of the Constitution he cares about is the one that starts with 49.3), by condemning the protesters when asked to condemn police violence—saying "When [protesters] use violence, unregulated, absolute, we're no longer in a Republic." I agree, but he's describing himself.

When you resort to using article 49.3 to bypass the National Assembly for the 11th time this term to impose a reform that 70% of the country is against (and 93% of working people) that will force the poorer classes of the population to work longer, and your only response to people's distress at being told to work until they die is to force them to accept it by allowing your police forces to beat up protesters, to arrest them and to gas them, you have failed as a democratic leader.

The next organised protest and strike is next Tuesday (if you want to give something to the strike solidarity fund, here it is); in the meantime spontaneous protests are still erupting pretty much every day and cops are getting burnt out (good! There are fun videos from yesterday's protests of cops accidentally tear gassing one another, or a police car accidentally running into another as people laugh and clap.) And yes some protesters are getting more extreme and destructive, but Macron is the one choosing to stand by his reform at all costs and let this country burn. And when I look at what we're being expected to tolerate and to normalise, I'm kind of proud that French people's gut reaction was "burn it all."

Some popular Twitter hashtags for the protests:

#ToutCramer - Burn everything #CensurePopulaire - People's no-confidence vote #MacronDémission - Macron resign #OnLâcheRien - We won't cede an inch.

[marc--chilton]

house finding wilson ""interesting"" amongst a literal crowd of thousands is one thing but then to be proven right later when wilson flips his lid at a bar. theyre literally fanfiction but real but not

[mugentakeda]

banging my head against a wall as hard as possible

[merwynsartblog]

ok just giving a god damn warning to people. there is this user (they are mimicking a user on here i think they are mimiking brooke2valley) and they are showing s/h images in asks. please please please if u see a ask from a username that is similar to the user i mentioned DO NOT FUCKING UNBLUR THE IMAGE its a arm thats all im gonna say. im lucky im not that phased with that shit!!!! please block and report them. you can tell if its the mimicking acc if 1) the acc follows you before asking 2) the acc is BLANK. please be careful yall. (also i feel like i need to say its not brooke2valley. its someone being a fucking asshole.)

^^vthis is what its usually gonna look like and sadly in notifications it doesnt blur the image. so i recommend going to the ask box (it flitered i am like 90% sure) and just report it i cant rlly at them or anything bc they will change the name again and shit but like..yeah. be safe

[designernishiki]

ladies and gentlemen. we got em

[blackfilmmakers]

White people acting like the racist Haitian pet eating bullshit is a one off silly thing no one would take seriously is also wild bc while this time, it's rooted in antiblackness and specifically against Haitian immigrants, there is a long history of white people saying this shit to incite racist and anti-immigrant paranoia and violence - I remember when whites thought every Chinese person will steal and eat your dog or cat and that Chinese restaurants would do that too, and some of them still believe it.

Yeah, we haven't gotten over any of these stereotypes that have caused decades' worth of hate crimes, for yall to be playing around with it

"Sometimes all you can do is laugh" or you can do your part by researching and continuously providing resources to diminish the impact.

Yall talk big game about harm reduction (under the wrong and ableist context compared to its original definition, mind you) but won't do this simple task. Hell, I'll be funny, yall talk about "harm reduction" but still watch Hazbin Hotel and not say anything when they enforce these stereotypes

Also, feel like people should mind their own business on what kind of animal meat other people ate

[lucabyte]

No Hats!Isabeau developing feelings for Loop and Loop immediately clocking it and feeling Fucking Awful and that he’s manipulated Isa into liking him.

you 🫵 you get it anon. what if we could concoct worse and even less healthy situations for these two to be in.

bc loop has shown they've grown an ability to notice isa's behaviour by that point! they know how he is and acts! they'd be able to tell!

and also isabeau is wayyy less well adjusted than most people make him out to be (though he's probably like. in second place in the party when it comes to that still) so im not sure he'd be great either! but also! oh no! last time he wasn't forthright about liking someone the guy fucking DIED OF LONELINESS so make a decision quick, bucko!!

[ransomdemands]

yknow sometimes the way trans women talk about testosterone and being on estrogen is indistinguishable from the way terfs try to convince afab people not to start hrt

this is not a criticism mind you, their experiences are their own and completely legitimate, it's just a matter of competing needs - they need a safe space to talk about their dysphoria and how testosterone makes them feel and i need to not hear about how i am destroying my body with hrt

ordinarily these things are pretty insular to transfem circles but since instagram has been feeding me transfem content i'm seeing it more and more and yet again the algorithm is fucking me

[msmc-796-official]

-I managed to finally contact the HRA division with me to stop firing at your people. For the love of Christ-the-Buddha get your asshole commander away from me she won't stop screaming slurs in languages I don't understand at me over the comms channel we're stuck in

Who in the-?! Oh, wait, shit, that's right, I forgot you were still awake in there. Christ-the-Buddha Almighty, that scared me.

Are you sure that's still Kennedi screaming? She (or, rather, her unconscious - and hopefully not lifeless - body) and her molten wreck of a Caliban have been with us at MSMC-148's drop site for like two hours now, waiting for pickup. Slipshod managed to pry your casket outta that slag heap you used to call a Genghis Mk. 1 and get you connected to a "life support" of sorts on one of their backup generators, but if you can still hear Kennedi's voice screaming bloody murder at you, then your systems might be fried worse than we thought. (No clue if that sort of thing is fixable or not...)

Hopefully the Albatross will be here soon. Our distress beacon is still up and running, and they should more than have our coordinates by now. We'll all be out of here soon. (I hope.)

-- Angel

[novantinuum]

gnawing at the bars of my cage

can we please Stop telling SU blind reactors all the fandom drama and SU crit that came out of every episode so we can allow them to just enjoy the show like a normal person at their own leisure and make their Own opinions thank u

[finexbright]

it's the way harry said he fell in love to what makes you beautiful and then twelve years later he's still singing it live and this time around the background graphics for the song starts off with a rainbow and then explodes into little rainbow hearts floating around the screen he is so soft and lovely and he will always be a 1d fan at heart and i love that for him

[firestorm09890]

The still image of Zexion with his head resting on the arm of his chair after losing in multiplayer 358/2 Days was already very funny but it's even funnier knowing that the full animation has him slam his fist down in frustration and only after making sure no one else is watching

[michi-chelle]

mood

[idk-bruh-20]

Irondad fic ideas #140

FRIDAY has news alerts set up for Spider-Man. This doesn't change during the blip, even though the kid is gone

One day, there's breaking news that Spider-Man is standing on the roof of some extremely tall building. This is during the blip, and no one has seen him in years.

No one has seen Iron Man either, which is why it's so crazy that he's suddenly shooting through the sky

When Tony arrives, he discovers that in fact his kid has NOT spontaneously un-dusted. It's actually just a civilian dressed as Spider-Man. It becomes clear the person was planning to commit suicide. The costume was for courage.

Even with his heart breaking from the false alarm, Tony talks the person down. He says that Spider-Man, too, lost almost his entire family. That he was still the best person Tony knew. At some point, when the person mentions losing a child in the blip, Tony says he understands how they feel.

Once the person has agreed not to jump and calmed down, they realize how unusual the situation is, remembering suddenly that Tony Stark hasn't been seen in public since the snap. They ask Tony, mostly just wondering out loud: why now?

Tony's eyes go to the suit for just long enough for the person to realize. They recall what he'd said about losing a child, and they realize with horror the emotional hell they just unleashed on Iron Man

When they start to stumble out an apology, though, Tony waves them off. He says that Spider-Man would love the idea that he was still helping people, even without being there. And he would love that in some way he'd gotten Tony back out there and helping people too.

Before they part ways, Tony asks the person to consider the suit a symbol of the courage to keep going, not to give up

The person responds, "you too."

[againwiththeturtles]

"I'm my own person!" "No, I don't think you are."