NO FACE NO CA$E @nofacenocaseblog - Tumblr Blog

October 6th 2023

The Collins English Dictionary defines Resistance as a "movement

Resistance movement fighting for freedom, often secretly or illegally, against an invader in an occupied country or against the country's government" [1]

Palestine or is the region that spans from Mediterranean sea to the Jordan river. It was under British mandate until 1948. Before that pivotal year Jews, Muslims and Christians lived together and all held a Palestinian passport.

Now that we are clear about the aforementioned, let’s pick it up where the Brits left it, shall we?

1948

World War 2 is over. Palestine, still under British mandate, is given to holocaust survivors. The US, UK and France stole their land and create the state of Israel, gaining in the meantime a foothold in the middle east.

CONSEQUENCE: The Nakba (Arabic: النكبة an-Nakbah): the violent displacement and dispossession of more than 750,000 Palestinians along with the destruction of their society, culture, identity and political rights by Zionist militias first followed by the Israeli army.

1967

The Six-day war: Israel fight a coalition of Arab states and seizes the remaining Palestinian territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.

Despite the war being between Arab countries and Israel, those who have lost the most are Palestinians. This war marks the beginning of the longest occupation in modern history (over 50 years) with heavy Israeli military control, separation wall and an ever growing number of illegal settlements all over Gaza and West Bank.

1987

Palestinian imam and activist Ahmed Yassin, after the outbreak of the First Intifada against Israeli occupation, founds Hamas, an acronym of its official name, the Islamic Resistance Movement.

This acronym, HMS, was later glossed in the 1988 Hamas Covenant by the Arabic word ḥamās (حماس) which itself means strength, bravery.

2005

Israeli disengagement from Gaza: 21 illegal settlements in the Gaza Strip were dismantled. Israeli settlers and military evacuated from inside the Gaza Strip.

2006

Hamas win the Palestinian legislative election

2007

Israel start imposing a blockade on Gaza and its population making the strip the largest and most populated open air prison on earth.

Under international law, a blockade is an act of war(regulated by the 1856 Paris Declaration and by Articles 1–22 of the 1909 London Declaration) [2].

CONSEQUENCES: Gaza has been declared war by Israeli occupiers long before October 7th 2023… Based on International law, Gaza armed groups are resistance forces

Following the beginning of the blockade, IDF ( Israel ‘Defense’ Forces) waged several wars on Gaza: 2008–09, 2012, 2014 and 2021… not counting the ongoing 2023 collective punishment.

FACTS:

5,200 Palestinians in Israeli jail before October 7th [3].

Over 5,500 Palestinians were killed from 2005 to OCTOBER 6TH 2023.

The next day, the resistance rose against their occupiers.

[1] https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/resistance-movement

[2] https://guide-humanitarian-law.org/content/article/3/blockade/#:~:text=A%20blockade%20is%20an%20act,the%20terms%20blockade%20and%20embargo%20.

[3] https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/10/21/number-of-palestinian-prisoners-in-israel-doubles-to-10000-in-two-weeks

OPINION:

I believe Hamas is an ideology, and you can't kill an idea. The "tunnel war" hasn't started yet and the resistance forces are fighting behind enemy lines (and able to fire barrages of rockets to Southern Israel). HAMAS' military infrastructure is nearly intact, so are theirs troops. The israeli media propaganda keeps lying to the world while conducting illegal Raid in The West Bank who has become a pressure cooker where a third intifada is looming.

#gaza #ceasfire now #free gaza #free palestine

𝗗𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 #4: Italy / From War to War

Part One

NO FACE NO CA$E - Dope Stories is back. A collection of articles on our society through the lens of the drug trade. After Berlin, Marseille and Barcelona, this time we're going to Italy. Titled From War to War, this 4th installment sheds light on how the migrant crisis has been fueling the drug trade to the profit of criminal groups.

Organized crime has demonstrated deceitful ingenuity when it comes to capitalize on the news and on-going crisis. Human trafficking is one of their most lucrative activities. Unlike drugs, the commodity here -human beings- is used (and abused) repeatedly, making it an infinite revenue stream. The never-ending flaw of migrants comes from all parts of Africa , Middle East and Asia through Lybia. They end up rescued in Italian waters or dead at sea. The “lucky” ones are then brought to the shores of small islands such as Lampedusa all the way up to the regions of Calabria andPuglia in the South of Italy.

Up to the 15 of March this year, 6,701 migrants disembarked in Italy. A staggering 66,770 people arrived in 2021. The first five countries of origin were Tunisia, Egypt,Bangladesh, Iran, and Ivory Coast[1].

Italy has repeatedly requested aid from the EU in managing refugees, but has been turned down, left completely alone in dealing with this growing crisis.

Most of asylum seekers, given their countries of origin, don’t qualify for the refugee status and many will remain illegal once on mainland Italy, entangled in an administrative web. The presence in those regions of some of the most powerful crime syndicates the world has ever known makes this human crisis an opportunity for pushing their products in less "controlled" area areas such as city centers where the risk of being apprehended by the authorities, and for some deported, is high - yet worth takingfor many of them after the journey out of hell they had to undertake.

Like any commodity, illegal drugs are traded in a market where buyers and sellers need to locate each other to conduct a transaction. Two types of marketplace exist:

- Person-specific, using communication network (phone, social media…) to get information about vendors, locations and time.

- Place-specific, operating in geographically well-defined areas so buyers and sellers can locate themselves easily and proceed with the transaction.

We chose to focus here on place-specific retail markets, also called open-air drugmarkets. What does that entail? An easy access to anyone who looks like a potential client, buyers can weigh quality against price and sellers maximize customer access. The downside is that all “players” are vulnerable to police interventions.

Criminal groups, to minimize that risk, set up 2 sub-models operating in very differentlocations and fashions:

Let’s call the first model: “High control” open-air drug market. It is set in public housing or low income buildings on the outskirts of major cities.

The 2nd model is more of a “Free” open-air drug market. It takes places in city centers with train stations and parks as epicenter of the illicit trade

I “High control” open-air drug markets

In this scenario, the area, often low income buildings or public housing, is controlled by a criminal organization, making it “less risky” or more foreseeable when it comes to police interventions .

Exploiting the buildings intricate architecture and the usual one way in & out of those complexes, criminals make sure to occupy vantage points on roofs and roads and to own strategically positioned apartments (converted into stash houses or clandestine laboratories etc…). They are able to store, process, pack dispatch and distribute the product in a single place with little concern regarding the authorities. They have thesector under surveillance. At the first sign of a suspicious car or person and warningsspreads like wildfire. Nonetheless dealers make sure to carry little to no drugs on them (hiding them in nearby hollow pipes, staircases etc…). The unique layouts of those developments almost look like they were made to facilitate illegal activities… you won’t find any migrant working in those neighborhood but only locals, Italians. I could witness this type of operations in two cities: Naples and Rome

Napoli - Rione Traiano

Direction Naples, not Scampia but to the lesser known Rione Traiano. Although within the city limits, the closest train station is a 20-minute walk on deserted roads, over-paths, roundabouts, railroads and…a carabinieri station. After wandering through high-rises, we reached a low-rise area.

By then, my partners and I have been spotted, watched, checked by few kids roaming on scooters… in other words, we’ve been vetted and “let through”.

We ventured in a courtyard where we see another kid, 16 years old at the most, sat on some steps leading to a metal door. We looked at each other and he asked me if I needed anything. After exchanging a few words he shows me the reinforced door behind him.

Security cameras have been watching us all along, we approached and were buzzed-in before I even knock, we climbed down a few stairs, pass another see-through metal door and in a tiny room with a couch, a table and a couple of screens, sit a large pit-bull and two, nice but “not to fuck with”, fellas.

One guy is staring at the CCTV monitors covering the area and the other weighting and serving cocaine before you while giving you two options: to consume on premises or “da portare via” -to take out.

The atmosphere is chill, they’re joking, making small talks, no fear or paranoia, just a well-oiled operation. The complex structure of buildings makes it only harder for the police. The room where the dealing takes place had back exit doors, the courtyard, on the contrary, has a single entry and exit road making it easier for look outs with the higher ground to check who comes and goes, making sure there are no five-O. And it works, the operations have been going on for years, few hundred meters from a police station… The entire operation is run by locals, no migrants can be found.

Roma - G.R.A. uscita 17

A bit over 2 hours drive North of Naples, before we enter in Rome city limits, we find another notorious example of High control open air drug market. On the peripheral ring (Grand Raccordo Anulare) a.k.a. “Raccordo” -as they call it here, take the Exit 17 to Tor Bella Monaca (or “Tor Bella”), a development from the 80’s, made of low income and public housing.

Let me give you the lowdown: 15% of minors are under judicial orders, a third of the 28,000 inhabitants lives under poverty level, unemployment rate is 19% (twice the city average)[2]. Yet, the social chasm that has emerged here is essentially physical: the remote location, poorly connected to the inner city, enables not only a geographical, but also and most importantly a psychological and financial ostracism. The perfect breeding ground for organized crime.

“Don’t you worry, we’re all friends here…”

This is high control open drug market at its finest: One road in and out, a puzzled architecture with path and bridges in between building, outdoor staircases, 15-story towers, hidden courtyards and parks, abandoned urban layout…. The risk is well managed, the lack of fear from dealers is here to prove it. I literally passed by and witnessed a “blitz” (a police bust as the cops call it…), with carabinieri handcuffing in plain view over 5 people at the feet of one of the first towers[3]. Meanwhile, two blocks down the road, it was business as usual. Seeing the concern on my partner’s face, one of the dealers shout at us with a smile “Don’t you worry, we’re all friends here…”. It, indeed, re-assured us in some way...

Always a step ahead of the police, this business has been going on for decades. Here as well, the distribution is fully handled by Italians from the neighborhood, like in Traiano, you won’t find any migrants dealing here.

It’s a game of cat and mouse the police can’t win. They rather direct their resources and attention on another -easier- target: migrants working on the way riskier “free” open-air drug market in central areas of town.

Stay tuned for part two of Dope Stories #4: From War to War. We’ll be going to Genova, Torino, Bologna, Napoli (again) and Bari to witness a very different scenario.

www.luckybstrd.com

www.wearepartnersincrimew.com

@_luckybstrd

references

[1] https://euromedrights.org/migrants-and-refugees-in-italy-2/

[2] https://labgov.city/theurbanmedialab/perspectives-on-tor-bella-monacas-planning-outcomes/

[3] https://www.ilcorrieredellacitta.com/news/spettacolo/disney-plus-novita-maggio-2022-serie-tv-film-cartoni-animati-in-uscita.html

#drugs #mafia #Italy #migrant #migrant crisis #reportage #refugees #dealing #cocaine #addiction #nofacenocase

𝗨𝗣 𝗛𝗜𝗚𝗛

𝓜𝓪𝓻𝓼𝓮𝓲𝓵𝓵𝓮 𝑒𝓉 𝓈𝒶 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝒹𝓊𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 T-shirt by MDLR (Mecs De La Rue) straight outta Marseille, spotted on the roofs of Trastevere, Rome /// “Made in la Rue” - Marseille /// Gearing up for upcoming projects... Stay tuned /// ACAB /// 𝙉𝙊 𝙁𝘼𝘾𝙀 𝙉𝙊 𝘾𝘼𝙎𝙀 /// 𝘔𝘔𝘟𝘟𝘐 📸 photo by @virginia_the_cat

𝙉𝙚𝙪𝙠𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙣 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙙®️ Sneak peek of upcoming apparel and clothing line 𝙉𝙚𝙪𝙠𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙣 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙙®️ by @partnersincrimebrand and designed by yours truly… ❌COMING SOON ❌ Raw, untamed this clothing line express Neukölln and Berlin rebel, anti mainstream and DIY spirit. Linocut handprinted poster, find them In the streets of Neukölln 🙌🙌.

ULTRAVIOLENCE . Toshio Saeki, legendary painter/illustrator from the Tokyo underground, is also known as “Godfather of Japanese Erotica”. His works, launched in the 1970s, depict unbridled explorations of violence, death, and sex, capturing the post-war spirit of cultural rebellion and social reinvention. Saeki was a legendary figure of Japan’s postwar underground scene, having built a fervent cult following through erotic illustrations that blended gore, humor, and Japanese folklore. As Tokyo was subject to social revolution in the 1970s, Saeki’s drawings—which took an overt, even playful approach to sexual taboo—captured the mood.. In 2013 he told DAZED: “Leave other people to draw seemingly beautiful flowers that bloom within a nice, pleasant-looking scenery, I try instead to capture the vivid flowers that sometimes hide and sometimes grow within a shameless, immoral and horrifying dream.” Toshio Saeki - 1945-2019

𝐄𝐍𝐅𝐀𝐍𝐓 𝐃𝐔 𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐇𝐄𝐔𝐑

Criminal and prison tattoo inspired flash sheet.

𝔉𝔯𝔢𝔫𝔠𝔥 𝔠𝔯𝔦𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔞𝔩 𝔱𝔱𝔱:

ENFANT DU MALHEUR: remembrance of a difficult childhood

Moon: Court-martialed soldiers

Pierrot: heartbroken

Skull with crossbones: Against the army

Cross: I trust no one

Cross with heart: love hurts

3 dots: death to cops

Handshake with dagger: strong relation between two people and the violence inherent

ℜ𝔲𝔰𝔰𝔦𝔞𝔫 𝔠𝔯𝔦𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔞𝔩 𝔱𝔱𝔱:

Cats: symbol of thieves

Five dots: in prison, serving time

Single dot: freedom

𝔖𝔬𝔲𝔱𝔥 𝔄𝔣𝔯𝔦𝔠𝔞𝔫 𝔭𝔯𝔦𝔰𝔬𝔫 𝔱𝔱𝔱:

Knife with “Shortcut to Heaven”

𝔅𝔯𝔞𝔷𝔦𝔩𝔦𝔞𝔫 𝔠𝔯𝔦𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔞𝔩 𝔱𝔱𝔱:

Clown: cop killer

𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐎 𝐃𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐈 𝐌𝐌𝐗𝐗

A medieval vision of 2020, one of the worst year ever, we saw:

• Death becoming part of our daily lives

• A global pandemic killing millions

• Homicidal pigs (I meant cops... my auto-correct is adamant)

•vThe opioid crisis getting more and more lethal

• The worst president in US history

• Far right groups and militias spreading like rats

• Rampant authoritarianism,

• Widely spread and “accepted” racism

• The US democracy in danger, weakened

• Freedom of speech and press threatened

• Human rights undermined worldwide...

...the feeling of being back in the dark ages of civilization persists: witch hunts, plague, monarchy, religious extremism, abuse of power... and is represented by the following:

* The plague doctor symbolizes the pandemic we’re going through and the rules (social distancing, mask etc...) that became our new reality.

* The pig, well it speaks for itself #acab

* The death and the coffin represents the millions of deaths that occurred in 2020.

* The 2020 version of the Bonfire of the Vanities: GOP (Great Old Party, the other name of the Republican Party) bbq, burning: Trump, Pence, Barr, Flynn, Powell and Giuliani

RUSSIAN CRIMINAL TATTOOS

My fascination for the subcultures of criminal and prison tattoos was the reason why I started learning the trade. Since then, I broaden my exoertise in the matter and criminal tattoos are fully part of my work. I researched different Several criminal tattoo subcultures such as France (early XXth century), Italy, South America but Russian Criminal tattoos remains by far my favorite when it comes to iconography and how elaborated the meaning behind each tattoo is,

Today and until the end of the week, buy the Russian Criminal Tattoos Series consisting of 5 limited edition tattoo flash-sheets. Find them on my online shop or by clicking BIG CARTEL in the left menu. You can purchase them individually for 20€ each or the entire series of 5 flash-sheets for 50€.

RUSSIAN CRIMINAL TATTOOS SERIES

EXCLUSIVELY ON www.weareparnersincrime.bigcartel.com

𝗗𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 #3: NARCOPISOS Inc. /Barcelona narcopisos, a necessary evil

The 3rd episode of Dope Stories is the most in-depth investigation of the series, so much that it took me nearly 3 years to gain the trust and respect of my contacts and more importantly, to get relevant insights about the local drug market and its players to show, under a different angle than mainstream media, what’s happening behind the closed doors of the Ciutat Veilla’s narrow streets.

Playground 1 - Raval, Barcelona / 2018 / iPhone

“Drugs are ruining our neighborhood! “, “Narcopisos are disrupting the real estate market!” , “ We don’t feel safe!”…

Those are the slogans or headlines you see in the media or written on banners hanging from people’s balconies.

“Narcopisos are filthy and dangerous!”

But are they though?

FOREWORD

Before getting started, I wanted to write a few words about Barcelona. After living more than a decade in New York, my wife and I moved to Catalan capital for about 4 years. After reading this article you might think that I m not particularly fond of the town and its inhabitants. I won’t lie, we didn’t receive the warmest welcome, especially from Catalans. This said, the town and its vibe are unique and galvanizing. Very much like Marseille (my hometown), Barcelona is an harbor city with the port/marina right in the center, meaning: lots of traffics, smuggling, immigration, corruption, drugs etc… There is always “something going on”, if you catch my drift. Shady, nasty, funny, ugly, beautiful, vulgar, the cast of “pirate-like” characters gravitating around the city center is fascinating.

Occupied - Raval, Barcelona / 2017 / Nikon 3200

As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been drawn toward the forbidden, the danger, the illicit, the hidden, the bad... To my eyes, “ugly” has always been more interesting than “beautiful”. Barcelona is not a dangerous city but you need to keep your guard up: pick pockets roaming the subway, gypsies asking for money on La Rambla (the city’s most touristic avenue) while releasing your back pocket from your wallet, junkies selling stolen goods or begging for change for their next fix #nextfixandchill , black people selling fake airmax on the Barcelonetta marina, drunken street fights in the early hours of the morning... Tragicomic scenes are unravelling before your eyes in an surreal backdrop: Gaudi’s most beautiful “psychedelic” buildings (Sagrafa Familia, casa pedrera, Palau Guell...) in a jungle of gothic buildings ending on a fisherman village overseeing a beautiful beachfront promenade ending with the native “star’chitect” Bofill’s famous W...

Poolside - Barcelonetta, Barcelona / 2018 / iPhone

Ok, enough with the touristic tour, time to get real!

Stairway to Hell - Raval, Barcelona / 2017 / iPhone

Embark on a descend to the heroin inferno that became Raval. From the fields of Afghanistan to the bloodstreams of Spain...

La Ruta [Spanish for “the route”]

19,414 Pakistanis live in Barcelona, 6,600 of them are established in the neighborhood: El Raval (1) meaning more than 30% of the total community. El Raval has always been my favorite barrio in town. With 47% of immigrants (2) , the mosaic of faces, cultures and shops you encounter is dazzling . Going back to the Pakistani population, I used the word “established” for a specific reason: they actually own many of the businesses in Raval: barbershop, cheap bars and restaurants, wholesale shops, import/export businesses, money transfer services (Western Union, Moneygram), food and grocery shops... I’m not accusing here the Pakistani business owners of backing the drug traffic but they basically created a web of small businesses in a tight net community with their own language, making it hard for the authorities to see through this social fabric potentially sheltering illegal activities.

Why the Pakistani population is subject to speculation and doubt from the local authorities? The answer is simple: Afghanistan. Afghanistan is by far the biggest producer of opium in the world. According to the US military, 90% of the world's heroin is made from opium grown in Afghanistan. It makes up 95% of the market in Europe (3). The country has been the leader in opium poppy production since 2001. Based on the 2014 report from the UNODC (United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime), Afghanistan not only grow opium but also process heroin in several laboratory as well as morphine (easier to produce from raw opium by adding calcium oxide and ammonium chloride). From Afghanistan, several routes are used to smuggle their prime commodities: the Balkan route has been the primary route but things are changing and the Southern route has become more and more used. Afghanistan share 2,400km of border with Pakistan and over 50% of illicit afghan opiates are trafficked through Pakistan which enjoys a a strategic location making it a perfect dispatch zone with readily accessible by land, sea (Gwadar and Karachi seaport) and air ways .

The same UNODC report also indicates that the majority (37%) of the heroin seized in Pakistan was en-route for Europe..

*** Read and/or download the full report here ***

By the way, let’s not forget that Barcelona is also one of the Camorra’s stronghold. And with Russians and Albanian mafias also present on the territory, Spain -where no powerful local crime syndicate operates and laws on prostitution and gambling are “blurred” to say the least- has become one of organize crime’s favorite playgrounds for money laundering, drug smuggling, human trafficking, gambling and prostitution... Nothing really happens here without their “green light”, but that’s another story (5)

Back to our Southern route, once the product reaches Barcelona, it becomes very hard to pin point. Narcotics coming through the Balkan route also ends up in Barcelona but in different “retailers”’ hands: Romanian family-based clans, based mostly in Besos (a run-down project in the heart of Poblenou) and occupying one single narcopisos in Raval (they have moved 3 times over the 4-year period of my “investigation”) but known to have the purest and most processed Caballo sold in town.

El Caballo [Spanish for “the horse”, street name of heroin ]

[WARNING] Most of the photographs of this post are uncensored, quite graphic and… of poor quality…. my bad, I took them. But I had circumstances: hidden cellphone, no flash, illegal activities going on, indoor, with very little to no light… Shots are not the best (no pun intended) but you’ll step right into the infamous narcopisos you’ve heard of or read about. And not once they’ve been searched and trashed by the police like you’ve seen in the press but while they are in full operation. Raw, those images might be quite shocking to some of the readers, but take the emotion out of he equation and you’ll come to realized that, for lack a better choice, narcopisos are a necessary evil. My intention here is not to start a polemic nor come out as a provocateur but to shed light on a real issue, still happening, involving real people, slowly dying, failed by a syste unable -or unwilling- to help them.

Gears - Raval, Barcelona / 2017 / iPhone

El Raval

1989, US superstar Keith Harring is in Barcelona for his exhibition on La Rambla. After speaking with an old friend of him from New York living here for awhile, he decided to paint a mural, his way to to show his love for and connection with the town. The next day, Harring chose the wall in Plaça de Salvador Segui in Raval. He was warned that the area was one of the most dangerous areas in town. Back then, in the 80’s the Spanish government had the genius idea to decriminalize the use, but not the supply, of hard drugs and did not implement any proper treatments to sustain this measure... Spaniards have ignored the issue and it sparked a heroin addiction epidemic that saw HIV rates soar (2a).The artist was attracted to the neighborhood and decided it would offer the perfect canvas for his message about the dangers of drugs and AIDS. At first it was supposed to be a temporary mural but in the end, up to this day, you can still enjoy Harring’s mural behind the MACBA museum. Below is a photograph I took of what became now hot-spot for skateboarder and cool bars

Tricks - Raval, Barcelona / 2016 / Nikon 3200

Beside its bad reputation, Raval has always been a magnet for artists and “cool kids”, misfits and outcasts but more recently the new kid on the block is named gentrification… in other word: Fun is over. Well… not quite yet. In Barcelona, everything moves slowly, gentrification included. The result is a mix of fancy hotels, art galleries, designer boutiques... mixed with prostitutes and their lovely clientele, dealers, junkies, businessmen, families of tourists wandering the streets… a fascinating mix of characters with theatrical scenes playing before your eyes: hustlers trying to rip off tourists, white collars finding themselves buying bad cocaine from a kid in a narrow, sketchy alley… the show is in the street, but not only.

The Narrows - Raval, Barcelona / 2016 / Nikon 3200

What businesses, in Barcelona, are open 24/7, have no vacancy, a steady stream of customers and a product that sells itself? The answer: Narcopisos Inc.

The phenomenon of the Narcopisos emerged in 2016 (a year after I moved to Barcelona) following Spain’s property crash. Foreclosed or unsold apartments, owned by banks and investment funds were left emptied, abandoned, in a country in full housing crisis... It wasn’t long before the vacant spaces started being squatted: some by respectable families, in need of a place to live, some by drug dealers using them as selling point and shooting gallery. A place where you can get a cheap fix in a relatively clean room.

Ritual - Raval, Barcelona / 2017 / iPhone

Helped - Raval, Barcelona / 2017 / iPhone

Thanks to my various contacts, I had access to different types of narcopisos, but from crack to dope houses, most of them were operating the same way: - a cctv video surveillance in place at the street level or someone looking out for the cops. - a room with junkies to confuse police upon arrival and make it look like they are actually squatting the place - 1 to 3 dealers serving customers one a the time. - An exit back door (if available) in case the police knocks on the front door. - One or two rooms for users. - Hourly cleaning of the premises to make the place look “decent” and “squatted” in case of a bust - Little quantity of drugs at the time, no more than 10 grams of each. - Open 24/7 - Re-up every hour or so - Single use paraphernalia available to the users - In some cases, Narcan at hand (medicine used to reverse the effect of an OD).

Cleaning Session - Career d’en Road 22, Raval, Barcelona / 2016 / iPhone

My connections in the Pakistani community took time to build but strengthen throughout the years to reached a level of trust where we came to split the bread at several occasions… no seriously, we actually got invited in their Halal “canteen” in Raval where only Pakistanis could enjoy their local cuisine, a unique experience… They also gave me access to two of their stash houses: located in legit apartments, in proper buildings, on the outskirt of Raval, close to Sant-Antoni, less prone to police check. No users there, only wholesalers, dispatching heroin to “representatives” of each narcopisos at below retail-price: between 20 and 40 euros the gram depending on the quantity purchased.

Going back to the narcopisos, some were run by junkies (where the product was often cut from the bash they were getting from the stash houses), some by pakistani or afghan immigrants, with decent quality product, some by Catalan families, living there for decades under stabilized rent and with their own connection and product of fluctuant quality. Last but not least, one narcopiso was occupied by the Romanian clan mentioned earlier. Below are some photos of one of their spot at 22 Carrer d’en Roig, later busted and walled by the Mossos d’esquadra (Catalan police)

Romanian at work - Career d’en Road 22, Raval, Barcelona / 2016 / iPhone

Boss - Career d’en Road 22, Raval, Barcelona / 2016 / iPhone

If narcopisos was selling both crack and heroin, two rooms were at the disposal of users, one for smoking their bottles or pipes and the other room to shoot up or smoke heroin on tiny pieces of foil.

Sterile hospital-like garbage disposal were available for discarding the used paraphernalia.

Bloodstream Hunt - Raval, Barcelona / 2017 / iPhone

#NextFixandChill - Raval, Barcelona / 2017 / iPhone

Everything is provided to avoid the spread of disease and the use of the drug in plain sight in the street therefore reduce public disorder.

Not that dealers became humanitarian all of a sudden, but kicking customers with their (illegal) purchase out in the street expose them to being ratted on or worst, having an overdose in plain sight attracting the police and paramedics... either way, it’s not good for business so narcopisos’ “managers” rather keep their clientele indoor until they’re done using and good to do.

Now, there is another type of business in Barcelona dealing with drug users and addiction: it’s called Centre de Dispensació de Metadona - Centre d'Atenció Primària Casc Antic (the methadone clinic in short....).

* They’re not open 24/7 but rather in the morning only * It can take up to 2 weeks to see a doctor in order to enroll in a Methadone Maintenance Treatment -MMT (true story...when a single day can be the last one for a heroin addict living in the street) * Last but not least, since the doctors and nurses’ work schedule is way more important tthan their patients’ care, some centers give up 3 to 4 days worth of supply of methadone at once to heroin users so the health workers can have their days and weekends off. The result of this amazing system: the methadone is sold in the street by users so they can buy their heroin and/or in certain case, the methadone is saved up (for rainy days) and the patient keeps using heroin instead. Yes, the patient: let’s not forget that those “filthy junkies” actually are patients (even if they’re hardly seen as such in those centers), suffering from a disease called addiction, or substance abuse disorder if you prefer the american way of calling it, and in need of medical care but what can I say... old habits die hard (both way...).

Patients taking methadone to treat opioid dependance must receive the medication under the supervision of a practitioner. After a period of stability (based on progress and proven, consistent compliance with the medication dosage) and only then, patients may be allowed to take methadone at home between program visits... but not in Barcelona.

Methadone substitution as a treatment of opioid addiction does not function as much to curb addiction as to redirect it and maintain dependency on legal channels. Methadone has been designed that way, as a lifetime treatment whereas alternative palliatives such as Buprenorphine are not even considered by doctors when those therapies would be more efficient in certain cases: with users who do not shoot the drug for example, or with users wishing to quiet and get sober... but let's be honest here, sobriety has never been the objective of those methadone programs. The real goal of this public service is not to cure addiction, but to make sure junkies don’t use, steal, rob and/or commit act of violence in the streets to feed their habits

The patient here is not the users but the society. Those centers aren’t trying to help the user quit his habit, but to make sure the society doesn’t suffer from it. Good or bad, Narcopisos are curbing down the spread of diseases, cleaning up the streets from users as they offering temporary shelter to their customers and operate around the clock.. It seems to me that their function is almost... complementary if not necessary.

So before eradicating narcopisos from the face of Raval, let’s pause and look at the alternative: junkies buying and using drugs in the streets of the city center, in the worst sanitary condition possible with no regard for the residents around.

Mañana

So what’s next? Keeping those illegal activities going on? Certainly not.

But before jumping the gun and closing it all at once, better get ready for the alternative because drug addiction will not disappear with the narcopisos. In my last article, I speak about users stigmatization and how society still struggles to see addiction as a disease and not a will power issue, turning the blind eye to a sheer amount of studies and discoveries explaining how heroin addiction, over time, modify the pathway of your brain frontal lobe and affect your decisional power, making it hard -to not say impossible- to say “no”.

Don’t take me wrong. It would be naïve to think all users roaming the streets are here trying to quit and become their better self. Most of them have no intention to do so. I’m not here to judge nor take side. But in order to find a solution to the narcopiso situation, I would like to introduce Barcelona to his neighbor: Portugal.

Portugal had one of the worst heroin epidemic in Europe back in the 90′s and after the failed many “US war on drug”-type of approaches. They finally shift approach and started treated drug addicts as patients who needed help, not as criminals” says Goulao, the architect of Portugal drug policy. After the decriminalization and treatments, they planned to open “supervised drug consumption facilities” Naina Bajekal says in her 2018 article in the Time “where drug users can consume drugs in safer conditions with the assistance of trained staff. Such facilities have been running in Europe since 1986, when the first was opened in Berne, Switzerland.”(5)

The result? Evidence (6) shows these these type of sites save lives, reduce public disorder, and curb the spread of diseases.

Does that sound familiar? Yes, that's right, the first of the two businesses we spoke about: Narcopisos Inc.

Purgatory - Carrer d’en Roig 22, Raval, Barcelona / 2017 / iPhone

For No Face No Case: Dope Stories chapter 4, we’re going to Italy. Don’t worry, it won’t be another mafia-related article explaining how the N’Drangheta and Camorra became the most powerful crime syndicates in the world, you can watch that on TV. Called “Il Racconto dei Racconti” (Tales of Tales in english), the article will keep it real, street style: short stories from North to South: Torino, Milano, Genoa, Roma, Napoli... Stay tuned for some dope stories on how drugs are sold, used and abused in the Renaissance country

References (1) https://www.barcelona-metropolitan.com/featuresx/report-barcelona-pakistani-community/ (2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Raval (3) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47861444 (4)https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2018/12/07/inenglish/1544171107_204329.html (5) https://time.com/longform/portugal-drug-use-decriminalization/ (6) https://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/portugal-heroin-decriminalization/

𝗡𝗢 𝗙𝗔𝗖𝗘 𝗡𝗢 𝗖𝗔𝗦𝗘 - 𝗗𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 2: Marseille: the New French Connection

“Arrive déjà la 4ème identité Marseillaise” (1)

More than 2600 years ago, Greeks founded Marseille (then Massalia). Since then, immigration has been the backbone of the city. Here, the term melting pot takes its real meaning. Throughout the centuries, Greeks , Italians, Armenians, Algerians, Tunisians, Moroccans, Comorians...called it home. Here you’re “Marseillais” before being “Français”.

Born and bread in Marseille (in 1981), I saw the city getting divided before my eyes. By the end of the 70’s, the french government parked an entire generation of immigrants from the Maghreb (who help rebuild France after WW2 and fought FOR France during the Algerian independence war) in an endless sea of buildings on the outskirt of Marseille (in)famously known as “Les Quartiers Nords”. Those white concrete structures were built in the mid 60’s, when “Corbusian” (2) architects applied their utopian visions on people’s lives. The result: drugs, poverty, alienation, isolation, anger… Rage!

I left Marseille in 2004 to move to New York. Back then, the gap between white “french” people and the 2nd generation of immigrant (100% French but some people tend to forget) was already increasing, the city was fractured.

The French Connection

Once upon a time, Marseille was the mecca when it came to the processing and exportation of heroin. Everybody remembers the French Connection: a 30-year heroin operation between Marseille and the US. A traffic worth more than $40 millions a year back then. Orchestrated by Lucky Luciano, the French Connection provided up to 80% of the US heroin consumption during the 60’s / 70’s. The morphine base from Turkey and Asia was shipped to the Marseille harbor, unloaded on the docks and processed in one of the many clandestine laboratories hidden in the Provence’s countryside to be transformed in the purest heroin ever manufactured (off medical diamorphine): La Marseillaise, as they called it, was 98% pure.

The network was dismantled, and after the 90’s pick, the heroin disappeared from the streets of Marseille (but this is another story...). Today, the few die-hard junkies remaining shoot up Subotex (3) with benzos to “spice it up”… a deadly cocktail. But another traffic emerged: Cannabis and Cocaine.

“Ici on est à Marseille mon frère, Sortis tout droit du conteneur Le produit qui t’met à l'envers”(4)

Here cannabis is embedded in our culture, quality is high and price low. Good Cocaine, on the other hand, was hard to come by, but now you can get dime bag of high purity cocaine quite easily. Without the presence of organized crime (”le milieu”, as they call it here knew his golden age with the French connection but was dismantled by the early 2000), the city was left in the hands of gangsters (called “bandits” in Marseille) fighting each other to death in a turf war that caused 34 homicides in 2016 (5). A heaven you’ll say compare to the 786 homicides the same year in Chicago, but in a country where firearms are illegal, it gave Marseille the title of “France Murder Capital” and the mainstream media did what they do best: spread the fear, pointing the finger to the common enemy: “Les banlieues” (Ghetto in French) and their inhabitants… The dialogue was broken and the city split in two, the North and its “bandits” versus the South with La Canebiere (Marseille most famous street in the city center) as “unofficial” border.

“Rick James said cocaine's a hell of a drug Who else could put the hipsters with felons and thugs And paint a perfect picture of what sellin' it does? This is for the critics, who doubted the chemistry Two different worlds, same symmetry” (6)

I used to come back to my hometown once or twice a year for few days, a couple of weeks at the most. In 2019, I decided to stay over a month. The homicide number that year dropped to 9, I went to the “allegedly” worst ghettos in town: La Busserine, Les Oliviers, Brassens, La Castellane etc… Les Quartiers Nords.

Where no there was no illegal activities , everything was quiet and relax, not once my wife and I felt “in danger”. Where drugs were being sold, everything was even more quiet… Don’t forget, murder and violence is bad for business... and business, in Marseille, is good: at La Busserine alone, the sales of cannabis and cocaine add up to 15,000€/day during the week and up to 25,000€ on weekends with over 500 clients daily. The narcotics sale amounts to 70 millions €/year in Marseille (7), spent and laundered (re-invested) in the city. After some violent years, violence went down and sales went up.

Like any other ghetto, you’ll find here the usual set up: look-out kids (called Chouf, in Marseille slang, translates “look” in arabic) “chilling” on the side of the road and on top of buildings , hidden stashes in apartments, empty lots and garages, dozens of "read-to-sell” bags concealed in pipes and cars’ bumpers, ‘menu’ openly written on wall, obvious selling points (yet distant from the main hang-out spot where kids are playing) and a clientele in and out in less than a minute.

A Les Oliviers, the line of customers almost goes around the block on Saturday nights. Security is insured by the local “muscles” to avoid any “dispute”. Kids from the neighborhood point customers to the right building and tell them where to park their car. The operation is seamless. People are lining up, waiting to buy some hash or weed, a bag of coke for the evening, some K and possibly a couple of ecstasies and MDMA. Choice is broad at Les Olivers, one of the most profitable “cites” (another name for ghetto in France) in town with La Busserine (where the choice is lesser but the quality higher).

Nothing exceptional you’ll say, just another drug traffic… but look closer and you’ll see something I’ve never witnessed in 25 years living in Marseille (and spending lots of time in those “ghetto” as I was boxing in one of their local gym):

I saw white kids hanging out in the "hood” -to buy drugs, I know... but still- with no fear, feeling welcome, joking with locals, even getting drinks at the corner bistro.

Something unthinkable 10 years ago. Something hidden by the media. Something politicians don’t want you to know, to not lose the “fear of the other” they spent so much time to insinuate in our heads.

Let the people believe that only dirty, nasty junkies are going to those dangerous places to buy their dose of dope, whereas it’s their sons, daughters or even colleagues, who are going to get their weed, some pills and maybe a beer before going back to the “right side of the track” to hang out in the trendy and cool bars and restaurants of the “Corniche” and “La Pointe Rouge”

The French Connection is still alive but deeply changed in nature… french people are now actually connected. They’re bounding around something they have in common: drugs. Good or bad, I’m not here to judge, all I know is that as long as there is demand, there will be offer…

In one of the the countries in Europe with the toughest laws on narcotics, French politicians keep on playing Sisyphus (8) with their “war on drugs”…Decriminalization and comprehension healthcare solutions remains the only efficient -and proven- solution to fight drugs…

In the meantime, in the South of France, the new generation is getting together and making its own New French Connection.

============

NOTES

(1) Translate: “Already here, the 4th identity from Marseille” Kenny Arkana refereeing to the 4th generation of MCs but also the 4th generation born in France from immigrant descend (2) Le Corbusier philosophy : his vision for residential architecture included a great deal of services, business and activities to have the building self-sufficient and sustainable. He dreamed of "cleaning and purging" the city, bringing "a calm and powerful architecture"—referring to steel, plate glass, and reinforced concrete... This utopian vision has then been applied to low income building ending up in the creation of actual ghettos. (3) Subotex is the brand name for buprenorphine, a drug used to get off heroin (like methadone, yet completely different in its use). If shot, it will get you high, add benzodiazepines such as Xanax or Rivotril (Marseille’s favorite) and you risk the cardiac arrest as it greatly slows down your heartbeat. (4) Translate: “Straight outta the container, the product that’ll fuck your brain up” Fonky Family - Le Retour du Shit Squat (5) https://www.20minutes.fr/marseille/1988379-20170102-marseille-34-tues-balles-lors-reglements-compte-2016-inexact-repond-prefet-police (6) Pusha T - Trouble On My Mind (7) From the show “L’heure des Pros” sur France on August 28th 2020 (8) In Greek mythology Sisyphus or Sisyphos was the king of Ephyra. He was punished by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity.

I often take the same train on my way back home: Berlin, coming from my hometown: Marseille. A Deutsche Bahn train connecting Frankfurt to Berlin. This time, a whore -pardon my French- I meant a ticket inspector, gave me a 73€ fine “because my 6 kg dog didn’t have a ticket”. At the Berlin and Frankfurt stations, ticket agents told me that my dog “could travel for free as it was 6 kg and fit in its crate” that I always carry. The Deutsche Bahn website also states “Travelling with your dog under 10kg is permitted, free of charge, unless your pet does not fit in hand luggage or in a transport container” which mine did. I showed the webpage on my cell to that bitch and explained calmly that I’ve always travel free of charge with my dog, free of charge on the DB railroad network and never had any issue with a ticket inspectors. She didn’t give a fuck, ignored me and told my wife and I to get off at the next station (in the middle of nowhere after Frankfurt) if I refuse to pay the 73€ fine on the spot… We paid since my wife and I were on our 10th of train since our departure in Marseille. I took the bitch name along with the payment receipt/fine and will go to Berlin HBahn to get refunded. Check my IG stories to see the culprit, the evil incarnated in a 6kg dog… the cause of all her anger towards us…

Bad trip but good to be back home. 🖤🖤🖤Berlin, we missed you 🖤🖤🖤

By the way, getting off the train I stumbled upon many acts of vandalism in the toilet and the car -here is a photo - …Must have been one very angry customer…#baddog

Shank

#shank #prison #weapon #murder #knife #tool #jail #screwdriver #kill #187 #acab #ftp #shiv #homemade #diy #kiy

𝕿𝖍𝖎𝖊𝖋 𝖎𝖓 𝖑𝖆𝖜 // вор в зако́не Russian criminal style tattoo of a cat, symbol of thieves in the Russian organized crime underworld “In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.” Hunter S. Thompson Made when I was living in Barcelona /// Berlin, bookings opening soon, stay tuned /// Marseille, see you in August ///

𝗡𝗢 𝗙𝗔𝗖𝗘 𝗡𝗢 𝗖𝗔𝗦𝗘 - 𝗗𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 1: 𝘉𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘯 𝘏-𝘉𝘢𝘩𝘯

Stories of the Berlin’s street drug market

September 2019, Monday morning, 8:30am, at a U-Bahn station commuters are waiting for the train on the double deck platform. the “1-min” sign starts blinking: the U8 is arriving. If you pay close attention to the crowd, you’ll notice some people -who until now were dragging their feet back and forth along the platform- suddenly rushing to aggregate around the same pillar. Two arabic kids jump out of the train straight into the group of customers eager to get their fix. “Braun !”,(translate: brown, street name for heroin in Berlin) “Weiß!” (translate: white, street name for cocaine) “zehn” (10), “zwanzig”(20), a micro market just erupted in the middle of the platform, one kid spitting out colored balls from his mouth and distributing them to the customers, the other collecting the tens and twenties. The train leaves the station, dealers and junkies are gone. In less than 30 seconds, about 500€ worth of narcotic were sold. The U-Bahn has been home of the street drug market in Berlin since the 70’s as Christian F. tells to in her book (Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo).

Berlin street drug scene is known to be violent and ruthless: junkies screwing each other, dealers arguing and fighting in the middle of platforms… and the U8 has always had a bad reputation. It connects Berlin’s districts of Neukölln, Kreuzberg and Wedding. The immigrant and low income population of those areas have been affected by this issue but the authorities keep on giving them the blind eye. Police shows off at rush hour in front of families and white collars, putting on a show busting some kids trying to make ends meet by dealing. 5 minutes later, once the spectacle is over… back to business. Let’ s be honest, nobody really cares about those “junkies”, often from another country, not speaking the language, robbing and stealing to feed their habits… why bother? But here is the thing: heroin doesn’t discriminate. Our society is putting its youngest generation under so much social and financial pressure that anxiety, depression and other mental disorders are skyrocketing. More and more people self-medicate: Xanax, clonazepam, weed, valium, oxy, percocet, adderoll…. and here comes the U8.

Now the situation has worsened, “Kotty” is obviously not the terminal, the train also passes thought Mitte, between Weinmeisterstraße and Bernuer Straße where many IT and creative companies have employees who work and also play hard. Statistics show that they are increasingly using narcotics (specifically meth and heroin) to get them though their day. I encountered on the infamous U-Bahn an Italian backend developer, a British graphic designer, a tattoo artist with wife and child, a PR girl working in the club scene... the list of pinhole pupils goes on and on. The cliché of the homeless, filthy junkie is no longer. Our system and its capitalistic values -with the help of pharmaceutical companies- created the perfect breeding ground for addiction to spread and reach a whole new slice of the population.

The current opioid crisis in the US woke up the world and we are finally starting understanding that addiction is a disease and not a choice. If willpower was the solution, more people would get clean. Studies proves it - look it up :)

So where do we go from there? should we go on with the “war on drugs”? We’ve seen the results in the US since the 80’s and the crack epidemic: mass incarceration, deaths, and nothing has changed in the street, only the type of drugs...

The solution has already been found though: decriminalization and legalization. Portugal and Switzerland, two countries who faced major health crisis due to the use of heroin, legalized prescription heroin and put in place HAT (Heroin Assisted Treatment): providing people suffering of addiction with medical grade diamorphine (heroin) injectable in a clean site under supervision along with comprehensive rehabilitation programs. Since its inception, the number of new heroin users in Switzerland has declined. Drug overdose deaths dropped by 64%. HIV infections dropped by 84%. Home thefts dropped by 98%. And the Swiss prosecute 75% fewer opioid-related drug cases each year.

Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) have proven efficient for governments to keep its people under control and addicted for life... Methadone was never designed to be stopped but as a life-long treatment. Tapering off the drug is nearly impossible given the severity and length of the withdrawals and Post Acute Withdrawal Symptoms, but only addicts know this. Studies (also conducted in Germany in the early 2000’s) showed that HAT’s main long-term benefit does not materialize through life-long maintenance, but by stabilizing and readying many of its patients for other simpler therapeutic interventions or even abstinence. Despite the positive results of completed HAT trials, in Germany, politicians have failed to convert the study into actual HAT programs as part of their treatment system... Why is that? Too many taboos to break for the general population? Maybe. Control over people? Most likely. Keep people sedated and they won’t strike, protest or riot against their government. Solutions and alternatives to MMT exist, yet we’ve been using the same treatment methods for more than 50 years. Addiction is the only disease where researches and treatments are kept away from the patients who are too often reproached of being sick... It’s time for a change.

Truth be told, society needs to shift its view on drugs, stop stigmatizing users and start seeing addiction for what it is: a mental disease. Then, and only then, we’ll be able to move toward a cure.

Check NO FACE NO CASE - The photo series for more stories about Berlin U-Bahn. Stay tuned for the chapter 2 of NO FACE NO CASE - Dope Stories: Barcelona Narcopisos

Linocut printing for beginners in 5 easy DIY steps

Over the last two decades, I had the opportunity to live and travel extensively. Each cities and countries I’ve visited or lived in left a deep and strong influence on my practice and aesthetic.

I moved to Berlin about a year ago. Since then, I’ve been experimenting with typefaces and print techniques. From Gutenberg’s printing press to German expressionists’ woodblock and linocut, printmakers here have pioneered and mastered techniques and styles trending to this day

Latest addition to my “arsenal”, linocut printmaking has rapidly become an addiction. Blending perfectly with my dark and raw aesthetic, linocut prints have more character than screen prints thanks to their imperfections.

The tools used to carve the linoleum and the kind of marks they leave are very expressive. Each stage of the process can be subject to re-interpretation of the design, with creative decision along the way. The result is something direct, expressing the creative thoughts and process behind the artwork. Going hand in hand with my work as illustrator and tattooer, it enhances the dark, rough and brutal side of my work.

If you’re interested in giving linocut a shot, here are 5 easy steps to follow. With a DIY and creative mindset, you can already play around with design and create your own style with very little equipment.

For more information about equipments and how to actually carve the linoleum, please join my mailing list (subscribe below) to stay in the loop for my next post on linocut as well as my next video: The B$TRD Guide to Linocut /// OUT SOON on my youtube channel - please subscribe ///

1. Draw and trace your design

For an easy start, chose a simple design with few cut outs. I went for a simple skull in black and white. once drawn, trace the design on tracing paper. Remember the design will be flipped horizontally but once printed, will be back to the original orientation.

2. Transfer your design onto the linoleum

Once done, to avoid the pencil to disappear when cutting the linoleum, ink the design with a permanent marker. Let it dry few minutes (you can as well use a blow dryer).

3. Cut out the linoleum

Using your tools, cut out a thin layer of linoleum, leaving raised only the part that will receive the ink and that will be printed on the support. Once done, wash the linoleum and scrub it with a sponge in order to clean the leftover of linoleum pieces and leave sharp, accurate incisions.

4. Ink the Linoleum

Spread the ink on a flat surface with a knife and with a rubber ink roller (the size of your design if possible), go over the linoleum, applying the ink on the raised part as harmoniously as possible to avoid bad surprises at printing.

5. Printmaking

Transfer the design onto the final support, making sure the right amount of ink has ben applied and the paper is properly pressed on the linoleum. If you don’t have a press, here is a DIY tip: once the paper is on the linoleum, use a another layer of paper on top of the paper and press all over the design with a wooden kitchen spoon...it’ll do the trick until you can actually invest in some serous equipment...

Regardless your means (all in all, I spent around 20 euros...), just go for it, don’t wait to be ready and/or fully equipped. Make mistake (and you will...), have fun, play and the result, I’m sure, will be amazing.

Free Protest Signs, Ready to Print / Ready to fight

To support all protester outta there, I created two signs (pdf or png files ready to print) you can get for free by sending me your email and I’ll send you the files directly to your inbox (48x59.4cm // 19” x 23.3”) free of charge.

✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽 Fuck the system, back to normality is not an option, let’s create a new normality.

The signs are free but if you feel like supporting Black Lives Matter, any proceeds that I receive (as small as $1) will be directly donated to BLACK LIVES MATTER to fund their movement. Because when Back Lives Matter, All lives matter. But I know that times are rough for everybody, so no pressure at all for the donations :) just email me at [email protected] and you’ll get your sign for free, ready to print/ready to fight ✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽 You can also join my mailing list by entering your email in the bottom bar and you’ll receive the signs directly into your inbox

Stay united

𝗕𝗮𝗱 𝗔𝘀𝘀

Kottbusser Tor UBahn, Berlin -2020 iPhone Part of the series NO FACE NO CASE exploring the underbelly of the cities I lived in and/or travel to. Meet Deniz, Turkish living in Berlin for the past 2 decades. He used to deal heroin and cocaine out of his apt (few baggies a day) until the cops busted him. He ended up in jail and lost everything: house, wife, income... He now sleeps rough and lives in the street, spending his days around Kotty, hustling to make it to the next day... few days ago he got jumped by 4 people and had to fight to keep his few belongings... his face still carries the marks of the cowardly assault... Cops spend entire days camping outside Kotty ubahn and somehow they are not able (or don’t want) to prevent such crimes... I wonder, what they’re doing all day? Parading in their uniform so tourists and hipsters can pass by safely... completely oblivion to the drama unraveling around the corner.

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