Question your authorities

Let me start with explaining the viewpoint I am writing this from to you. I am privileged. I am white, I am European, I am able-bodied, and I am female (which does comes in handy when you are in a case other than sexualized violence against you). Also, I have never comitted a crime. Still, I have a personal problem with the police. I reported crimes three times in my life, and every time I felt belittled and not taken seriously. Now I can deal with that in the case where someone took the money I forgot in the ATM (which is, in my opinion, not even necessarily a crime, just not the nicest thing to do especially when the one who actually owns it is poor). I can not deal with that in the case where a random guy punched me in the face in the middle of the street because I was just walking past. No, officer, you can't see anything, but you couldn't see internal bleeding either and that would still be really bad, right? So I have been the victim, the reporting person most of the time when I dealt with police and was truly disappointed. Then there was that one time last year when I went to a protest. Going to a protest is something that takes a lot of willpower for me. I am hella scared of protests because I have been knowing people all my life who went and came back with injuries. We are talking anti-nazi protests - some where caused by the nazis, some where caused by the left who though it was really clever to throw stuff from a distance where they would only hit their own people, and some injuries were from the cops. I guess we all remember the protests against the G20 summit in Hamburg in Summer 2017 where shit went loose. Cars burning, people throwing bottles, none of this is okay. However, what is even less okay is police violently attacking peaceful protesters. You know, the ones who didn't throw bottles or set cars on fire. The majority. That shit happened, and while people who threw bottles and hurt no one with them get 3 years in jail, there are apparently no consequences for the cops. That is the main reason I have to gather all my strenght, hype myself up with angry music and gather a group of friends around me to even go to protests. Now when I went to the protest, I went peacefully. I am too scared to be violent. I could never physically attack a person simply because I am afraid of them hitting me back. Fear makes me a pretty peaceful person. So I went there, walked, showed my face, shouted my opinion, all within the law. I was exercising my right to protest. I was exercising my duty to protest against nazis. We all were. Suddenly, someone yelled "Run!" and when I turned around I saw a group of heavily armoured cops running towards us and they did not look like they'd stop. So I turned back around and ran away, didn't get far because I am clumsy, instead I tripped and fell down... and did not get up again on my own. Just accepted my fate and that I would propably die here trampled to death by the police for literally doing nothing wrong. Instead, my friends picked me up and I did not die, only got a few bruises and abrasions.
So overall, I have never been the perpetrator, never actually got in trouble with the police, and I still do not feel like I could trust them at all. Serve and protect is a lie to me. And I am lucky. I am privileged.
Now yesterday I saw the video of 18-years-old Bethany Nava getting pulled off the train by a police officer and eventually getting arrested. It all started with her having her feet up on the seat in the train. Not really that big of a deal. Now of course that got people discussing wether or not the cop overreacted. A lot of people believe that she should just have put her feet down and everything would have been alright. Here starts the thing: In the video, we can't see wether or not she didn't do that, naturally because people do not start filming when there is merely a conversation. Nava herself says she put her feet down immediately and in her story, it doesn't really sound like even getting her off the train was reasonable. However, even if I was to play devils advocate and not believe her story and assume that she did in fact not do what the cop asked her to do, arresting her including getting her handcuffed is too much in my opinion and getting her off the train would have been perfectly enough as a consequence. That Selena Lechuga, who came to Navas aid, was arrested too, is completely off the table in means of being ok. That's the last thing I will discuss.
The thing is, I am kind of okay with people discussing wether or not it was reasonable to arrest them. What I am not okay with is that the argument used most is something along the line of "he's a cop, he has every right to arrest her, it's the law". I hate that so many people just let cops do whatever they want because they have a badge. I hate that so many people just accept laws as they are. I hate that neither cops nor laws are questioned very often.
Cops are people. After all, they are humans like all of us, only that they wear uniforms, badges, batons, tasers and guns. Since they are humans, they can make mistakes. They are not infallible. It's important to keep that in mind. More importantly though, since they are human, they are not incapable of abusing their authority and position of power. And since they do have that authority and position of power, and because they carry weapons, they should be held up to higher standards than civilists, because their mistakes, their wrongs can end a lot worse more often than the ones civilists make. And when a cop makes a mistake, that is even more important, they should be held accountable for them. That's the biggest problem here.
Now after sharing that video, I had a (very peaceful, factual) discussion with a facebook friend of mine about it. They believe that, since Nava filed a claim against that cop, there will be justice according to what the law is regarding this case - if he did something wrong, he will be held accountable, if not, he won't. The thing is, laws are made and executed by people too. People, humans, who are, again, not incapable of doing wrong. Of misjudging a situation. Or, even worse, are not incapable of abusing their authority and position of power to make and execute laws as they please. Laws are not infallible too.
There are two things I want to use specifically to emphasize my point:
1. Homosexuality was forbidden by law in Germany until 1994. That's the year I was born. That is not at all long ago. That is not ancient history. Someone made that law because they thought homosexuality was bad. No one changed that law until 1994 because they didn't think it was important. People could have been persecuted for homosexuality in Germany until 1994. They were not, because while it was still the law no one executed it. Because they questioned it and found it was stupid. However, it wasn't important enough until 23 years ago to scrap it - and if there were homophobic cops and judges, people still could have been persecuted for being gay. Would people still say it would be ok because it was the law and therefore it must be right?
2. In the age of smart phones (including cameras), it is very easy to film incidences. This is what happened here, and there is alot of proof in that video that may help to tell wether or not this officer was in the right or wrong and, if the later, get him held accountable. But we all remember Eric Garner. You know, Eric Garner, who got killed by cops? Who was arrested for the mere speculation that he might illegaly sell cigarettes? Who actually was the good guy in this situation because he stepped in and ended a fight? Who was killed because the cops arresting him for nothing used an illegal chokehold? That incident was on camera too. Someone died, someone else filmed it, we have all the proof we need and the law is on Eric Garners side. The cop who killed him walked free. Instead, you know who got persecuted? The guy who filmed it. The guy who delivered the proof that didn't do shit. When cops aren't held accountable for killing someone with an illegal chokehold, why should one trust that they will be held accountable for doing less?
We have no reason to blindly trust police officers. We have no reason to blindly trust laws. Instead, we have a duty to always question them to prevent what stands at the end of the row - a police state, a dictatorship even. Sounds dramatic, but this is what we are risking if we keep doing this. Question your authorities, kids. Who if not us?

Yes means yes

So there's a new law being discussed in Sweden.
This new law says that not only "no" does mean "no" but that an actual "yes", actual conscious consent has to be given for sex to not be rape.
That means: Silence isn't consent, unconsciousness isn't consent, a "yes" under the influence of drugs isn't consent (and yes, that includes being drunk), a "yes" given because you were threatened if you said no is not consent and so on.
Now this law still has it's flaws: It still doesn't cover power inbalances being the reason for a spoken "yes", it is still is word against word when it comes to proving wether or not someone gave consent, but it is propably the best law victims of sexual violence can get to defend themselves and their bodily autonomy.
The reason I am writing a blog post about it is definitely not that I would have a problem with it - if anything, I am shocked again how something that should be common sense is still something Scandinavia has so much ahead of the rest of the world. Blimey, that should be the law everywhere.
No, the thing I am actually shocked of is how the press is delivering those news and how people react to them.
In German newspapers, the title often was something along the line of "in Sweden only yes means yes - ideally in a written contract". We all know that a lot of people rarely read anything more than the headline, so this is all they get from it: I now need a written contract that I may fuck this person. Thus, these news are already dangerously close to being fake news.
Now the reaction of the people doesn't exactly shock me, I have lived in this world long enough to know that people can be absolute assholes. It's just the same boring, exhausting reactions we always get as soon as we discuss sexual rights, and personally, I am really tired of discussing them over and over again with people who do not want to discuss seriously.
"Best to have a notary in the bedroom at all times"
"It takes away the spontaneity that makes sex so good"
"Sure, maybe you should ask when it's a one night stand but in a relationship or even marriage you wouldn't say no ever so why ask?"
and so on. Those are not even the most disgusting ones I read so far.
Now how am we supposed to believe that rape culture is not a thing when new consent laws like the Swedish one are treated like this? When people believe that simply asking "Are you down for sexy times?" is, well, too much to ask for? When people still think others owe them their bodies for whatever reason?
But overall, I am glad that the rape statistics in Sweden will go up. Not because there will be more rape cases, but more cases where the rapists actually will get prosecuted. Thanks, Sweden. Really hope the rest of the world will live up to you at some point.