Thread by @ScottHech

White people don’t get pulled over for defective headlights.

https://twitter.com/nypdshea/status/1362814967691567106

And white people don’t have cops raiding their cars and their houses without justification and then brazenly lying after the fact with no consequences.

And this 17 year old child will now be facing up to 15 years, 3.5 years minimum, for possessing a weapon that he likely believed was necessary actually to be safe. The people I've represented charged with gun possession never used a gun. But they were survivors of violence.

While mostly white people cling to their guns and claim the need for self-defense on their porches & scream about the Second Amendment, Black & Brown survivors of crime in over-policed neighborhoods w/ actual reason to carry, get arrested, jailed, & warehoused in cages.

And when Black & Brown people get arrested & jailed & face harsh mandatory minimums, they overwhelmingly plead guilty instead of challenging their illegal stop, search, & arrest. Prosecutors threaten that challenging police conduct will mean offer of less time is off the table.

And when Black & Brown people are coerced into pleading guilty for simple possession of a gun out of legitimate fear of getting harmed, they get a violent felony record. They come out w/ the scarlet letter of a criminal conviction. Excluded from housing, jobs, education, health.

And when Black & Brown people are sent to prison bc of a "crime" thats the result of violence on the outside, theyre met with violence on the inside, as well as shame, isolation, & economic deprivation. All of which are drivers of violence itself. The "solution" is the "problem."

And the truth gets silenced. The cops who trampled the rights of Black & Brown communities get away with it. Which only further encourages them to keep breaking the law & harassing people & then lying about it. Which ratchets up to physical violence. Death.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/opi…

And white conservatives keep screaming about gun rights and the Second Amendment. And cops keep screaming about "violent crime" and "getting criminals off the streets." And we keep spending billions. And no one is made healthier. Or safer. In fact: The opposite happens.

So when you see prosecutors and cops bragging about getting guns off the streets, don't think: "Good!" Think: Racism, silence, hypocrisy, waste, pain and suffering, irrationality, human & fiscal cost. And the perpetuation of white supremacy.

Last note: I'm all for gun control. I'm just for gun control without criminalization and harsh sentencing. Because the only thing that happens when we criminalize or punish is that the law gets enforced, and enforced harshly, against only one type of people. One community.