Police

Election Day is November 8th, 2022

I hope you all voted by August 9th for the Primaries; now it is time for the General Election! Do you know what is on your ballot? Do you know how to find out? Did you even remember that there is an election coming up?

Well, there are a lot of elections coming up! Pulling straight from Wikipedia: “During this midterm election year, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested. Thirty-nine state and territorial gubernatorial and numerous other state and local elections will also be contested. This will be the first election affected by the redistricting that will follow the 2020 census” (2022 United States elections).

August 9th is the 2022 Primary Election

2022 is a midterm year, and August is the Primary month for Minnesota. Plus, there is a special election for Congressional District after 1 U.S. Representative Jim Hagedorn died on February 18, 2022. So, get out there and vote. Be certain to vote down-ballot. Check both sides of the ballot. Research who is on the ballot before you go in. And make certain that you understand and ballot questions or referendums before you vote on them.

Justin Reacts to "Mercy"

Justin Reacts to "Mercy"

Last week’s episode of Star Trek: Picard is “Mercy” (PIC 2x08). This is the antepenultimate episode! Thank you for joining me on this adventure.

I totally meant to post this last week, but I had a lot on my mind and a lot going on, and so it got delayed until today. The night before the penultimate episode. Oh, brains!

GraysMatter Podcast - Season 1, Episode 11

GraysMatter Podcast - Season 1, Episode 11

In this episode, we are picking up from where we left off last week about policing.

This episode is not sponsored.

Hosted By:
Justin (xe/xem) - https://www.justingrays.org/
Nat MN (they/them)
Sarah (she/her)

Content Warning - Mentions of:

  • Burglary

  • Edina

  • Military

  • Penal System

  • Police

  • Pregnancy | C-Section

  • Slavery

  • Student Debt

  • Violence

  • War

Resources that Sarah gives:

GraysMatter Podcast - Season 1, Episode 10

GraysMatter Podcast - Season 1, Episode 10

In this episode, we discuss topics ranging from city councils and the military to The Muppets and Animaniacs.

This episode is not sponsored.

Hosted By:
Justin (xe/xem) - https://www.justingrays.org/
Nat MN (they/them)
Sarah (she/her)

Content Warning - Mentions of:

  • Alcohol

  • Anti-maskers

  • Death

  • Medical Appointments

  • Medical Procedures

  • Mental Illness

  • Military

  • Police

  • Psychological Abuse

  • Racism

  • Slavery

  • Starship Troopers

Spoiler Warning: Disney’s Gargoyles

Please vote Yes For Minneapolis on Tuesday, November 02, 2021!

GraysMatter Podcast - Season 1, Episode 09

GraysMatter Podcast - Season 1, Episode 09

In this episode, we discuss topics ranging from police at PRIDE to the near-future and Star Trek.

This episode is not sponsored.

Hosted By:
Justin (xe/xem) - https://www.justingrays.org/
Nat MN (they/them)
Sarah (she/her)

Content Warning - Mentions of:

  • Bob Kroll

  • Jason Van Dyke

  • Justine Damond

  • Mohamed Noor

  • Police | Police Shootings

  • Slave Patrols

Please vote Yes For Minneapolis on Tuesday, November 02, 2021!

GraysMatter Podcast - Season 1, Episode 06

GraysMatter Podcast - Season 1, Episode 06

In this episode, we discuss topics ranging from politics and lateral reading to science fiction and polyamory.

This episode is not sponsored.

Hosted By:

Justin (xe/xem) - https://www.justingrays.org/
Nat (they/them)
Noel (they/them)
Sarah (she/her)

Content Warning - Mentions of:

  • The Bible

  • COVID-19

  • Death

  • Guns/Gun Violence

  • Joss Whedon

  • Mass Shooting

  • Masturbation

  • Military/National Guard

  • Murder

  • Nazis/Neonazis

  • Odinists

  • Police

  • Porn

  • Religion

  • Richard Spencer

  • Seth MacFarlane

  • Sex

  • Suicide

  • Violence

  • Zack Snyder

GraysMatter Podcast - Season 1, Episode 00

GraysMatter Podcast - Season 1, Episode 00

We talk about everything from masks, fashion, and glasses, to policing, skinny dipping, and kayaking.

This episode is not sponsored. We are not lawyers, and nothing we say is intended to be, nor should be constituted as legal advice.

Hosted By:

FaeBun (she/her)
Jen (she/her) - https://twitter.com/Jenathi
Justin (xe/xem) - https://www.justingrays.org/

Content Warning - Mentions Of:

Nazis
Rape Culture
Vomiting
Police
Transitioning

2020 General Election - Race for Congress (Federal)

The 2020 General Election is drawing ever closer. Are you registered? Minnesotans can register here. Early no-excuse voting has already started, and you can still request your ballot by mail. It is not too late! If you do request your ballot by mail, you can mail it back or deliver it yourself; if you decide to not request a ballot by mail, you can still vote early in person - or even on election day itself, if you have to! MPR News had Secretary of State Steve Simon answer questions about early voting - I suggest that everyone give it a listen. Now, research your candidates and get out there! Get voting!

I made a long response to this offensive post so you don't have to.

Some time ago, someone wrote a post on social media and accredited it to pro-golfer Bubba Watson. This post was a poorly written, terribly construed piece of garbage that takes more time to explain why each point of it is incorrect than it took to write in the first place. It uses the type of rapid-fire wording that makes it look like it is trying to be thoughtful and making a point when it is nothing more than an offensive dog-whistle and rides on the back of the lack of media literacy in certain groups of people. It is an attempt to make things look like Black people don’t care about our communities when we have been struggling our entire lives to survive.

Minnesota 2020 Primary - US House, 5th MN District

Now that I have made my decision about who will get my vote for the Senate in the Primary, let’s take a look at the US House of Representatives. I live in the Minnesota 5th Congressional District, which has 9 people running across 3 parties. Like for senator, only one person can get my vote, so I will have to narrow it down.

Minnesota 2020 Primary - US Senate

Tuesday, August 12th, will be Minnesota’s Primary Election Day. A primary election determines which candidates will be on the ballot in the November general election [8], the winner representing their political party. There are 12 candidates across five parties running this year - Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) [Note 1], Republican, Legal Marijuana Now, and Grassroots - Legalize Cannabis. I haven’t yet decided for whom I am going to vote, and so I will share my decision with you as I finish making it.

We Must Defund and Dismantle the Police

We have been seeing gestures from political entities, ranging from Black Lives Matter murals painted on streets and streets renamed to Black Live Matter, to congresspeople wearing Kente Cloth, to cops kneeling in supposed solidarity before resuming their beatings of protesters. But gestures are not enough - action is needed. What we need are the defunding and dismantling of police, as well as investment in communities.

Super Bowl Halftime Shakeup

The 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Show seems to have ruffled some feathers. I personally didn’t care about Super Bowl LIV until a couple of days after it happened - that was when I started seeing commentary from various folx calling out people who have been having “righteous anger” about Jennifer López and Shakira’s halftime performance. To be honest, I still don’t care about football or the Super Bowl itself [Note 1] [Note 2]; I only liked the beauty, pageantry, and importance of this particular halftime performance.

It took over a day before I saw any negative posts about the halftime show appear in my social media - in fact, I only saw one directly. The condensed version of the one negative post said: “We want women to not be seen as sex objects… yet we celebrate during half time woman[sic] in almost nothing doing strip club moves” and went on to say that men of “integrity” chose a better path than to watch the show [Note 3]. It was strongly implied that the men of “integrity” were some flavor of Christians - Assemblies of God [Note 4], I think. This was a troubling sentiment, and I responded with:

So, we should blame women for men not treating people like people? That doesn't make sense. And what about the Latinx kids in cages singing BORN IN THE USA and LETS GET LOUD surrounded by an illumined Venus symbol? Did you notice the foot work? Did you notice the rope Shakira tied around her body while belly dancing? Everything done at this event has a far, FAR deeper meaning. Not to mention the multilingual songs, the Puerto Rican flag, that sex work is legitimate work and the pole wasn’t about you? This righteous anger is very weird, I find. "Here's what appropriate dress is" with no concept of culture or history, with nothing said about kids in cages or the policing of brown bodies. Depressing.

One person took exception to my saying that sex work is legitimate work, and made her feelings clear about it, expanding on them on her own page. Unfortunately, everything said was either based on a lie, was a half-truth, or was the legacy of white people removing POC agency. I was initially incensed, but then instead of engaging directly I decided to go ahead and write this.

When I made my initial comment on the Super Bowl post, I had not yet seen the entire performance; only clips, stills, and other people's comments. Since then, I have seen the performance in its entirety. I was absolutely floored by it. It was an amazing experience. It also made me even more disturbed by the comment that I saw.

I hope that anybody who reads this will have the opportunity to share it and help spread knowledge - stop the shaming and misinformation.

Registration is open for the Saint Louis Park Citizen's Academy autumn classes!

Registration is open for the Saint Louis Park Citizen's Academy autumn classes!

Saint Louis Park residents and community members: the Saint Louis Park Police Department is offering the Citizen's Academy once again, on Thursdays September 12th - November 15th 2018 from 6-9pm. Interested participants who are adults 18 and over and live or work in St. Louis Park should complete the registration form at www.stlouispark.org/police-academy by 4:30 p.m. on August 30th. The deadline is coming up fast!