Thread by @equalityAlec

THREAD: One enduring truth you don't hear police mention when they talk about "crime waves" is this: violence is higher in countries that are more unequal, and violence is higher in U.S. states that are more unequal. Structural inequality kills. Let's look at the data:

In groundbreaking work studying decades of data from around the world, leading researchers found a number of things that you should know about how inequality determines all of the problems that cops, prosecutors, and judges tell you we need cages for. equalitytrust.org.uk/sites/default/…

Homicide rates are higher in more unequal rich countries:

Drug use is higher in more unequal countries:

Mental illness is more prevalent in more unequal countries:

Human caging by the government is more prevalent in more unequal countries:

Human caging by the government is more prevalent in more unequal U.S. states:

People trust each other less in more unequal U.S. states.

This is profound evidence that what you've been told by powerful people who profit from human caging is wrong. If police and prosecutors made us safe, the U.S. would be the safest country in world history. No one else has spent remotely close to the trillions that we have.

You can explore more in depth how and why powerful people created the myth of linking our health and safety to police, prosecutors, and prisons here:

Thank you to the amazing people at @equalitytrust for this powerful work.