Look at what we allow
This piece appears in my forthcoming book We Had It Coming.
Here's a nice new plug for it from a smart and talented guy.
Look at what we allow
They said he threw his jacket. Kept saying that over and over. The man was agitated on the subway and he threw his jacket. I don't know what that means. I understand the basic physics of the action being described mind you and I understand why they would immediately start printing something like that in the newspapers because I guess in theory it suggests aggression that begged for a response. Not the one it got but still.
He threw his jacket they said. Kept saying. I don't know what that means.
Try throwing a jacket right now. What have you done? Nothing. Tom Brady could not throw a jacket especially hard. You couldn't hurt a person by throwing a jacket. You couldn't even hurt a small animal. Throwing your jacket on top of one is what you would do to specifically not hurt a bird that has gotten into your house. So you could carry it gently back outside. So that it could go on living.
The man’s killer was a marine which triggered the media to use the same exonerative tense that they always use for cops. The most lethal among us always also the most blameless.
How people make excuses for certain breeds of dogs.
That hierarchical framing shows up a lot in bicyclist vs. driver stories and in the common use of homeowner as an honorific in a crime story and most especially in any normal citizen vs. homeless person story which is what this was.
Not just one specific group of normal citizens vs. one specific homeless person but all of them vs. all of them.
And it's a Thursday in May and a man is dead. Do you feel any safer?
I guess this one isn’t fiction. You and I are just talking here.
I told you before that I know it can be uncomfortable to encounter an unhoused person in distress but that is because it is an up close and personal look at How It Actually Is. A peek under the hood of this country. The churning gears and foul combustion. It's no wonder then that so many of us want these humans simply disappeared. And they are humans in case you need reminding.
They aren't a threat so much as they are an indictment.
Look at what we allow.
It's the hideous beating of the tell-tale heart.
Much like with the existence of any billionaire the inverse here is that so many systemic mechanisms that should have been in operation had to have failed for any individual unhoused person to exist in the first place. It’s shameful to see and so of course we all feel uneasy about it.
It's not so much seeing how the sausage is made it's seeing the sausage after it’s been digested.
You told me about something you learned in school. A professor said that one of the things that helped people accept their work as concentration camp guards was that the terrible conditions of the camps themselves made the prisoners’ literal filth synonymous with their inherent filthiness. If they weren’t dirty then they wouldn’t be this dirty.
It applies to modern prison guards and the ICE kidnappers as well. Look at this worm living in the wormhole. Writhing in its own muck.
Doing it to offend my sense of decency come to think of it. A personal insult to me.
Will no one rid me of these insects?
Let me ask you something. Take a quick inventory of your life. Like mine it's currently a mostly comfortable and safe one right? But be honest with yourself. Do you feel closer to the chasm of poverty with perhaps a devastating medical bill or an eviction or a ruinous encounter with the police or a worsening struggle with addiction or closer to the attainment of wealth and power?
Which end of the see-saw are you actually sitting on?
In related news:
A statement in response from the National Homelessness Law Center reads in part.
Today’s executive order, combined with MAGA’s budget cuts for housing and healthcare, will increase the number of people forced to live in tents, in their cars, and on the streets. This order does nothing to lower the cost of housing or help people make ends meet. The safest communities are those with the most housing and resources, not those that make it a crime to be poor or sick. Forced treatment is unethical, ineffective, and illegal. People need stable housing and access to healthcare. Rather, Trump’s actions will force more people into homelessness, divert taxpayer money away from people in need, and make it harder for local communities to solve homelessness.
Some additional reading from Hell World:
Luke O’Neil
Luke O’Neil
Hey speaking of the bravery of the cops look at these fucking cowards:
Covington Police Ohio, beating and arresting ICE Protestors during an ICE protest on the Roebling Bridge. 7/18/25
— Ali Hadji Jafari (@alihadjijafari.bsky.social) 2025-07-20T11:53:54.132Z
"Covington police said one officer who was seen punching a protester was placed on administrative duty as the department investigates the response," WLWT5 reported. "That officer was identified Monday as Zachary Stayton."
"We have opened an investigation into that," Covington police chief Brian Valenti said. "I don't want to speculate as to how that's going to turn out."
We can all probably assume how it will turn out though right chief? You know we can all assume that safely right?
The protestor who Stayton punched in the fucking head over and over again is facing nine charges.
Let us now also look at these even bigger fucking cowards who were responding to the home of Melissa Hortman the Minnesota lawmaker who was assassinated:
At 3:35 a.m., two Brooklyn Park police officers arrived at the Hortman residence. Those officers fired at Boelter as he entered the house after shooting Mark Hortman. Additional muzzle flashes from Boelter inside the home lit up the entryway.
Despite the gunfire, officers didn’t enter the house until 4:38 a.m., according to timestamps on the bodycam footage. Instead of entering the home immediately to check on Melissa Hortman, the officers waited for a drone to be deployed to see if Boelter was inside and if Melissa Hortman was still alive.
A source familiar with the drone footage said Hortman is shown immobile and curled up on the landing at the top of the stairs.
At 4:42 a.m., Melissa Hortman was taken out of the house and brought to an ambulance.
Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley has said his officers believed they shot Boelter and he was “holed up” in the basement.
After shooting the Hortmans and the family dog, Gilbert, Boelter allegedly escaped out the back door, which was propped open. He then dumped his mask, wig and gun, and was on the run for 43 hours before being captured.
Sitting their on their asses Uvalde-style while the woman bled to death and the shooter just ducked out the back. Probably thinking to himself "I can't believe they're not getting my ass."
Would Hortman still be alive had they acted sooner? Maybe maybe not. But the important thing is that no real life was lost right? No cop was endangered.
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You don't really hear too much about "free speech" and "cancel culture" anymore do you? Weird one.