#los angeles city fire department

[hellrider666]

@wazzappp @cicada-candy @belushiii working on the ANGR/Firefighter AU and putting some stuff on paper I came to make the villian of the story Muse (from Daredevil) since I feel he'd make Robbie's life as a firefighter and as Ghost Rider a living hell.. well, more hell than it usually is.. since he's have to rescue/respond to mangled bodies and gore when Muse makes his art pieces and with Muse not having eyes and (seemingly) not being human it'd render the Penance Stare useless or worse deflect it back onto Robbie when he tries it on Muse. Not to mention, Muse is a more twisted parallel version of Eli, and that raises so many possibilities of angst between him and Robbie.

On a lighter note I did iron out that Lisa would be a paramedic and Gabe would have a civilian job within the station on days off from school/on weekends like being a secretary or work the call tower (kinda like a 911 Dispatcher but just for the station)

[larryshapiro]

LAFD USAR 5 and Squad 95

[fastlikealambo]

quick fire dating barbie headcanons while I work on a different fic

barbie asks you to be her girlfriend, more accurately she asks if you want to be girlfriend-girlfriend and cries when you say yes.

barbie likes to fix things around the apartment. she learns how things truly work that way and it makes her happy to see you relieved you don't have to call your landlord

barbie really likes your hands. when she's feeling anxious she'll fiddle with her hands and yours but she really loves holding your hand, all the time, which is starting to become a safety hazard.

barbie's always dragging you to volunteer but her favorite volunteer position is a planned parenthood escort. she's so gentle with all the patients making sure they get inside okay, hiding them with an enormous pink umbrella and is not afraid of telling protestors THEY ARE BEING REALLY MEAN.

The first time she kisses you SHE ASKS FIRST and if you say yes, she sort of smooshes her lips on your face because that's how kids make barbies kiss and once you show her how you like to be kissed it's game on. she is kissing you in the middle of a shower, while you're putting your shoes on, watering the plants. she is kissing you and asking every single time beforehand if it's okay and you do the same because what's okay today might not be okay tomorrow.

while most of her clothes are for everyday los angeles, when it's date night she picks both your outfits and like magic it's always something new that fits your body perfectly. you have no explanation for that at all.

when she starts to make friends at her job or around the city, she's nervous to tell you but you're happy for her! Barbie deserves a life outside of you and you deserve the same and it doesn't make either of you less in love with each other.

the first time you have a depressive episode in front of her and couldn't get of bed, she tried to call the fire department SHE WAS WORRIED

Loves going to the library and on your first anniversary you present her with with her own pink library card

[towards-toramunda]

Ashton Greymoore is from Crown Heights and works in a neighborhood deli and he makes the best chopped cheese New York City has ever seen and gets paid $18 an hour so you better fucking tip

Orym is from a small town in northern Vermont that voted 97% Bernie Sanders and he is rarely seen without the green thick flannel that he got from his stepdad before he passed. He helps run a martial training summer camp, but works at a grocery store most of the time.

Laudna is big in the Portland goth scene because she works at a taxidermy shop where people bring her their beloved dearly departed pets and she brings them back to life as statues.

Imogen lives in Tennessee and works at a horse ranch that rents out for kids birthday parties. She has a therapist that she goes to twice a week and she takes at least five different medications for her mental health.

Chetney is from northern Wisconsin where he lives in a cabin by himself and crafts the most gorgeous wooden furniture and statues. He thinks its funny when people complain about deep snow during the winter. He goes ice fishing and wears T-shirts with wolves howling at the moon.

FCG is from Huntsville Alabama where they used to work at the Space and Rocket center, but he recently discovered Christ and he’s really into it. They’ve never touched a bible but really likes the concept of being Christian so he figures its good.

Fearne was born and raised in Los Angeles to a wealthy and famous celebrity couple who left her with their housekeeper most of the time. She likes to garden and has a weird fascination with fire. She’s a nepo baby so shes never worked a day in her life and doesn’t know what “clopening” means.

[bekolxeram]

I hate to break it to you, but the pilot in 2x14 is NOT Tommy.

The good old timeline problem

Plenty of pilots hold both licenses for helicopters AND airplanes, it's not impossible to fly both categories of aircraft on a job either. The thing is, helicopters and fixed-wing airplanes generate lift differently, so naturally logged flight hours on one category is not transferable to the other, you have to accumulate them separately. For Tommy to serve in the army, work as an active firefighter since 2005, and build up enough flight hours on both helicopters and multi-engine fixed-wing aircrafts, he would have to live in the sky.

2. LAFD does not own any fixed-wing aircraft, nor does it make sense to have one

The LAFD serves the city of Los Angeles, which is mostly urban, for the more suburban or rural area around LA you have the LA County Fire Department. Green areas within the city of LA are not big enough to warrant a whole air tanker, a fleet of 7 helicopters would suffice. LA has plenty of water source nearby, even if a catastrophic wildfire happens within its city limit, the choppers can simply go back and forth scooping up water and dropping it.

Helicopters are definitely better suited for urban areas, because they can fly straight up and down, they can hover and they only require a space big enough for the aircraft itself to take off/land, while a fixed-wing aircraft needs a whole runway.

Waterbombing in an urban area is also dangerous. The water or fire retardant dropped from an aerial firefighting aircraft is actually quite heavy, and it can cause damage to ground properties, let alone serious injuries or even death to ground personnel.

Fixed-wing aircrafts create lift by flying forward through the air, so precision is not of the essence. Helicopters on the other hand, create lift by the motion of the blades, so they can move in any direction until they get an exact aim at their target.

3. The plane is canonically not from the LAFD

Neither the LAFD nor the LACoFD own any fixed-wing aircraft, the closest department to operate such aircraft is the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, aka CAL FIRE. If you go back to the episode, you can hear the news reporter saying the C-130 is with CAL FIRE just before Chimney turns off the TV.

The LAFD and LACoFD do work with CAL FIRE when there's a major wildfire, so Tommy probably just asked his colleagues at the 217 or called up himself pilots at CAL FIRE to ask for a favor.

In that episode. Chimney asks specifically for the help of the 217 through Tommy, and Eddie receives radio communication just before the plane arrives that "217 is inbound", so it's safe to say the 217 IS where the LAFD AIr Operations are based at. Despite recent confusion on Tommy and Buck's career timeline (5 years vs 7 years), 217 IS harbor station, at least according to previous lore.

[useramor]

for the soft prompts if it sparks inspiration I offer laughing while kissing and/or fixing the other persons clothes absentmindedly or like tucking their hair behind their ear U KNOW WHAT I MEAN THAT SOFT STUFF

ps. I love the fact that you're doing this as well as a fwb fic aksndmfngmg

16. laughing while kissing rating: G | word count: 1.6k thank you so much for sending this in!! someone else also asked for the fixing clothes so i'll probably complete that tomorrow :)

the 118 are hosting a fundraiser. eddie gets roped into doing the kissing booth. buck's not happy about it.

For the record, Buck absolutely supports the fundraiser. One of the counties in Northern California got completely wiped out from a forest fire, a flame that took root in the trees and spread to the small town that sat on the edge of the woods. 

Most fire departments in the state have set up some sort of fundraiser to help. Buck knows Bobby’s planning on using the 118’s donation money to help out with the elementary school. It’s in the worst state out of any of the buildings, he’s heard, and, unless they raise enough money to rebuild and figure out accommodations in the meantime, it’s gonna leave a lot of kids schoolless. 

Of course Buck believes in the cause. 

He’s just…okay, he’s not a very big fan of how they’re planning on getting that money.

Hen managed to talk everyone out of doing a date auction, saying it was objectifying their incredibly dignified and respectable line of work. Buck wasn’t over the moon about the idea, either. He’s had to reject a lot of unwanted advances just about any time he’s in uniform; the idea of people trying to outbid each other for a date with him that he couldn’t say no or do anything about made his skin crawl.

Especially, especially because he’d have to watch Eddie get bet on, too.

And Eddie’s the most beautiful person he’s ever seen in his life. Buck doesn’t have enough money to out-bet all of Los Angeles county. 

There are countless single, millionaire women in this city who would take one look at Eddie and immediately spend their millions to get him to look their way for an evening. 

And it’s—it’s Eddie, of course they would. Eddie, who is beautiful and genuine and kind. Eddie, whose smile is bright and cheeky, who winks at Buck from across the room with the sweetest grin. Eddie, whose laugh makes Buck’s chest feel like it’s fizzing like a shaken can of coke, feels like he could spill over from how giddy he feels when that laugh is because of him. 

Eddie, who Buck is so irrevocably in love with it makes him stupid. 

And that’s the problem.

Because Hen, bless her, may have talked everyone out of doing a date auction, but just about everyone thought it’d be a great idea to get a little barbecue going and set up some carnival style games to get people in to donate.

Chimney was the genius who suggested a kissing booth.

Eddie was the kind (stupidly attractive, kissable) idiot who got roped into participating. 

Buck tries very, very hard to think of the children. He does. It’s in vain, because he’s pretty sure he’s about to burn a hole through the floor while he stares at Chimney and Ravi set up the banner that says Kissing Booth in hot pink. Lucy doodled hearts all over the paper. It looks great.

Buck hates it.

The worst part—the worst part—is that he has no right to be jealous. Not really, anyway. He’s pretty sure what he feels is reciprocated at least a little. It feels silly, getting his hopes up. It’s only ever been crushed, his hope a small bug under the heel of a shoe, so he tries his hardest to keep his feelings tethered and watches helplessly and they float up, up, up anyway.

Because sometimes Eddie will come up behind him and drag a broad hand across his shoulder, letting it linger a little too long on the base of his neck. It’s sweet, it’s so sweet, because Eddie is sure, is solid, is confident, but he blushes so pretty when he grabs Buck’s hand to play with his fingers as they watch a movie or sit up in the loft at the station. 

It’s easy. Loving him is easy. Being with him is easy, but it hasn’t always been. There’s been miscommunication and traumas and words that got stuck in that tricky part of their sternum as they tried to come out, but they worked through that. 

It took a while to get here. They’re still getting there, really. But, goddamn, at the rate Buck’s jealousy is simmering, it just might boil over enough to get them there right fucking now.

“Careful, keep your face like that too long it’ll get stuck like that,” Hen says as she slides over to him. “You could just kiss him yourself instead of trying to blow up the damn kissing booth stand with your mind.”

Hen’s in charge of selling tickets. She looks two seconds away from smacking some sense into him using the large roll of them she’s holding in her hand. 

Luckily for the back of the back of his head, she just mutters something about idiots as she walks away.

Buck’s supposed to be helping out. In general. He’s not sure what his actual duties are, seeing as Bobby explained them to him while Eddie was getting gently kissed by sunlight as he got out of his truck. Unfortunately for, well, probably everyone, Buck was not paying attention.

He’s pretty sure he manages to do some good, anyway. Teaches a little girl the difference between being a firefighter and a paramedic, helps a young mom by fetching her kid off the top of the ladder truck, and manages to pie Chimney in the face. 

The day’s almost wrapping up when Hen walks back over to him. 

“You know,” she starts slowly. Conspiratorially. Buck narrows his eyes instinctually. “He’s been looking for you all night.”

She nods over to Eddie, who’s slumped sadly in his kissing booth. He perks up the second their eyes meet, his cheeks so rosy Buck can tell even from across the station. 

“He–he hasn’t,” Buck stammers. 

“Buck,” Hen’s tone is gentle. Patient and kind, and she’s got that kind of big sister smile she’s been using on him since they met that always makes him feel like a kid. In a good way, though. He feels loved. Cared for. “You don’t even need a ticket to go kiss him. He’d do that for free. But, if you need a push, here.”

She rips off a ticket from what’s left of the roll. 

“Go.”

Buck trips on his way to the kissing booth. It’s–it’s ridiculous how heavy his heart is beating, how it skips a beat or two when Eddie’s smile grows as he realizes Buck’s heading his way. 

“Hi,” Buck breathes out. They stare at each other for long enough that a line starts to form behind him, the people who were still loitering cashing in their last chance to get a kiss from Eddie. Buck’s been sort of, kind of, maybe watching him. It’s been chaste pecks and kisses on cheeks, and Buck’s seriously hoping he falls in a secret, third category where Eddie kisses him within an inch of his life. 

“Hey. You’re–you came. Here. To the kissing booth.” It’s the shiest, most awkward Buck’s ever seen him be. The hope sparks and burns so brightly, nearly brighter than the forest fire. Feels just as big and brazen, anyway. 

“I did.”

“Are you—”

Buck slides the ticket across the table, cutting Eddie off. 

“One kiss, please?” His voice is small, but his smile is genuine. The weight of the day seems to slide off Eddie’s shoulder as his eyes go brighter than Buck’s ever seen them.

Eddie nods as he stands. His hand finds purchase in the dip where Buck’s neck meets his shoulder. 

God, Christopher’s gonna call them so lame when they tell them how they finally got together. 

Warm, golden, sparkling brown meets blue. Holds the gaze for a beat, and then another. The corner of Eddie’s lips turn up, his eyes flick down, Buck leans in, and—

“Oh my god, can y’all just kiss already?” a girl says behind them.

They both erupt in breathless giggles. 

“Yeah, Eddie,” Buck teases, still laughing. “Can we just kiss already?”

Eddie answers by pressing his smile against Buck’s. It’s barely a kiss, too much teeth, just the right amount of overwhelming love. 

“This is ridiculous,” Eddie murmurs, and Buck feels the words. “We’re being ridiculous.” He laughs again. Eddie’s laughter has always been Buck’s favorite sound, but hits a little different when the laughter is for him. “This isn’t even a kiss!”

“Show me what a real kiss is, then.” 

Eddie takes a breath to sober up, and when he leans in again it’s…God. Buck feels alive and settled all at once. Eddie’s lips are soft, a little chapped from a day of kissing everyone, and they taste like strawberry chapstick. They’re a gentle pressure against his, and they move slowly. Drag gently, like they’ve got all the time in the world. 

Buck’s teeth dig into Eddie’s bottom lip, tug at it enough to make Eddie tighten his hold against his neck. The angle could be better, but Eddie’s still leaning over a table, and Buck’s not about to complain about finally being able to kiss him. 

“Jesus Christ,” the same girl mutters. 

“Shush, lady, can’t you see they’re in love?” Buck hears Chimney say. 

All it does is make them laugh again. 

When Eddie kisses him again, it tastes sweet. Like love, like the rest of his life. Buck’s laugh bubbles and bubbles and bubbles out of him, stains the whole damn station with the amount of love that pours out everywhere. 

Eddie kisses his cheek, his chin, his birthmark. Whatever he can reach because Buck’s smiling too wide to be able to reciprocate. He’s distantly aware of the fact that they have an audience and there’s gonna be copious amounts of paperwork to complete, but then Eddie whispers a soft I love you in his ear and Buck kinda stops caring about everything else. 

And, okay. He can admit. Maybe the kissing booth wasn’t actually all that bad. 

(He’s still vehemently against the auction, though.)

[chronicowboy]

fuck it friday!!

okay everyone is going to have to blame @danielsousa for this because the parks and rec au is very much underway and she's already consuming me whole!!!

The day Buck finds out that the Los Angeles government is bordering on a full-blown budget crisis and the governor is sending two state auditors to gut every department, he ignores the pile of paperwork sitting on his desk and grabs the to-do list in his drawer. He's not stupid. If bankruptcy is on the horizon he knows there will be investigations and cuts and possibly a suspension of services. And as much as it fills him with a stone cold terror, the prospect of not seeing his friends and co-workers every single day, gossiping around the coffee machine with May, meeting Bobby's eyes through the windows of their offices, giggling with Hen at Ravi's newest idiom, it lights a fire under him.

If these are the last few days of the parks and recreation department as it is, Buck resolves to do everything he can to leave the green spots of the city thriving and greener than ever. So, he consults the steadily growing to-do list that was supposed to be outsourced to the correct departments, grabs his toolbox and pops into Bobby's office.

"Buck, I'm gonna need you to stay calm," Bobby says without looking up from his computer screen.

"I am calm," Buck replies calmly, serenely even. "I am, like, insanely calm about the fact that two state auditors are going to come into our little department, our little family, and start poking around. I am so zen about the fact that they're definitely here to slash and burn. And feeling like Hen during her yoga phase about the fact that they're definitely going to eliminate every service I bust my ass on providing for the kids." Buck takes a deep breath, unaware of when his chest started heaving, and meets Bobby's unimpressed stare. "See? Calm."

"Okay, Buck." Bobby sighs and turns to him fully with that dad look of his that makes Buck feel a little like a fifteen-year-old again. "We don't know what they're going to do yet, so I need you to stop the spiral."

"I'm not spiralling," Buck grits out even though he most definitely is. Or, well, it might not even be a spiral anymore. Just a fucking catastrophic squiggle done with so much vigour and violence that the ink tears the paper. Okay, he's lost track of the metaphor. "I just think we need to be prepared to fight them."

"They've been sent by the governor." Bobby sends him a look that's way too understanding for the hysterical knife-edge he's been balancing on since this morning's meeting. "They outrank all of us. We can't fight them."

"Okay, but I'm definitely still going to fight them," Buck says earnestly. Bobby sighs again before he glances inquisitively at the toolbox Buck has a white-knuckled grip on. "Battle number one," he clarifies. "Want to come and help me fix up the death trap at La Cienega?" Bobby's eyes go soft around the edges, something like pride lining the creases of his smile, and Buck's chest tightens.

"Sure, kid. Let's go."

will tag a few people but please let me know if you'd like to be added to the taglist for this one!! @gracelcdomas @diazass @diazly @poughkeepsies @butchdiaz @shitouttabuck

[directactionforhope]

Example Submitted Post

No more kids with cancer: Clean up the Santa Susana Field Lab

Video: A Change.org-made feature video explaining the situation and the story of the organization's founder, whose daughter got cancer.

From the organizers:

"Sign to demand that California's EPA and the Dept. of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) enforce the AOC cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Lab and prevent any more children from getting cancer...

My daughter’s childhood was stolen from her, and it haunts me to know her cancer might have been avoidable.

She, like [dozens of other] children, grew up within 20 miles the Santa Susana Field Lab, land which was developed in the 1940s to conduct rocket engine tests and secret nuclear research. In 1959 an uncontained partial meltdown of a sodium reactor caused such a devastating radiation leak that many consider it to be the worst nuclear disaster in U.S. history – and it was completely covered up for years.

Our community has up to 60% higher cancer rates, 20% higher invasive breast cancer rates, and we have the reports to prove it. It is the Department of Toxic Substance Control’s job to clean up this mess. They know our children are sick and dying, but they aren’t taking any meaningful action against those who own the land – Boeing, NASA and the Department of Energy.

The Woolsey Fire, which began on Santa Susana Field Lab, may have exposed millions of people in Southern California to the chemical and radioactive waste from the site, via ash and smoke. It proved once again that we will not be safe until the site is 100% cleaned up."

--

Info

Action Type: Petition

Source organization: Parents Against Santa Susanna Field Laboratory

Where: Southern California, specifically western Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Chatsworth, and anything between those areas.

In person or virtual: Virtual. You can sign from anywhere, especially in the United States.

Time/date range: Petition started in 2017, ongoing, because Boeing is refusing to comply with the required cleanup plan they signed.

Here's the link again!

Anything else: This nuclear meltdown is the reason my grandfather died young of cancer. It's the reason 6+ members of my family are at lifelong elevated cancer risk, me included.

Everyone who has lived in this region, which includes a large area of Los Angeles, needs elevated levels of cancer screenings, especially for children, yet basically no one knows that.

(More on this here, if you're from any of the cities I listed PLEASE look into this and talk to your doctor about increased cancer screenings asap!)

[wildlife4life]

WIP Wednesday

Tagged by @destielbuddiepipeline before it was even Wednesday for me. But now that I've actually been to bed and had some coffee, I was inspired by Temptation Tuesday and started this bad boy (just for @destielbuddiepipeline bc they got super excited for it, which made me excited so I put words to the screen.)

This is my Buck is an NFL quarterback and in a secret longterm relationship with Eddie, who is the newest member of the 118. Chim and the others are really curious about their new team member who has years of experience, shares little about his personal life, and never works a shift when the L.A. Rams have a home game.

“HOLY SHIT!” Chimney shouts the moment the tweet pops up in his notifications. ESPN and the NFL app follow shortly after with the same breaking news.  One of the top quarterbacks in the league was coming to L.A. on a blockbuster trade.

“Put ESPN on!” Chimney demands as he pushes himself away from the kitchen table and quickly shuffles his way over to the lounge area.

Jefferson doesn’t hesitate and immediately changes the channel from the Bones rerun to a panel of sport analyst of ESPN.  Scrolling across the very bottom of the screen read, “Breaking News: Evan Buckley traded! Headed to Los Angeles Rams!”

“Oh my god! Our chances at the Super Bowl just skyrocketed!” Chimney exclaims in pure delight.  High fives are spread all around with those who actually appreciated the Rams.

In the distance a phone rings in the captain’s office.

“It’s official.” Maddie says over the phone. Eddie hums, watching the muted ESPN channel as the panel of several sports’ analyst freak out over the block buster trade. “And you’ve given your notice? To both districts?”

“Yea. Captain Royce is sad to see me go but thinks the change of scenery would do me good. Which I don’t know if I should be insulted or not.” Eddie answers.

Maddie is silent for a moment.  She was probably remembering how Eddie almost lost his life during rescue attempts after Hurricane Harvey. Or maybe she remembers the nasty custody battle he went through with Shannon just before she was killed in a hit and run. There was also Buck’s leg injury that almost ended his career and Maddie’s ex-husband trying to kill her only to end up dead himself.  There were several not-so-great memories wrapped up in Houston, but neither of them actually says it out loud.

But yea, the change of scenery would be good for all of them. The Texans just weren’t the team for Buck anymore and the L.A. Rams were just on the precipice of another Super Bowl run.  They believed Buck was one of only a handful of missing pieces to make it happen and Eddie could see by February next year Buck hoisting the Lombardi.

“LAFD is one of the top fire departments in the country.  They’ll be lucky to have you.” Maddie finally says.

Eddie laughs, “Well they may be just a little too excited. I’ve already been assigned a house even though we won’t be out there until end of May.”

“Oh? Which house?”

“118 with Captain Robert Nash.”

Ya'll I even made a fake tweet with an actual sports person who basically has all the inside information for the NFL. He always breaks the big NFL news first. This will probably end up being a long one shot. The timeline is an odd mix of canon 9-1-1 and actual NFL events mixed all together.

Also it pains me greatly to make another NFL team so amazing and win the Super Bowl that isn't the Kansas City Chiefs. But since they won this year, the pain is less.

Tagging: @ebdaydreamer @buddiefication

[beardedmrbean]

A Los Angeles woman fatally stabbed her partner and possibly threw her two children from a moving SUV on the freeway before she fatally crashed into a tree Monday morning, authorities said.

An 8-month-old girl died and her 9-year-old sister was injured in the violence, which began around 3:40 a.m., Los Angeles police said Tuesday.

The children’s mother, Danielle Johnson, 34, got in an argument with a man whom she lived with, Jaelen Chaney, and stabbed him with a knife, police said.

Johnson then took her two children in a Porsche SUV, and at 4:30 a.m. that car was seen driving on Interstate 405 "when the two children were expelled from the vehicle while it was moving,” police said in a statement.

Investigators believe the children fell or were thrown out of the moving vehicle, the California Highway Patrol said. The infant died, and the 9-year-old was taken to a hospital with what police said were moderate injuries.

Johnson then sped into a tree in Redondo Beach, a coastal city in the Los Angeles region, at more than 100 mph, police said. She did not survive the crash, which occurred around 5 a.m.

Investigators later found Chaney, 29, dead in the Woodland Hills home where they lived with Johnson's children, police said. The deadly incidents were later connected and determined to be a double murder and a suicide, police said.

“We really don’t know why this incident escalated to such violence,” Police Lt. Guy Golan said, according to NBC Los Angeles.

The highway patrol said it was broadcast a medical emergency at 4:29 a.m. about the injured children on the freeway, and authorities found the infant with major injuries. The Culver City Fire Department pronounced her dead at 4:44 a.m., the highway patrol said.

Redondo Beach is around 30 miles south of Woodland Hills, which is in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. The 405 Freeway is the main artery linking the western part of the valley to the Los Angeles basin.

The surviving child is in the care of Child Protective Services, NBC Los Angeles reported.

[eretzyisrael]

by Ben Kawaller

I went to my first Free Palestine protest this month. I’ll start with the good news: at no point did I, a poster child for the Ashkenazim, feel unsafe. Sure, one of the speakers, Frank Cardenas of the Peace and Freedom Party, drew cheers and applause with the line, “Do I condemn Hamas? Hell no!” But he also assured the crowd that the current conflict was not about Jews versus Arabs, but about colonizers versus the colonized. Not having colonized anyone lately, I managed not to take it personally. 

A co-production of the Los Angeles Movement for Advancing Socialism, the East L.A. Brown Bears, the L.A. County Peace and Freedom Party, and an organization called Centro CSO, the demonstration on November 4 attracted maybe two or three hundred participants and began with a series of mostly Latino speakers at Boyle Heights’ Mariachi Plaza. It then migrated across the L.A. River to the steps of City Hall, where there was more shouting into megaphones about the need for both a cease-fire and the destruction of Israel. 

There was also a call for an alliance between Palestinians and Chicanos, who “face harassment, violence, and murder by the occupying forces of LAPD. . . and other police departments.” Lost in the fervor, of course, was the detail that the “occupying force” in Gaza is not Israel, but a gang of Islamists who would have happily slaughtered every merry Christian at this gathering. (The situation in the West Bank, I maintain, is another story, and it sure would be nice if we could say with a straight face that Israel’s current government has pursued nothing but peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbors.)

Decolonization was the word of the day, and there was much talk of a “one-state solution” that would turn over all of Israel to the Palestinian people. I asked some folks what this would mean for the Jews of Israel, and responses ranged from the evasive (“I don’t think it’s for me to guess”) to the delusional (“Before Israel became a nation, everybody lived peacefully side by side”) to the blithely genocidal (“The Jewish people in Israel [will] always have to look over their shoulders because. . . the hatred that Palestinians have for them is justified.”).

Look, no one said decolonization would be easy, but what’s the alternative, trying to live in peace? 

Peace, it would seem, is for suckers. What’s hot right now is “liberation.” What’s really righteous is to promulgate a fundamental loathing of anyone belonging to the “oppressor” class. 

It’s a mindset attractive even to the upwardly mobile. I spoke, for instance, to a CalTech engineering student who confidently asserted that a “global intifada”—by which he meant the overthrow of capitalism—“is a desire shared by all working people across the world.” What would that look like? “It’s gonna look bloody,” he shrugged, as if describing a traffic jam.  

The sixties this is not. Remember “make love not war”? That ethos is evidently far less appealing than the chance to cosplay as a revolutionary and give voice to bloodlust.

I would like to think that those ostensibly standing for “peace and freedom” are capable of rejecting the allure of such bitterness and rage. And there are doubtless people—there must be—organizing for Palestinian dignity who aren’t playing in that sandbox. 

But I didn’t meet any of them that Saturday.

[bikerlovertexas]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Diana Ramirez-Simon at The Guardian:

Violent clashes broke out on the campus of the University of California in Los Angeles early on Wednesday morning when counter-demonstrators attacked a pro-Palestinian protest encampment, hours after New York City police cleared pro-Palestinian protesters out of an academic building that had been taken over at Columbia University. Aerial footage showed people wielding sticks or poles to attack wooden boards being held up as a makeshift barricade to protect pro-Palestinian protesters at UCLA, some holding placards or umbrellas. At least one firework was thrown into the camp. Administrators at the university called in law enforcement officers to try to stem the violence, which is the worst since counter-protesters who support Israel set up a rival protest area near the pro-Palestinian encampment.

“Horrific acts of violence occurred at the encampment tonight and we immediately called law enforcement for mutual aid support,” Mary Osako, a vice-chancellor at the university, said. “The fire department and medical personnel are on the scene. We are sickened by this senseless violence and it must end.” Writing on X, the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, condemned the violence as “absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable”. LA police said in a post on X: “At the request of UCLA, due to multiple acts of violence within the large encampment on their campus, the LAPD is responding to assist UCLA PD, and other law enforcement agencies, to restore order and maintain public safety.”

Some of the counter-protesters began to leave the area at about 1.40am, after police in riot gear arrived and formed a line near the camp, the LA Times reported. But officers did not immediately break up the two sets of protesters, and clashes continued. Hours later, broadcast footage showed a police cordon slowly clearing a central quad beside the encampment. Ananya Roy, a geography professor at UCLA, condemned the university over its lack of response to the counter-protesters. “It gives people impunity to come to our campus as a rampaging mob,” she told the LA Times. “The word is out they can do this repeatedly and get away with it. I am ashamed of my university.” Katy Yaroslavsky, a Los Angeles councilwoman whose district includes UCLA, posted on X: “Everyone has a right to free speech and protest but the situation on UCLA’s campus is out of control and is no longer safe.” The clashes began in the early hours of Wednesday, shortly after Gene Block, the UCLA chancellor, said the campus’s pro-Palestine encampment was “unlawful”, adding that students who remained in it would face disciplinary action.

The 7 October attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants from Gaza and the ensuing Israeli offensive on the Palestinian territory have unleashed the biggest outpouring of US student activism since the anti-racism protests of 2020. Late on Tuesday, New York City police arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators holed-up in an academic building on Columbia University campus in New York and removed a protest encampment that the Ivy League school had sought to dismantle for nearly two weeks. Live video images showed police in riot gear marching on the campus in upper Manhattan, the focal point of the nationwide student protests. Officers used an armoured vehicle with a bridging mechanism to gain entry to the second floor of the building.

Pro-Israel Apartheid agitators caused violence at the UCLA campus by attacking a pro-Palestinian protest encampment.

[lboogie1906]

The Jackson State Killings took place at Jackson State College (May 15, 1970) in Jackson, Mississippi. Around midnight on May 14, city and state police confronted a group of students and opened fire on them, killing two students and injuring twelve. The Jackson State Killings occurred eleven days after the more widely publicized Kent State University Shootings.

A group of African American high school and college students gathered just off campus and began rioting in response to a false rumor that Fayette, Mississippi mayor Charles Evers and his wife, Nannie Evers, were assassinated. Several white motorists called Jackson Police Department to complain about the African-American rioters throwing rocks at them as they drove by the campus on Lynch Street. The young protesters started fires and overturned a dump truck.

Seventy-five policeman and Mississippi State Police officers arrived to control the crowd. At around 12:05 a.m., the police opened fire on the crowd, and twenty-one-year-old Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and seventeen-year-old James Earl Green were killed. Gibbs was a junior pre-law major at Jackson State and father of an eighteen-month-old son; Green was a senior at Jim Hill High School in Jackson.

Some students said the police issued a warning that they would shoot unless the crowd dispersed. Others contended that the police opened fire on the crowd and on Alexander West Hall. Police claimed they shot at the dormitory because they spotted a powder flare on the third floor of the building and thus fired on the dormitory in self-defense.

The President’s Commission on Campus Unrest was created by President Richard Nixon to investigate both shootings. The commission held its first meeting on June 25, 1970 in DC and conducted public hearings in Jackson, Kent, and Los Angeles for thirteen days. The administration, faculty, staff, and students, along with police and National Guard officials testified. The commission criticized both police in Jackson and National Guard commanders in Ohio, no arrests were made.

The Gibbs-Green Plaza was constructed Alexander West Hall Center. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[scintillyyy]

a n y w a y s currently 12 episodes into season 2 of the firefighter show so just some thoughts

you know, i stand corrected. i am liking what they're doing with shannon. so far. she's not demonized at all!! and the christmas thing got me, i'll admit it. i'm a sucker for that stuff.

wish the episode awful people hadn't gone for the whole dispatcher story and instead focused more on the actual awful people that make the job kind of miserable, like the drunk person who calls for help and then spits on you. (ik ik they did the evil racist guy but like they could have done more)

i did enjoy hen's origin although i think it was a ~little on the nose as far as racism and sexism within the job. like. trust me that job is rife with sexism but it's usually not quite so in your face. every single person would be written up several times over and most of these dudes do care about their job enough to not jeopardize it. also, evil caricature old captain was hilariously lowballing the 82k to train a ~woman~. bro salary + benefits + training has easily got to be double that at least. it costs a lot to hire and train someone new. for context, when my husband's department was short staffed it was short for a few years because the city was more than content with paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime every year because it was cheaper than hiring new guys and paying salay + benefits + pension.

speaking of salary, benefits, and pension go to https://transparentcalifornia.com/ go to cities go to los angeles go to the year of your choosing type in and search within those records for firefighter. enjoy.

i do think the show continues its complete misconstruing of how the fire service chain of command works here with evil former captain (although i will admit, an old asshole with a terrible mustache and terrible opinions is realistic, so i'll allow it), once again the show seems to think a captain is the be all end all of decision making who apparently answers to no one. you see, unless the lafd does things extremely weirdly, there's a thing called staffing and numbers. you are assigned to specific trucks/engines/ambulances by the city. hell. by the fire chief in some departments. hell i'm pretty sure the fire chief of my husband's department called him once because they were trying to move around paramedics to ask if he had an opinion about being moved to a certain ambo they needed staffed (his opinion would be noted, but disregarded if necessary). if a captain left someone behind for no reason?? if you're assigned to a truck/engine/ambo you're going out with that truck/engine/ambo no exceptions. it's not like they show up for work and maybe they get taken out. if engine 7 is dispatched the people assigned to engine 7 are dispatched. it's not just 'hey, whoever's free, let's go'. like bro. chimney. talk to hr. i know you're a probie and the union can't help at this point but your captain also has people he reports to. the battalion chief would be very interested in this and everyone would probably think that evil captain getting his comeuppance would be hilarious as hell. there's no way that everyone who works under that captain isn't constantly shitting on what a dumbass he is and how he needs to retire.

speaking of chim's intro, i did like the episode but once again absolutely ridiculous about the whole they don't let him go out. also ridiculous the idea that they don't want to get to know him until they're sure he won't die?? lol wtf. like okay. firefighting is a dangerous job. but they have not done a lot of work improving it's safety over the years especially wrt fire management for these dudes to act like there's an epidemic of dying on the job. the US fire administration is crying. and obviously ik ik it worked with the whole kevin died on the job thing but it's still a little ridiculous.

anyways yea. actually. really the main issue with hen's, chimney's, and tbh even eddie's introductions is that not a single one of them brought donuts with them on their first day. that's how you make enemies of your coworkers from the get-go. they'll remember that.

if you're at all curious about firefighter fatalities, feel free to peruse https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/firefighter-fatalities/

lots of heart attacks.

also speaking of chim's intro episode, i must applaud it because it made me realize that the showrunners have no idea what the vehicle exhaust extraction system is aka what those yellow hoses are there for.

so the past few episodes i had noticed that the yellow hoses were just hanging there and i'm like. huh. why aren't those connected to the engines if the engine's in the bay, they connect those as they're driving the engine in. they should be. maybe it's just a one off.

but then. but then!! they showed a scene in chim's episode that had a firefighter holding the hose as if he just took it off so the engine could drive away and i'm like !!!! that is sooo hilariously wrong. because you see, that's an exhaust hose. and fire stations have those because the engines and trucks and whatnot run on diesel...and diesal exhaust is an occupational carcinogen and the fumes are very not good for you--especially if they're being emitted inside. so to avoid carbon monoxide in the bay what they do is vent the fumes out while the engine is running in the bay. the hose is connected to the exhaust pipe by a magnet and the hose vents outside and runs along an overhead track. when the engine is started in the bay the exhaust is safely vented outside and the hose is able to move with the engine until the engine leaves the station and you attach it back on when you enter the station.

i'm never going to not notice this. i'm going to be watching those things like a hawk now.