nana mido

This blog is still and will continue to be suspended due to tumblr’s homophobic and misogynistic policies, but since a lot of you are still here:

Cops don’t belong at pride events. Cops are historically and presently the enemy of LGBTQ people. Cops are historically and presently the enemy of black women, men, and children. Cops are historically and presently the enemy of black trans women. Cops are historically and presently the enemy of black lesbians. Inviting cops to your pride events is inviting violence to your pride events. Allowing cops to be present at your pride events is allowing violence to be present at your pride events. The presence of cops at pride events is a message to people historically and presently targeted by cops that they are not welcome at pride events.

This is not an issue of “a few bad apples.” This is not about needing better training, or more sensitivity seminars, or better outreach to communities. There are no good cops. If good cops existed, they would be the leaders of these protests. If good cops existed it would be easy to root out the bad cops, because those good cops would be telling the world about the abhorrent acts that those bad cops commit. If good cops were meant to exist, there wouldn’t be so many examples of cops who’ve been fired because they named the abuse and violence committed by their coworkers. There is no way to be a “good cop” and to remain a cop. That picture you’re about to link of cops kneeling in “solidarity” with protesters is meaningless propaganda. I know from seeing this locally in my own city and from seeing verified accounts of this in countless other cities across the U.S.: the cops in that picture are about to teargas, beat, and arrest protestors without any provocation. If cops actually wanted to act in solidarity, they would put down their weapons, remove their riot gear, and walk away. If cops actually wanted to act in solidarity, they would stop being cops, in the same way that you or I would stop working for any company or employer who allowed and encouraged violence and racism.

Cops don’t belong at pride events.

I don’t care if your brother, your father, your mother, your best friend, or whoever else is a cop. I don’t care if your girlfriend is a cop. There are no good cops. If this statement makes you angry, if it makes you want to defend your cop friends and cop family, I’d like to encourage you to step outside of your hurt feelings, look around you, and consider what it means that your loved one is willing to be a part of this. If you’re getting geared up to write a comment that includes the words “not all cops,” “all lives matter,” or anything referencing looting, please know that, if it were up to me, you wouldn’t be allowed at pride events either.

nana mido

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Black lives matter.