As some of us know the NSW Police Force do terrorize and harass young people. I, among many others, have experienced police brutality. On weekends in the City of Sydney you can walk around and see people being harassed. A lot of people stand there as if its entertainment. New flash people THIS IS NOT FUCKING ENTERTAINMENT. This is TERRORISM and it needs to stop. Anyone can be the victim...you, your children, friend, brother, sister, cousin, auntie, uncle, mum, dad etc.
This morning I'm writing this post because I've just witnessed a young boy, about 17, fall as another victim to police brutality.
I was sitting in an internet cafe when the cops arrived. They walked around the internet cafe waking people up. There was a boy sitting a few seats down from me. He was sleeping. One of the cops approached him and said "wake up". Another came over and said "No you do this..." and shook him. After shaking him he woke up (probably a little surprised) and the cop who told him to wake up said "aren't you banned from upstairs?" then literally dragged him to his feet and started walking him out. As they were walking him out he was looking at him as if to say "what the fuck did I do?" in response to his surprised looks one cop responded "I don't know why your looking at me like that, its not going to solve the problem". I've experienced a few incidents like this and I could sense a bit of tension so I left my computer, followed them upstairs and out onto the street. When they got out onto the street one of the cops pushed the boy. He stumbled back a few steps and into the lane way. The same cop walked over to him and grabbed him by the top of his shirt and dragged him back to the footpath. At this point I yelled out "thats assault!". His partner looked at me but didn't really care about what I said. When the boy was dragged back to the footpath he was then pushed to the ground by both police officers. There were a few people standing around the incident. But no one stuck up for the boy. They didn't even looked worried. No one says anything until someone is shot and end up in hospital or maybe even dead.
This is only one of the many cases that police have harassed and assaulted young people. I didn't know the boy but I also honestly didn't see what crime the boy committed. Maybe sleeping is considered a criminal offence now? I was also arrested earlier this year for 'sleeping overnight'. I guess I can add myself to the list of criminals along with Ivan Milat and so on because sleeping is just as bad as murder...I guess. If you don't want to be a criminal DONT SLEEP k? k cool..then we can all turn into zombies. Then we could all eat cops for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A good solution to state terrorism? I think so too.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
People have a perspective that if you're homeless you can't own expensive items and if you do your not really homeless. Even if you're wearing clothing that looks nice people won't believe that you're homeless. For example I went to the hospital a few days ago and I wasn't dressed in clothing that looked homeless because I had a job interview earlier that day. It was also the first time I had been to a hospital in a few years. The nurse asked what my address was and I said "I'm homeless" his reply was "bullshit! I don't believe that for a second. Look you're Koori (which was quite offensive as I'm actually Murri not Koori) and you don't have to pay for you're hospital fees. Ok? Its free. All I ask is that you stop lying". Then he went on to tell me about how he works with the Homeless Community and he'd never seen me before, I answered with "Cool story. And how does that make you feel? Do you feel like a fantastic citizen?". For the next hour and a half they sent a couple people to try and guilt trip me into telling the truth which would have been a lie. I didn't bother saying anything. I guess they forgot to treat me because I was "lying" so I walked out.
I think this so called criteria of being homeless really needs to be cleared up. You can be homeless and own expensive items or nice clothing. Not all of us can afford it and not all of us want these things but some do. How do we afford it? I think there's something called 'Saving Up', buying secondhand or even using money earned from a job or Centrelink. Some homeless can afford to buy nice things but they simply don't want to.
All in all money doesn't equal home.
In fact even if you do have just enough money to rent its still just as hard to find somewhere to live. If you're on a waiting list for Department of Housing or Community Housing you still have to wait. You cant just chuck money at these people and expect to have somewhere to live within a millisecond. Being on a waiting list does take years unless you get fast tracked because you're pregnant, a drug addict, mentally ill or have a disability. Sometimes it can still take quite a while even you have any of the listed.
Lets just say that you're looking at private rentals you'd need a regular income and a pretty high income too. Yes there is Rent Assistance but if you don't have nearly enough to pay the set rent then Rent Assistance is pretty much useless. Plus if you go to inspect a house and you're not wearing "suitable" clothing because you have none then its most likely that you're not going to get the house anyway.
Go to Tafe or University!? Get a job!?
Ok so in theory I go to Tafe or I spend a few years at University. But I still wouldn't be assured a job with a sustainable income. I mean you can go and (unrealistically) do 500,000,000,000 years of studying and training but just because you do that it doesn't mean that you going to get a job. Even if you do get a job the income would be too low to afford rent in appropriate areas and all the other living expences.
I've just finished at school and I went for a job interview recently. The income rates were defined by how many years it had been since you left school. Oh I might mention that the interview was done with three other people in their late 20's. Their income rates were between $12.00 - $13.50 per hour. My income rate was $7.90 per hour. Yes. I am really going to be able to pay rent with a $7.90-per-hour income...in Dunedoo where a 3 bedroom house is around $175 per week.
Basically if people are homeless they're not homeless because they cant afford nice things. People are homeless because they don't have a home. Hence the word homeless. Home and less. No home.
I think this so called criteria of being homeless really needs to be cleared up. You can be homeless and own expensive items or nice clothing. Not all of us can afford it and not all of us want these things but some do. How do we afford it? I think there's something called 'Saving Up', buying secondhand or even using money earned from a job or Centrelink. Some homeless can afford to buy nice things but they simply don't want to.
All in all money doesn't equal home.
In fact even if you do have just enough money to rent its still just as hard to find somewhere to live. If you're on a waiting list for Department of Housing or Community Housing you still have to wait. You cant just chuck money at these people and expect to have somewhere to live within a millisecond. Being on a waiting list does take years unless you get fast tracked because you're pregnant, a drug addict, mentally ill or have a disability. Sometimes it can still take quite a while even you have any of the listed.
Lets just say that you're looking at private rentals you'd need a regular income and a pretty high income too. Yes there is Rent Assistance but if you don't have nearly enough to pay the set rent then Rent Assistance is pretty much useless. Plus if you go to inspect a house and you're not wearing "suitable" clothing because you have none then its most likely that you're not going to get the house anyway.
Go to Tafe or University!? Get a job!?
Ok so in theory I go to Tafe or I spend a few years at University. But I still wouldn't be assured a job with a sustainable income. I mean you can go and (unrealistically) do 500,000,000,000 years of studying and training but just because you do that it doesn't mean that you going to get a job. Even if you do get a job the income would be too low to afford rent in appropriate areas and all the other living expences.
I've just finished at school and I went for a job interview recently. The income rates were defined by how many years it had been since you left school. Oh I might mention that the interview was done with three other people in their late 20's. Their income rates were between $12.00 - $13.50 per hour. My income rate was $7.90 per hour. Yes. I am really going to be able to pay rent with a $7.90-per-hour income...in Dunedoo where a 3 bedroom house is around $175 per week.
Basically if people are homeless they're not homeless because they cant afford nice things. People are homeless because they don't have a home. Hence the word homeless. Home and less. No home.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
May the 1st be with you.
BEGINNING MAY 1, 2012
NO WORK - NO SCHOOL - NO SHOPPING - NO BANKING - NO TRADING
THE PEOPLE OF THE PLANET WILL TAKE TO THE STREETS
#OLA & #OLB are calling on all people of the world to start planning NOW for a Global Strike. The goal is to shut down commerce worldwide and show the 1% we will not be taken for granted, we will not be silenced, WE WILL NOT MOVE until our grievances are redressed.
GENERAL STRIKE AND BOYCOTT CALLED!
FOR IM/MIGRANT RIGHTSFOR ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND LABOR RIGHTSFOR PEACE WITH JUSTICEFOR CIVIL LIBERTIES AND AN END TO THE POLICE STATEFOR HOUSING, EDUCATION, AND HEALTH CARE AS HUMAN RIGHTSFOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND GENDER EQUITY
Every continent, every country, every state, every city will stand up.
Labor and workers are under attack by the 1%. Occupy stands Immigrants and with Labor both organized and not. Unions and union rights are what made our working class strong. Every benefit we have as working people has come from the struggles of organized labor and immigrants fighting for their rights. Now they are trying to destroy our bargaining rights, they want their greedy hands on our pensions. They don't have enough already? ENOUGH.
A DAY FOR MIGRANT RIGHTS, LABOR RIGHTS, HUMAN RIGHTS.
STOP FORECLOSURES!!!
We demand good jobs and good pay for everyone on the planet. Citizen of the country they work in or not. Outsourcing will no longer be tolerated by the so called "job creators" for cheap labor. All human beings deserve a living wage.
Education, Housing and Healthcare are human rights NOT "entitlements."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We can tell you that May 1st is International Workers Day. We can tell you that in some countries it’s a public holiday to commemorate the historic gains made by the Labor movement. We can tell you that in Los Angeles, May 1st is traditionally a day to celebrate and make a stand for immigrant rights.
But only you can tell us what you’re striking for on May 1st, 2012.
Because the May 1st General Strike is about you. It’s about the debt imposed on you for daring to dream about a college education. It’s about the healthcare you can’t afford, the family member with a disease which goes untreated because they lack insurance. It’s about your car that got repo-ed after you lost your job. It’s about your home that got foreclosed on when the bank went bust. It’s about your family, who came here for a better future, and got lost in the broken immigration system, and found that they’re denied access to legal work, education and security because they’re undocumented. It’s about you, the gay kid who gets bullied at school, and will grow up in a country which denies you equality and humanity, simply because you love someone of the same gender. It’s about the fact there’s no jobs, even if you got that college education and those grades. It’s about the single mother who struggles to support her kids on minimum wage - which is not a living wage. It’s about the woman who makes it through Harvard, works her ass off in one of the best law firms in the country, and constantly loses out on that promotion because she’s not a man. It’s about the homeless African-American guy who lives on Skid Row and gets thrown in jail for peeing in a park, because there are no toilet facilities on the street for those like him. It’s about the protestor who gets beaten and thrown in jail for holding a sign in a public space which says he’s had enough. It’s about the farmer who’s had to leave his home and work, because the state raised his land tax. It’s about the father who loses a son to a pointless war over oil in a foreign land.
It’s about the fact this is not the America we were brought up to believe in.
M1GS.
Fuck the American Dream. Make America a Reality.
ALL COUNTRIES PARTICIPATING: If you send me translation of this invite in your native language, I will create an event on this page to coincide with the English version. Please send toOccupyLBGeneralStrike@gmail.com
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