Thread by @ScottHech

The @nytimes right now is doing more damage to social & racial justice than any carceral force out there. Legitimizing a blatant lie (police budgets up everywhere & still no health/safety) by the architect of racist overpolicing. This is outrageous & dangerous stuff.

Bill Bratton is the architect of mass surveillance, broken windows, & targeted, racist policing in 3 different major cities (NYC, LA, Boston). When NY finally passed much-needed reforms he came back to lie & fearmonger it away. Even @nytimes ed board called him out. Now this.

Look at this gushing headline & this professional legacy photo. Designed to make you think: Respected & venerated public servant! Personable. Likeable. Trusting. Just hanging out and “dishing” the truth with real talk. He’s a bigot responsible for devastating Black communities.

Here’s racist Bill Bratton last year. Calling young black men same inhumane language the Exonerated Five were called. A life dedicated to hurting & jailing Black & Brown people. Honored with a puff piece in the @nytimes.

Here’s Bill Bratton spreading lies told by police who had tried to weaponize a tragedy as propaganda to undermine criminal justice reforms. Nassau police were forced to retract and clarify after they were caught. Bratton kept pushing the lie anyway.

Here’s the @nytimes own editorial board calling Bratton out 2 years ago as a “naysayer” for “stubbornly arguing” against & lying against critical reforms. 2 years later the paper honors him with a powerful platform to peddle these same kind of blatant lies.

I just can’t over the brazenness of the lie. *He’s literally stating police have been defunded* when the opposite is true. And then proclaims this fictional defunding (not $11 billion we continue to lavish on the NYPD) is the cause of crime. WHERE ARE THE FACT CHECKERS, @nytimes?

There are literally thousands of organizers & people w/ direct experience & community members & practitioners & defenders who can provide the public w/ key truths at this pivotal moment for social justice. Why give this brutal, proven liar any more air than he already has?

The @nytimes rejects *the truth* written by extraordinary advocates and activists with nuanced takes on what will truly make us safe & end systemic injustice every single day.

Fuming.

When you read a headline blaming “reforms” for “crime,” think:

*We spend more on policing, prosecution & prisons than anywhere else in all history. Existence of “crime” underscores the complete failure of current "solutions" & the insanity of continuing to invest billions in it.

Meantime I’ll just keep screaming it: