Abolish police. Abolish carceral logics. Increase sanitation budgets, drain police budgets. Fund communities. Heal communities. Remember that city budgets are VALUES documents. Divorce sanitation from the police state. ACAB. FTP. If you know me/my work you know how hard I go for sanitation workers and how vocal I am about the waste sector and its relationship to, well, everything. I’m alarmed (but not shocked) by how the language and logics of prison nation are taking over DSNY. 1/ This is a complex issue because overarching, municipality-based policy and legislation directly impact the operations of sanitation dept aka the work that’s done, how it’s done, who does it, etc. Further, lack of adequate $ TO sani depts (aka budgets) impact policy/ leg. 2/ So my critique is of this city’s refusal to prove that they value and want to center anti-pollution/zero waste initiatives in an EQUITABLE way that combats violent systems like capitalism...not individual sanitation workers who are already struggling/underpaid. 3/ There are equitable ways to handle waste inequity, littering, illegal dumping, improper source separation in home trash cans (which are an underdiscussed type of waste infrastructure), pollution, and other waste management issues that are met with fines/punishment. 4/ Text/image description continued in comments...