Thread by @Gwynnion

Whenever something bad happens, people talk about passing a raft of new laws to stop it when the problem is law enforcement actively ignores the laws we already have to address these problems, especially when the perpetrators are white and/or rich.

The problem is not a lack of laws, it's a lack of enforcement.

"More laws!" is a way of looking like they're doing something instead of addressing the elephant in the room, which is that more and more restrictive laws will only end up being weaponized against Black, poor, and other marginalized people.

Because white men, especially those with money and political power, will continue getting a slap on the wrist even when committing crimes that would get someone else a lifetime in prison or shot dead in the street.

Black activists have been pointing this out for years. The impetus behind "defund" was the recognition that white supremacy is baked into to the entire justice system and cannot be fixed without ripping it up by the roots.

Similarly, sex workers have been telling everyone that these new "anti-trafficking" laws don't help anyone. They just deprive them of income while pushing them offline and into more dangerous spaces. Even cops have admitted it has made combatting real trafficking harder.

After 9/11, we created a massive security and surveillance apparatus to cover up the fact the Bush administration simply ignored intelligence warnings, and it was largely ineffectual anyway. All while ignoring the persistent and growing threat of white domestic terrorism.

And what a surprise, the post-9/11 security state and the militarization of law enforcement ended up being weaponized against immigrants and Black people.

Lo and behold, the post-9/11 security state was utterly incapable of responding to the attack on the Capitol even though the FBI and multiple other agencies were aware of the gravity of the threat. But it was ignored and enabled because the attackers were white conservatives.

So slapping on new laws and bureaucracies rarely solves anything and often makes things worse if the underlying and systemic issues are not addressed first.

That's the hard part. That's what everyone wants to avoid.