Even if the Breonna Taylor raid was technically not a "no-knock" raid, consider that the denizens of a living unit might be reasonably confused, or fail to understand who was at the door, if police come at midnight, shout "police" and then bang down the door.
One cop was charged with recklessly endangering the neighbors by shooting wildly, which seems like just the absolute bare minimum accountability citizens should want in this case. reason.com/2020/09/23/gra… via @cjciaramella
Fellow citizens, are low level drug busts so important to you that you want the police breaking into people's house in the middle of the night and shooting guns at their neighbors during the ensuing confusion? Not to me.
Strip the issue of its fraught "racism" framing, which I think is sometimes unhelpful. This tragedy was preventable; We don't, and should not want, the police to engage in these tactics. It's dangerous for everyone—for them, for bystanders—not just suspected drug criminals.
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Scoop: I found some extremely curious counting in the Southern Poverty Law Center's latest report on hate groups, which now includes the conservative org Moms for Liberty. But the issues go way beyond that one group. THREAD 1/x
For the SPLC, Moms for Liberty doesn't count as one hate group. It counts as dozens and dozens of hate groups. Each chapter is listed separately. By itself, this is leading to massive hate group inflation. reason.com/2023/06/09/sou…
But the problems actually go way beyond that. In 2020, the number of hate groups actually declined. The SPLC can't have that. So they added in "antigovernment extremist" groups, which were previously labeled separately.
SCOOP: The Global Disinformation Index's own website hosted disinformation about its advisory board. Anne Applebaum tells me she never advised GDI in any official capacity and did not consent to be included on its website. reason.com/2023/02/28/glo… via @reason
Yesterday, I called out Applebaum, an Atlantic journalist, for smearing lab leak proponents. I was also curious whether she influence GDI's efforts to blacklist news sites that engaged in lab leak talk.
1. THREAD: THE FACEBOOK FILES
Twitter is not the only social media site to face pressure to censor content. I obtained emails showing that the CDC had significant influence over covid moderation at Facebook and Instagram. Here’s what I found.
2. The CDC had significant input on pandemic-era policies at Meta. The CDC was consulted frequently, at times daily, receiving constant updates about which topics were trending, and giving recommendations on what content to flag as false or misleading. reason.com/2023/01/19/how…
3. For instance, in May 2021, CDC officials began routinely vetting claims about COVID-19 vaccines that had appeared on Facebook. The platform left it up to the federal government to determine which assertions were accurate.
Exclusive: The lawsuit that could stop Biden's student loan forgiveness plan has arrived. @PacificLegal believes it has found a solution to the standing problem. Thead:
"Only Congress has the power to pass laws and spend money under the Constitution," PLF tells Reason. "The administration's actions here are flagrantly illegal." reason.com/2022/09/27/bid…
PLF's plaintiff is an attorney at the firm who has student loans—these loans will eventually be forgiven under the public service program. But Biden's forgiveness plan will take precedence over that.
Scoop: I obtained an email from the equity manager of Oregon's state health agency—she delayed a community meeting and then justified this on grounds that "urgency is a white supremacy value."
This is a teaching of Tema Okun, a (white) activist educator who claims that preferring quantity over quality, wanting things to be written down, perfectionism, becoming defensive, and yes, possessing a sense of urgency, are all white supremacist.
Okun's work appears every so often in activist workshop materials for schools; this is the first time I've seen a government health official cite it as an excuse to not be prepared for a meeting. Read the article here: reason.com/2022/07/02/urg…
Nina Jankowicz was a partisan operative with a bad record of spotting disinformation, and DHS is right to "pause" the new governance board. reason.com/2022/05/18/dis… via @reason
The WaPo article about her resignation is very curiously framed. It focuses entirely on the so-called "coordinated" "rightwing" campaign of "harassment" against her. It does not mention any legitimate criticism of her whatsoever.
The Hunter Biden laptop story was the test for disinformation experts, and most of them failed it. Jankowicz failed it badly. That's the case against her. It isn't mentioned one. single. time. in the WaPo article.