So.

Who wants the rant about “broken windows”?

There’s a thing called “broken windows policing” which is the cops cracking down on minor crimes and generally shaking down a neighborhood. The point of it is to prevent bigger crimes etc.

It is actually a horrible misunderstanding of what’s actually happening and incredibly counterproductive.

“Broken windows” theory has to do with criminals feeling bolder in areas that don’t look cared for. The ACTUAL problem is that predators look for easy prey, and criminals look for easy targets. Broken windows are a symptom of an area with absentee landlords, and an area with no one looking out for the residents. The people who live there are probably too busy or wrapped up in merely surviving to care of somebody is stealing a bike, or breaking into someplace. It’s a poverty of money, time, and also attention.

Adding cops to stop and frisk isn’t helping anyone. That isn’t what the neighborhood NEEDS.

It needs the goddamn windows fixed. It needs people who live there to have enough time and attention to help their neighbors. It needs the buildings to be locally owned with people living there who are keeping up the maintenance!

Predators look for easy prey and thieves want an easy job. A neighbor watching from their porch means fewer porch pirates. Parents and aunties looking out their kitchen windows at the kid’s playground mean the parents and older siblings there have backup if something happens. Neighborhoods that look cared for and have more residents around with time and attention to spare are safer.

THIS is what the broken windows theory is actually about. It’s not cops. It’s networks of neighbors caring for each other. It happens more easily when people have resources and time, so poverty makes an area vulnerable.

But, middle class suburban areas can be vulnerable too. If there’s no one home, if people don’t know each other, if they spend all their time on the freeway commuting or at work or elsewhere, then the area becomes an easy target. Which is why all the houses have Ring doorbells and video cameras.

The way to make a neighborhood safer is to build connections, care for one another, and lift each other up. The broken windows are a symptom of a larger care gap. The care and connections are what is missing and adding care and connections will make the area more resilient and safer over time.

quantummindclassicalheart:

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littled0lls:

Just wanted to share this scene from The Nigerian Job I hadn’t seen before!! For some reason the scene is cut from the episode on most websites. Thanks @naidgaem for bringing this to my attention!

claypigeonpottery:

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taking pictures of all my work today 🥵 I’m very tired. thanks @authortstrange for weighing and measuring everything for me❤️❤️❤️

made this one for my mom, who’s a quilter. it’s a copy of an earlier piece she fell in love with

sandumilfshou:

im rewatching leverage from season 1 and why did i never pick up on the exes vibes from nate and sterling????? like they for sure had a messy but mutual breakup and now need to play power games with one another for catharsis

caseys-breanna:

Greatest Leverage trope imo is when something inexplicably weird is happening or some distinctly important law of physics and universe is being broken and it’s all explained with a simple and succinct - ‘She’s Parker.’

246bce:

where do you think sophie’s getting her hair done before cons?

does it herself

local shop, got everyone invested in her will-they-wont-they office romance

has taught parker how to do it

bosses her hair into shape, mrs hempstock style

temothylol:

the multishipper to “ohhh what if they were in a polycule together” pipeline is real and utterly TERMINAL

marlynnofmany:

Secondhand Solutions

Mur gave me a smug look, curling and uncurling one tentacle like a yo-yo. “Told you it was a waste of credits,” he said.

I sighed. “If those human ships were here, it wouldn’t be. This stuff is prime Earth nostalgia.” The small pile of items on the hoversled had seemed so full of promise when I’d bought it at our last stop: cat posters, harmonicas, and a dozen packs of googly eyes.

“Pity we’re far from Earth,” Mur said.

“Yeah,” I agreed, eyeing the locals of this alien marketplace. Lots of scales and exoskeletons. Not many hands that would appreciate the softness of a cat’s fur, and very few mouthparts that would be able to do much with a harmonica. The merchant I’d gotten the stuff from had been a Heatseeker all too happy to unload her stock of cut-rate human nonsense. These folks would likely have similar opinions. I said, “At least it doesn’t expire.”

Mur straightened the individually-boxed harmonicas. “And it shouldn’t take up too much space in your quarters until we meet up with more humans eventually. The captain won’t want to hang around here waiting for them to show up.”

“True,” I admitted. It was gossip from our last stop that had told me they’d be here now. I should have known better than to trust it.

“Well, back to the ship,” Mur announced. “Maybe you can cheer yourself up by decorating your quarters with eyeballs.”

I had to smile at that. “Maybe.” He was already walking back to where we’d parked, on the far side of an over-cultivated garden area. I towed the hoversled after him.

Then I caught sight of some locals who’d run afoul of multiple birdlike beasties, and an idea started to form.

The locals, a half-dozen Heatseekers whose scales ranged from red to pale yellow, were trying to eat a nice lunch at the dining section of the garden. The squawking bird-things, which were half-lizardy with speckled brown feathers and wide beaks, had apparently claimed the bushes for their own. They were contesting this claim by spitting at the Heatseekers every time their backs were turned. These looked like pretty gross spitballs, impressive for birds.

It occurred to me that I’d seen those feathery characters all over the place here. A look behind confirmed it; they lurked in nearly every tree I could see. And judging by the way the locals were abandoning this picnic table, they were a known hazard.

They still only spat at fleeing enemies, hiding or freezing in place when pinned by eye contact.

And that was my idea. “Hey Mur,” I said. “I’ll bet you one shanty sung on a table that I can sell some of these googly eyes right now.”

He stopped and looked around, full of skepticism. “To who?”

“Do you take the bet?”

“Ah, sure. There’s no way anyone here is interested.”

“You say that now,” I said, grabbing a pack and waving down one of the hurrying locals. “But you don’t know how we deal with tigers and magpies.”

“With what?”

I didn’t answer, busy as I was explaining to the local that the false eyes were adhesive, and would give the impression of eye contact from both directions. They were just as interested as I’d thought they’d be.

After a demonstration, during which I strolled through the picnic area and didn’t get a single spitball on me, the birds were unsettled and the locals were more than happy to buy everything I had.

This was a new colony town, you see, and no one had come up with a good solution for the annoying fauna that came with the territory. But these folks were prepared to make everyone’s day.

They certainly made mine. That was five times as much as I’d paid for the stuff in the first place. And they didn’t even want the posters and harmonicas.

I waved goodbye, but they weren’t paying attention, so I turned my grin on Mur instead. He had draped a tentacle around his pointy squid head in exasperation.

“I knew I shouldn’t have taken the bet,” he declared. “But I was so sure it was pointless.”

“And I am sure that whichever song you choose to regale us with at dinnertime will be delightful,” I said, tugging the hovercart around the bushes. The birds watched me carefully, noting the eyes still stuck to my hair, and leaving us both alone. “If it’s a song I know, maybe I can play a backup melody with a harmonica.”

~~~

The ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book. More to come! And I am currently drafting a sequel!

pitiable-arisen:

Risheani, the Arisen, Sovran of Vermund

pitiable-arisen:

Calling all Arisens and Pawns alike!

Would you like some simple sketches of your arisen and/or pawns? Welp come on down!? Shoot me a message, reblog or submit! They will be simple pencil headshot sketches. I may do more if someone tickles my fancy.