These things are open to the public, you know
Did you know that court proceedings are generally open to the public? They are. We don’t talk about it much, but they are. You can just go and sit in a courtroom and wait to see what happens.
I just watched a kid in shackles be sent back to juvenile detention.
Shackles are handcuffs which are connected to a chain wrapped around someone’s waist, which is then connected to chain that links their two feet. It’s all clasped together with a Masterlock behind the person’s back.
They put kids in shackles.
You should know this. You should be forced to see this.
You should go to Operation Streamline where they deport 40 people at a time in mass trials. We should have to see that. We should be forced to watch each one of those faces collapse in on themselves.
You should see these things. You should know the way we treat people, all hidden inside executive looking buildings.
You should see the way we look at them, contempt dripping out our eyes.
You should see the quick transfer of tears to shoulder sleeve when a mother hears the fine she cannot pay, or watches her son hustled back through a door into a system that has no transparency, and no recourse for harm done.
This stuff happens in buildings all around us. It happens every day. Just because we don’t look at it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t, doesn’t mean we’re excused.
We should all be required to look a kid in the eyes while someone padlocks his ankles together. We should feel every sort guilt that is available to us. We should be enraged, we should be rioting.
But start with just fucking seeing it. We should all be staring, chests cracked open from our hearts skipping too many times in a row at the impossibility of it all.
