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10 Apr, 4 tweets, 2 min read
1. Here I am what 10 paragraphs into this truly garbage fear-mongering piece of bullshit “journalism” and it hasn’t mentioned: the DA tried this for a year — a year when violent crime was up in many places — and in FELL in Baltimore.
2. It’s also yet to mention this new study that shows that PRECISELY the “tough on crime” behavior that the article *assumes would make crime go down ACTUALLY MAKES CRIME, INCLUDING VIOLENT CRIME GO UP. bostonglobe.com/2021/03/29/met…
3. The entire frame of the article is bad and wrong AND CONTRADICTED BY SCIENCE. This piece is akin to climate change denialism. It’s not journalism grounded in objective reality, it’s journalism grounded in false and ignorant bias.
4. If you want to understand the central role that journalism played in mass incarceration — how demonstrably false and wrong ideas came to be treated as assumed fact by elite journalists leading to the degradation of millions of people — look no further.

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More from @davidminpdx

David Menschel Profile picture
9 Apr
1. The desire to denigrate the “defund the police” movement – an important goal of reactionary-liberal media-commentators who enjoy punching left – erases the massive value and deep insight that "defund the police" protests last summer brought to the fore.
2. Prior to last summer police reform mostly focused on improved training, systems to hold officers accountable, using new technologies (like body cams), etc. i.e. *things that were budget neutral or even increased police funding and didn’t shrink the scope of policing.
3. The insight of the “defund the police” movement is a recognition that police play too large a role in our understanding of and approach to public safety. And reforms must go beyond “reformist reforms” and instead that *shrink the scope* of policing and/or reduce budget,
Read 11 tweets
David Menschel Profile picture
8 Apr
1. So much of the focus on progressive prosecutors is about the “front-end” – i.e. new cases. But if you want to see what a progressive prosecutor can do on the “back-end” – i.e. bringing justice to old cases – look to New Orleans DA Jason Williams. thelensnola.org/2021/04/08/new…
2. Once you’re convicted, the legal system imposes so many barriers to getting your conviction overturned, even when your trial was clearly unjust – time bars, procedural rules, etc. It stacks the deck against you in so many ways.
3. Often innocent people, people convicted via misconduct/ineffective counsel or cases where racism infected trial cannot get relief, not because their substantive claim is insufficient, but because of a procedural bar preventing their substantive claim from being adjudicated.
Read 7 tweets
David Menschel Profile picture
5 Apr
This piece by @ryanlcooper @TheWeek is easily the best piece I’ve read on the relationship between progressive prosecutors, policing and the pandemic-year’s violent crime spike. theweek.com/articles/97515…
As the article points out, reactionary forces blame progressive DAs like Larry Krasner for a nation-wide spike in shootings. But that’s preposterous. Krasner prosecutes more than 98% of shootings. The problem is police – who solve fewer than 20% of them. theweek.com/articles/97515…
This article smartly rejects the typical ruse that almost all crime journalists fall for: police unions blame “reform” for every spike in serious crime to distract from the fact that police are so bad at what they do that they rarely solve serious crime. theweek.com/articles/97515…
Read 4 tweets
David Menschel Profile picture
1 Apr
1. Yesterday I watched a pretty remarkable hearing in New Orleans where thirteen men convicted by nonunanimous juries, some decades ago, were resentenced, mostly to time served. If I were a criminal law professor, I would assign it to students. nola.com/news/courts/ar…
2. It was unlike anything I had ever seen in a courtroom. In most courtrooms, one rarely sees people, defendants or otherwise, take responsibility for the harm that they caused. Our system rarely incentivizes that. But this was different.
3. All of the men were convicted by nonunanimous juries – juries that the Supreme Court has said were “racist” and violate the 6th Amendment. But that didn’t mean they were legally entitled to be retried. Law in this area is complex and “finality” is often preferred over justice.
Read 11 tweets
David Menschel Profile picture
30 Mar
1. There’s a common incredibly lazy critique of Larry Krasner among those infected with the “tough on crime” fever that basically boils down to “Krasner is a reformer therefore he is responsible for an increase in shootings in Philly.” It’s just so obviously false.
2. Setting aside the fact that shootings have been on the rise in other cities – which should complicate that narrative – let’s take a look at shootings in Philly. The data is quite striking.
3. Here are fatal shootings. Krasner became DA in January 2018. Note that he has prosecuted more than 99% of the fatal shootings that have ended in an arrest. BUT ALSO NOTE, PHILLY POLICE MAKE AN ARREST IN FEWER THAN 40% OF FATAL SHOOTINGS. Image
Read 8 tweets
David Menschel Profile picture
28 Mar
1. This article – like so much of Matt’s writing – includes an abject falsehood, A TOTAL LIE, based on his stick- figure understanding of American criminal justice policy.
2. The piece falsely says, “Indeed, one of the big ideas touted by progressive prosecutors such as Philadelphia’s Larry Krasner is to stop prosecuting gun possession cases altogether.” Completely false. Easily and verifiably false.
3. It’s true that Larry Krasner has expanded a preexisting policy that allows for the diversion to a probation-like supervision program of some first-time offenders who purchased their guns legally.
Read 7 tweets

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