Thread by @JuliusGoat

So weird that people so passionate about the standard of presumption of innocence, who require tangible evidence before they can begin to believe anything, anything at all, should support a president with no interest in evidence or presumption of innocence, so weird, so weird.

So weird to show such passion about presumption of innocence, yet presume guilt about every unarmed black citizen shot dead by police.

So weird, so weird, so weird.

It seems like hypocrisy, this selective passion for presumption of innocence, for tangible evidence before making any discernment at all.

But it's entirely consistent, you realize, once you know the underlying assumptions of our nation's foundational lies.

It's exactly what you'd expect to see in a society captured by the idea that life must be earned, and wealth is how you earn it, and whiteness and maleness are fungible with wealth.

Wealth is innocence.
Maleness is innocence.
Whiteness is innocence.
Authority is innocence.

Failure to attain these standards is guilt.

Seems weird, but you can see it work every day.

Botham Jean was innocent until he was proven not white. And so they searched his apartment.

Donald Trump has been implicated under oath by his former attorney of federal crimes.

The New York Times just exposed his massive tax fraud.

Nothing can be done, it seems. Literally nothing.

He's been proven innocent by a standard far beyond anything he's proved to have done.

Nothing can be done because Trump is innocent until proven guilty. And he has been found white and male and wealthy and powerful, because he is the highest authority in the land, which is such extreme innocence that no actual crime can touch it.

Trump knows it. Remember 5th Ave.

You know who else believes that being powerful is such a powerful a deemed innocence that covers any crime?

Brett Kavanaugh.

Except for a powerful woman. Then it's "Lock Her Up." She was innocent until proven a woman, even after the investigation showed no charge should be brought.

Her guilt goes far beyond any proof of crime. So they chant.

Except for a powerful black man. Then it's "Long Form Birth Certificate." He was innocent until proven black, and his guilt went far beyond whether or not the charge had any basis in reality.

If you really believed in presumption of innocence for everyone, you'd want police reform.

But police are authority. And authority is presumed innocence.

If they shoot someone who has been found black in a court of public opinion, it's impossible for the cop to be guilty.

There was one case I remember of a cop killing an unarmed civilian that got the "presumption of innocence" crowd up in arms.

There was one.

Remember?

When a white woman is killed by a black cop, conservative white dudes act with the exact same level of outrage as they do when they hear about the thing that offends them more than pretty much anything else, which is destruction of property.

Almost exactly the same.

Funny that.

Presumption of innocence is a bedrock of our legal system, and s/b rigorously applied to all court cases.

But we'd do well to understand, when we hear conservatives talk about "presumption of innocence," just what is being presumed.

Ask them. They'll tell more than they know.