This post came up in conversation once and I tried to google and find it but every variation on the caption I typed in made google hit me with their “hey man, maybe stop searching for racist memes” followed by 10,000 explicitly racist memes and, crucially, not this post. While I am glad this is a feature google has, it definitely did not help me find this post (which is not racist) but it did show me a lot memes (that were on purpose racist)
“At my old job in public education, my office mate invented the concept of the 8 Weeks of Doom. This was defined as the period between New Year’s and Spring Break where it was dark and gray, there were few holidays, and everyone’s seasonal depression hit an all-time high. To combat the 8 Weeks of Doom, she started a tradition of making me a Doom Calendar, which is an advent calendar but for fighting the Doom. She’d include small fidgets, snacks, stickers, and fun tea, which I’d open whenever the Doom felt very high on a particular day. Eventually this turned into a standing tradition of us making each other Doom Calendars, and the concept spread to our whole department. We would eventually just start our department meetings checking in about how everyone was managing the Doom, and did anyone want to open a Doom Calendar door for a quick pick me up? Even though we’re not longer office mates, I still exchange a Doom Calendar with this friend every year anyway. It really does help with the Doom!”
I adore this for the same reason I like winter celebrations/special days: humans realizing they can act to change their perception of reality. The longest dark, the coldest time of the year, can be dressed up as a party with lights and shiny things, or firecrackers and dancing wearing a lion costume. We can clean and make music and loud noises and give each other nice things and if we all do it very hard, together, maybe we won’t be so cold and sad.
You have GOT to stop acting like “criminals” are a different breed of human that are more violent just because.
Criminal law is so bonkers disconnected from the reality of everyday life that things are crimes that people just Do.
Have you ever had on your person a prescription drug for someone else? Held for them, brought to them, picked up for them? If it was on the controlled substance list, you opened yourself up to a felony.
Ever pulled your sibling’s hair? Gave them a nougie? Hit them, tripped them, grabbed something out of their hands? You could have been charged with domestic battery.
Did you play with fire as a kid? Most people do, at least a little. Hope it wasn’t in a place with grass, because burning grasses is a felony here.
Your parents leave you in the car while they went into the store? Felony child neglect, these days.
Ever had a pet die from something that made them lose a lot of weight? I had a client convicted of felony animal abuse resulting in death even though the only veterinarian witness testified he didn’t know what caused the animal’s death and did not do a necropsy.
Ever thrown something at a car? Empty soda bottle, snowball, water balloon? Felony missile at occupied vehicle.
People can be convicted of brandishing a firearm for having it in a holster. For concealed carry of a firearm if it’s on the other side of their body from an officer observing (and therefore “hidden”). Got a knife in your pocket or a brass knuckle keyring self defense device? That’s a concealed weapon.
Did you know that child protective services safety plans are sometimes taken out as protective orders? My client didn’t, when she went to try to buy a firearm to defend herself against an abusive ex. She was under a CPS protective order to not have the ex around her children. Charged with felony fraud in firearm affidavit: attempting to buy a gun while under a protective order.
Had a kid convicted of arson for burning some variant of nerf darts in his room and not even trying to set anything else on fire.
I have seen convictions and charges for everything on this list.
And always remember, almost half (45%) of people are in prison for probation or parole violations, huge swathes of that number for doing things that would be legal and fine for you and me but are not fine because they’re on probation.
This is why overpolicing matters: because normal shit gets regularly criminalized for certain populations.
Forgot a big one! Have you ever shared painkillers or anti-anxiety meds or other controlled substances (obtained with a prescription) with other family members?
That is in fact drug dealing. The defense to it is “accommodation” — as in, I was accommodating someone, not dealing for profit — and accommodation, uh, slightly reduces how bad of a felony it is and does nothing else.
The person who is accommodated also has committed felony possession of controlled substance.
This is why people with Adderall prescriptions only use the original pill bottle. Because they could get charged with a felony at any point if they don’t, just because an officer thinks it’s not theirs.
I work with kids who are on probation and a big one for then is about ‘affiliating with known gang members.’ Which is difficult to manage when you’ve been placed in a school for expelled students - many of whom are on probation for gang-related charges. Or…hey…not sure how a kid can avoid associating with gang members when their neighbors and uncles and siblings and parents whom they live with are also gang members. What precisely is a teen supposed to do when their mom is the one driving them around town at night to do shit?
I had a student get arrested and incarcerated for months because his probation officer found a bag of thc candy in his room. We’re in California; he shares a room with an older brother. Everyone in that house uses marijuana. And now this kid is shouldering all the blame and guilt for that.
I had a student get arrested for talking back and being 'disrespectful’ to his probation officer. An angry, traumatized teenager shouted at his P.O. and the result was him getting hauled away from school in cuffs.
Two students at my school got into a mutual fight - no one was injured. One was on probation and one wasn’t. The one not on probation was suspended for a couple of days, and when he returned he’s enrolled in our anger managment group. The one on probation was hauled away in cuffs and now he will spend Thanksgiving and possibly Christmas in juvenile hall.
I dont know what I’m concluding with all this except, yeah…so many people get labeled as 'criminals’ as kids and it is damn near impossible to shake off that label once it’s been assigned. The system we have is horrifyingly unjust.
i had a dream this morning that the newest thing was that when you changed the channel on the TV you’d get a text that said “we noticed you changed the channel! would you mind giving us a rating?” with a link and then if you turned off the TV you’d get another that said “did you mean to turn off the TV? we miss you!” and i really don’t think we’re far off from that
Not pictured: me, yanking the steering wheel to screech into a parking lot so I can take a pic of this after my sisters and I absolutely lose it upon seeing this truck
ALT
