If I rolled around in trash, I don’t think I’d be terribly grateful to sanitation workers for taking my trash away, now would I?
Sanitation workers save countless lives, die in the line of duty much more frequently than cops, and have never to my knowledge been used to terrorize and oppress poor people and people of color.
Do you know how many people would die of typhus, cholera, and other horrible and preventable diseases without sanitation workers? Without sanitation workers we could easily have a resurgence of the bubonic plague because rats would run rampant through our trash filled hell scape cities. We’d have mass infestation of disease carrying fleas brought in by the rats.
We would have epidemics of disease of nigh apocalyptic proportions. Do you know what the world was like pre-sanitation worker? The streets were filled with shit, corpses, food waste, rotting offal of all kinds.
Do you not realize how MIRACULOUS how clean and trash free modern American cities are?
I have complained to the police on multiple occasions, and they did nothing, nothing to catch the burglar who stole all the plumbing from my basement for scrap copper, nothing to catch the flasher who accosted me on a walk (instead they spent 15 minutes laughing and not believing me) and nothing until I identified the culprit (I’d seen his pickup truck) when a large amount of farming equipment was stolen from my parents barn. However they’re perfectly happy to pour a homeless veteran’s PTSD meds down a storm drain and beat the shit out of him.
I have never seen one do a lick of useful work in all my days.
Fuck cops.
Sanitation workers: Literally stopping our streets from being covered in trash. Transporting tons of trash and recycling to appropriate places, allowing us to live the material-focused lives that we all do. (like do y’all want to take everything to the dump and recycling plants yourself?) Known to advocate for labor rights and waste-related environmentalism.
Cops: Instead of checking that our restaurant wasn’t being robbed when the alarm was accidentally tripped yesterday, they harassed our employees and wrecked some shit. My GM recognised one of the cops. He once assaulted a homeless man who was taking too long to get into the car.
Cops are trash and sanitation workers should take them out.
“ die in the line of duty much more frequently than cops” Does anyone have a source for that claim? I’m not accusing you of lying I’d just like to see the source.
When I had a job working all alone in a big empty church building, and there was someone physically attacking people in our huge creepy maze-like basement, I was very happy to have cops to call.
So sue me – I’m a coward that way. I’m not tough and I’m afraid of people using violence to hurt people.
And in that event – like in the overwhelming majority of events where cops are called – no one was shot, and no one was hurt (other than the person who had been attacked by the aggressive guy).
When someone was yelling and screaming and throwing things at people outside my office, I’m glad someone (not me this time) called the cops, because they came and talked her down and spent quite a while locating folks who could offer her immediate care, which she seemed to agree that she needed.
Not denying that some cops have done horrible things, and I’m not denying that there are huge systematic issues, including systematic racism, which make it more likely cops will do bad things. But I’m not gonna agree that “cops are trash” categorically.
I’m completely with the OP on sanitation workers, though. Good sanitation is pretty much the greatest things ever. I often discreetly watch my garbage being taken away because I’m just that grateful the service exists.
I’m not saying you should have to go confront mr. violent weirdo yourself, I’m saying “as it stands the police are a toxic and intentionally dysfunctional institution founded to defend capital and oppress the oppressed.” They did nothing when my basement was burgled, nothing when I was accosted by a public masturbator and nothing about my abusive ex
Thoughts From The Peacock Angel 