This Song Is Haunting, Profound, And "seriously True. It Cuts Straight Through To The Heart Of This Election

This song is haunting, profound, and "seriously” true. It cuts straight through to the heart of this election moment.

That said...This American Life, Sara Bareilles, & Leslie Odom Jr. just made RPF about President Obama.

By stealing from innocents, Chicago PD amassed tens of millions in a secret black budget for surveillance gear

Since 2009, the Chicago Police Department has seized $72M worth of property from people who were not convicted of any crime, through the discredited civil forfeiture process, keeping $48M worth of the gains (the rest went to the Cook County prosecutor’s office and the Illinois State Police) in an off-the-books, unreported slush fund that it used to buy secret surveillance gear.

Civil forfeiture is widely considered to be an invitation to abuse and exploitation, and Chicago’s system is especially pernicious, as the police get to keep the proceeds from seizure, and do not have to disclose or account for the money.

The full scope of the program was revealed in late September by the Chicago Reader, who worked with Muckrock and the Lucy Parsons Lab to file public records requests that yielded more than 1,000 pages’ worth of CPD documents.

The documents revealed that forfeiture is disproportionately used against poor people, especially people of color, who lack the legal resources to fight the theft of their property – and who are most vulnerable to being deprived of a vehicle, or cash savings, or other property. It also revealed that the CPD used the money to buy Stingrays and other mass-surveillance gear – by using its secret budget, the CPD was able to avoid scrutiny and oversight by the city.

In addition to surveillance gear, CPD used the money to pay officers’ cell-phone bills. They collected so much cash they had to buy a bill-counting machine (purchased with money from forfeiture, of course).

This is the latest corruption scandal to hit the CPD. Last year, the Guardianrevealed that the Chicago PD maintained a secret “black site” where thousands of suspects had been kidnapped and tortured (the Chicago Reader reveals that some of the surveillance equipment at that site was purchased with funds from civil forfeiture). Later, the independent Accountability Task Force called the CPD “racist, corrupt and broken.” In September, the city settled a $2M lawsuit brought by whistleblowers from the force who’d been hounded and threatened and then fired for reporting a gang of CPD officers who extorted protection money from drug dealers and framed their competitors, sending them to jail for long sentences. Last week, a report revealed that 25,000 CPD officers had generated 125,000 complaints.

http://boingboing.net/2016/10/20/by-stealing-from-innocents-ch.html

I want one of those scenes in a dude bro film where “tomboy” chick has to wear a dress to go undercover or whatever, but instead of the guys drooling as she walks down the stairs, they’re like “k. U need to stop. Go put the cargo pants back on. You look super uncomfortable and awkward in that. Brutus, you go be the fake prostitute.”

Pitch 1.03 | Ginny and Trevor golfing, requested by @queensmaker

@lettersfromtitan, a story conceit?

It’d Be Really Funny If “Coming Out”

Worked like a debutante’s coming out used to… (incidentally the debutante’s coming out is where we get the terminology) and so being gay or trans or what have you meant getting presented to the reigning monarch.

“Your majesty, may I present… a gay”

Patater please! More soulmates would be awesome! Thank You!!!!!!! justwritins vote

And we have our first write-in for more Papater Soulmark!AU! As stated before, if you want this as the milestone fic, like, reblog (if reblogging, please use the tag “Justwritins vote”), or reply to this ask!