I really need the social distancing messaging to be clearer, because people are starting to normalize & defend police harassment of people sitting by themselves in parks & whew that slope is already slippery with blood from people the cops have abused & killed for existing

"No one should be outside" is a great idea if you live in a large enough & safe enough space where you can do that. But a lot of people don't. Remember all the conversations about substandard housing & domestic violence & mental health? Those didn't go away when this hit.

I need people to remember the stats on things like IPV & then look at the people outside. Could they be selfishly ignorant of the pandemic? Sure I guess. But statistics say they are more likely to be attempting to cope with things you cannot see at a glance.

We didn't create a society where everyone's home was safe, we just told people in unstable situations to suck it up for a few weeks. And we keep extending the time they need to do so. If your house isn't a powder keg? Great. Mine isn't either. But I lived in some & whew...

And that's without getting into the people who have invisible illnesses or who had the virus etc. Pure baseline numbers pre pandemic showed that abuse cases spike under stressors like job loss, school closures, etc. Some of these homes are hell right now.

A brief story as someone who lived in apartments while in an abusive relationship. Parks, libraries, some zoos etc are the only free public spaces you can go & be likely to have A. Witnesses & B. A place to calm down. If you stay in the house & close a door? It can be kicked open

If you try to put on headphones or otherwise block out what's happening that comfort item/sound barrier can be destroyed. Sometimes the only safe thing to do is to try to get outside. Abusers rarely continue the behavior with witnesses & with time they might cycle down.

"Well people should just leave" is not only ignorant in general (so many reasons people don't & money is a primary one), but especially so now when people literally can't move out.

A lot of plans to leave, to start over are ruined now. Some of those people are going to die & it won't be from the virus.