Reading George Fox

The Carceral State and Good People

By Bruce Steinberg 2018-06-18 Politics

@dynamitemoth They have the best of intentions, but it’s within a very flawed system.

The reason that plea deals are used so much is prosectorial discretion: they’ll threaten to charge with more serious counts adding up to an incredible amount of years. It then only makes sense not to risk a trial. It’s also hard to believe that 97% of all cases involve a guilty defendent; that would require nigh infallible police and prosecutors. Also, here’s an explanation of how a federal guilty plea works and the absurdity it can become. Prosecutors are also loathe 1 to provide evidence of innocence. There’s a ton of pressure of prosecutors to win cases, so they’ll even block the release of clearly innocent people. Expert witnesses and forensic experts are often relied on again and again even without evidence that the science has any basis in fact.

There are a ton of incentives for detectives to quickly close cases, so they often settle on the first or second suspect. Police are taught to be overly defensive and often escalate situations. Once a department gets a SWAT team, they find reasons to use it. Military supplies and civil forfeiture create perverse incentives to play with the toys and to justify the seizure of money to fund departments. Plus, civil forfeiture cases are charged against one’s property, so even if the initial charges are dropped one may have to fight to get the money back.

Here’s a book about police militarization. The Pentagon gives millions of dollars of surplus equipment to the police every year. Equipment used in war zones.

Defense attorneys are regarded as problems to be worked around. Public defenders are overworked and underpayed.

God help you if you get convicted 2 of a sex crime even if it’s for pantsing a classmate when you were 10. Even if the sex offenders have committed dangerous crimes, forcing them to live under bridges probably makes it more likely that they’ll reoffend because what is there to lose? At least in prison one lives indoors.

Then there’s the hell of reporting a sex crime.

Cops might basically rape a person if they suspect that they are a drug mule.

It can take decades to hold rogue cops accountable—of torture.

Even if the purpose of prison is not to rehabilitate, keeping inmates in solitary for decades is torture. Pushing inmates into gangs for their very survival is not a positive outcome for public safety. Our prisons are creating gang members. Prison rape is an atrocity. The system is even traumatic for the guards.

Police are allowed to lie, but if a person makes a mistake during interrogation, they can charge the person with lying to them. Even if they were innocent of the crime the police were investigating. (Never ever, ever talk to law enforcement without a lawyer).

Juvenile courts give tremendous discretion to judges and can end up ruining kids lives. Even when the judges are trying to help.

Police officers in schools help keep students safe, while at the same time turning discipline into a legal matter. Instead of getting detention, students get arrested.

There are good people in the criminal justice system who try to do good work. However, the system is fundamentally broken: providing the wrong incentives and numbing people to the violence it inflicts. I believe shifting our attention from the massive injustice of the system by pointing out there are good people in it is akin to being the white moderate. It’s trying to balance the feelings of police and prosecutors and prison staff against the suffering of those ground up by the system, whether they be innocent or guilty. Change is desperately needed and it’s going to take a massive effort. That must be the focus.

  1. Krasner is doing an amazing job, but this article still demonstrates the depth of the problem. ↩
  2. Thankfully, this particular absurdity has been fixed; it took years of determined fighting. Even after the law was changed, they had to keep fighting to vacate the pre-existing convictions. ↩

Fouad Dakwar on Being Palestinian

By Bruce Steinberg 2018-06-14 Politics

I often put on this act of a fearless fighter when talking about the mistreatment of my people, but tonight I had a direct one-on-one conversation with someone who actively denies the humanity of Palestinians (one of the apparent majority) that resulted in me crying non-stop for thirty minutes straight. It had me wishing I wasn’t Palestinian because I wished I were part of a group that received some sort of empathy from fellow humans.

The truth is that being Palestinian is one of the hardest things I will ever go through and that no matter how much hope I am given from peers and emerging humanitarian organizations (particularly American-Jewish ones), I will constantly live with the fear that our narrative will conclude the way the Native American one has now- with genocide of the majority of our people, theft of ALL of our land, and the complete dehumanization of our people in order to do it quickly.

We’re on our way there and I don’t know how much more I can ask for help and allyship.

If you somehow don’t condemn the current treatment of Palestinians, delete me from your friends list because we are not friends. My friends must have empathy at its most basic level. This is not a “nuanced” or “controversial” issue when looking at the clear privilege imbalance on either side.

I found this post through a friend, Tala Manassah, on Facebook last night. Originally published on May 20, 2018. Republished with permission. © Fouad Dakwar, All Rights Reserved.

Original Post on Facebook

Pinboard and Micro.blog—RSS

By Bruce Steinberg 2018-06-06 Tech

I’m a huge fan of Pinboard.in for online bookmarking. Maciej is an awesome developer, has a strong business model1 (so he has no reason to sell your data), and delivered an open API. You can link your account to Twitter2, Instapaper, and Pocket; and also set your account to be completely private.3 There’s even the fun story of the Great Delicious Exodus of 2010.

It also provides an easy way to start link blogging on Micro.blog via its RSS Feeds. If you want to send everything (I don’t recommend this) and have a public account, it’s as easy as adding <a href="https://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/u:username/">https://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/u:username/</a> 4 to your feeds in the same manner as WordPress. I’d recommend choosing a tag, like to_blog,5 and creating a feed just for that: <a href="https://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/t:to_blog">https://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/t:to_blog</a>. If you want to have more options, you can use up to three tags: <a href="http://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/u:username/t:tag1/t:tag2/t:tag3/">http://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/u:username/t:tag1/t:tag2/t:tag3/</a>.

Warning: I do not recommend using private feeds. @smokey let me know that future Micro.blog features may reveal them. If you’ve set up your account to be private, creating the feed is slightly more complicated. You have to add your authentication token6 to the address: <a href="https://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/secret:xxxx/u:username">https://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/secret:xxxx/u:username</a>. I would definitely use https here and if someone gets a hold of your token, they will be able to see all your bookmarks via RSS. Moreover, they will be able to add, change, and delete them through the API.7

One other thing to note, if you use RSS, you will not have any control over the appearance of your link posts. They will all have a title and thus link to your blog for the full content. Also, any markup or tagmojis will have to be entered upon the bookmark’s creation. I am working on an AppleScript that will enable manipulation of bookmarks before posting to Micro.blog; I will share and explain it in a post when I’m done. If you’d like to try to hack about a script on your own, I’m basing it off this earlier script.

Ping me via @Bruce on Micro.blog if you have any questions.

Update 2018-06-07: Added warning about private feeds.

  1. He posts yearly updates on how Pinboard is doing. ↩
  2. Backing up all your tweets. ↩
  3. It’s the Anti-Social bookmarking site. ↩
  4. The examples on the howto page use http, but https works as well. ↩
  5. Tags cannot have spaces, so I use underscores instead. ↩
  6. Which can be found on the the password tab of your account’s settings. ↩
  7. They won’t be able to make any changes to your account though. That requires signing into the website with your password. ↩

What We Can Do

By Bruce Steinberg 2018-06-05 Politics

A conversation about traveling to the United States came up today on Micro.blog and @EddieHinkle wrote:

[@dgold][4] How rude and ignorant! Do you think we Americans are happy or excited about any of that? Is this how you would react to someone living under a dictatorship? There is literally nothing Americans can do until November 2020. Most of us didn’t choose this (according to majority of votes), and based on the legal system of our country there is nothing that we as citizens can do until the next election.

Claiming that there is nothing US citizens can do until 2020 is profoundly defeatist and Eddie’s words prompted me to reply with things we can do.1 Upon reflection, I think it wise to share measures we can take. I would love if people would brainstorm with me too!

  • Donate to and volunteer for progressive Democratic 2 candidates in the fall elections. Both at the national, state, and local level. State elections can be particularly important, as Republican control has enabled extreme gerrymandering and harsh restrictions on voting rights. Not to mention the attacks on reproductive, LGBT (especially Trans), medical, etc rights.

  • Share your pronouns and learn others’.

  • Join [Black Live Matters][5] protests.

  • Volunteer to [help women outside Planned Parenthoods][5a].

  • Participate in countermarches to the alt-right. [And mock them][6].

  • Support Progressive DAs like [Larry Krasner][7] in Philadelphia. He’s been [fabulously aggressive][8] with criminal justice reform. Changing laws and enacting supervisory boards can only do so much. Moving the needle in police and district attorney offices is essential. While it will take (too) long to change the culture in the ranks, putting progressives in charge can make some changes now.

  • Advocate for better mass transit where you live. This may seem like a small issue, but access to good mass transit provides a huge benefit to those living on the edge.

  • Film abuses and help them go viral on social media.

  • Support and volunteer with [Sex Worker Rights][8] groups. [SESTA][9] is a nightmare that has made life much more dangerous for them.

  • Support and lobby for sanctuary cities. If you are a member of a religious group, push your congregation [to provide sanctuary][10]. Sadly it’s become less effective, but there is still blowback when ICE storms churches.

  • Support and volunteer with [prisoner rights and prison reform groups][11]. [Alternatives to Violence][12] is also a powerful program. Become [a palpal][13] with a prisoner on death row.

  • Support and volunteer for groups promoting [Black women going into politics][17].

  • If your state hasn’t [accepted the Medicaid expansion][17a], write and call your state representatives, senators, and governor incessantly3.

  • Donate to or volunteer in [Puerto Rico][17a].

  • Support Teachers’ Unions and public schools

  • Non-violent direct action. Some of these may get you arrested or worse. Not everyone is able to do that. If you can’t, support those who can. Bail them out, visit them in jail, help pay for their defense.

    • Occupy Congressional offices to demand action on DACA.

    • Protest outside and form human chains around immigrant detention centers. Especially those that house children.

    • Visit courthouses and call out ICE agents.

    • Remember [ACT UP][14] and get inspired.

    • [Mass Effect][15] for Border Control Checkpoints. Which can be miles from the actual border.

    • Join [the protests at the School of the Americas][18]. It might help the refugee crisis if we stopped training reactionaries in Central and South America.

Will The EU Screw Up Lighting?

By Bruce Steinberg 2018-05-07 Design and Art

So the EU is considering regulations on lamps’ power usage.1 If they don’t exempt entertainment lighting2, this is going to be a disaster. All existing equipment (from tungsten to LED to arc) will become obsolete. Touring shows to or from the EU will require major reworking. And there are significant hurdles for manufacturers to even create lights that will both illuminate the stage and satisfy the regulations. So much for the West End.

Oh, and stage lighting uses less energy that keeping the water hot.

Stage lighting comprised 2% of Seattle Rep's energy use in 2010.
  1. And dishwashers, refrigerators, washing machines and washer-dryers, computers, televisions. All close relatives of a Source 4. ↩
  2. As they already have for video projection. ↩

That’s Harsh

By Bruce Steinberg 2018-01-28 Miscellaneous

Over at Macdrifter, Gabe just posted about his failures. While I don’t know him personally, many of them read more as overly harsh self-criticism than failings.

» I spend too much on coffee

This is possible, but coffee is not that expensive and I’d conjecture that Gabe likes coffee. Is it really a failure to spend money on something that brings you pleasure?

» I don’t dress well

Compared to what? Is he comfortable in the clothing he wears? My initial reaction is Gabe is projecting the world’s judgment onto himself, especially as this implies the way he dresses every day is a problem.

» I don’t work hard enough

Gabe does note that some items are conflicting, but this one especially stands out. If he is going to criticize himself for not spending enough time with his kids, doing things for his wife, volunteering enough, etc; it feels unrealistic to expect himself to work more as well. He certainly blogs a lot. I guess he could be a lazy sloth that contributes nothing to the world, but, given his writing, I truly doubt that.

» I’m not happy enough each day

Red Alert! Red Alert! I’ve done a ton of therapy and this reads as denying the validity of his feelings. If anything, it’s a sign of possible depression, not a failing.

» I don’t shave every day
» My hair is too unkempt

My question would be: “Why are you unhappy with your appearance?” I bet there’s a bigger reason than laziness that these are true.

Maybe Gabe has a different definition of failure than I do, but I really want to tell him to be kind to himself. Would he judge other people this way? There is probably truth to some of the failings, but it reads as he expects perfection from himself.1

  1. My opinion could quite well be projection. I suffer from major depression and I certainly struggle to be understanding when judging myself. ↩