• u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)@lemmy.sdf.org
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    4 days ago

    Her water had broken, she said. “I’m leaking out,” she told him. She grabbed a blanket and a few personal effects as a bright orange city dump truck pulled up to remove the makeshift bed.

    “Am I being detained?” she asked.
    “Yes, you’re being detained,” he shouted. “You’re being detained because you’re unlawfully camping.”

    Stewart walked back to his car to write the citation as city workers finished loading the mattress into the garbage truck.
    Once in the police vehicle, Stewart narrated to himself as his body camera recorded his comments.
    “So I don’t for a second believe that this woman is going into labor,” he said.

    He returned to find the woman sitting on the ground, with legs askew and labored breathing, waiting for the ambulance. Stewart hands her a citation, and she balls it up and tosses it aside as the ambulance arrives to take her to the hospital.

    This sounds like I am reading some dystopian book, not news.

    • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      Did you catch the part about this particular cop being the “top earner” for homeless camping tickets?

      Small win for her, at least she balled up the fucking citation and threw it on the ground. What a prick.

      • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com
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        2 days ago

        He was also already on suspension for covering up the excessive use of lethal force when they found this footage.

      • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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        4 days ago

        A friend who quit law enforcement (he was a sheriff’s deputy, not police) explained that while the sheriff’s office is publicly funded, most police agencies are funded by the general fund of a city, which is where the revenue of their tickets go, so it invariably evolves into rent seeking behavior as law enforcement.

        • NobodyElse@sh.itjust.works
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          3 days ago

          Let’s make sure to undermine any growing solidarity by taking shots at each other over race/culture war BS at every opportunity. It’d be a shame if we were all on the same side.

          • Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            Last time I checked it was white ppl who have stopped in its tracks any class based solidarity because as LBJ put it

            “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

            But I guess the rest of us are just suppose to forget getting fucked over in the past and hope it doesn’t happen again

            • NobodyElse@sh.itjust.works
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              3 days ago

              Dude, I’m agreeing with you. Getting hung up on past wrongs that one group’s parents did to another group’s parents is totally more important than mending rifts in our society and working together for a better future for ourselves and our children. After all, it’s totally the other group’s fault anyway.

              • Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world
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                3 days ago

                Yeah because we all know everything that happened to black/brown ppls parents suddenly stopped after MLK and their kids aren’t getting pipelined into prison or killed by police anymore.

                And we should all definitely trust WASPs even though they were the largest voting block responsible for voting in a facist whos campaign ran on making everything harder for lgbtq, black and brown groups very existence. But hey they’re happy a CEO got killed so let’s just stick our heads in the sand

  • TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com
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    4 days ago

    Are they pressing charges on the baby infant born during the solstice when there was no way to afford the room at the inn ?

  • LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 days ago

    Imagine if all the billions of dollars sunk into policing went to homeless shelters, healthcare and universal basic income. Instead of, you know. It being used to commit acts of violence against mothers going into labor.

    • azimir@lemmy.ml
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      4 days ago

      The NYPD spent 10’s of millions chasing turn style jumpers on the NY Metro in one year. They recovered around $100k in citations doing it. It’s not about financial sense when it comes to oppressing the poor.

      Now, when the USPS can’t “turn a profit” we’ll have to immediately destroy it, of course! That also helps bring equity to our society so it needs to go.

      Nothing for the conservative is about helping. It’s all about preserving the hierarchy and hurting people who aren’t rich to begin with.

    • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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      4 days ago

      Made this point to the city council, how fifty years of bulldozing encampments has failed to fix homelessness, but I’m sure if we spend just a few more dollars on making them miserable it’ll finally work this time.

  • officermike@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I love how the police department’s statement basically reads “we called an ambulance and she delivered in a hospital; otherwise, the baby might have been born on the street. We’re heroes.”

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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    4 days ago

    Everything about this is awful. My city just passed such an ordinance while patting themselves on the back about how they’re “helping people”, all while we have fewer than half the shelter capacity needed to house our homeless. A bunch of people, myself included, turned out to tell them what a crock of shit it was. It still passed 6-1.