Police must be stripped of their discretion to interact with people. Far too risky & deadly. One place to start: Traffic stops. "Reassign most traffic enforcement to separate traffic agencies independent from police departments." It's not hard to imagine. theappeal.org/traffic-enforc…
"Of all functions that could be separated from police, one of the most significant would be removal of traffic enforcement. Over 24 million people each year come into police contact during a traffic stop. Stops can be especially dangerous & discriminatory for people of color."
Black drivers are 20% more likely to be stopped than white drivers.

As much as twice as likely to be searched.

11% of all fatal shootings by police in 2015 occurred during traffic stops.

Sources: Stanford Open Policing Project + Washington Post.
Jordan Blair Woods, a criminologist & legal scholar at the University of Arkansas School of Law set forth a framework to strip police of the power to stop, search, & kill Black people. "The agencies would employ unarmed monitors to enforce traffic laws." papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
"Under the proposed framework, police would no longer be able to make routine stops for minor traffic violations, like speeding or failing to signal. This would mean tens of millions of stops conducted each year carried out by unarmed traffic monitors, rather than armed police."
"The traffic monitors would not be able to detain, search, or arrest people like police can, and wouldn’t conduct criminal investigations—they would simply enforce traffic laws by conducting stops and issuing citations."
"Removing police from traffic enforcement may sound revolutionary, but it’s not unattainable. Berkeley, California, has already passed a proposal to shift traffic & parking enforcement away from the Police Department." nytimes.com/2020/07/09/us/…
Rigel Robinson (@RigelRobinson), the Berkeley City Council member who proposed the initiative: “Driving while Black shouldn’t be a crime.”
"Proposals similar to Berkeley's were explored in Cambridge, MA; St. Louis Park, MN; & Montgomery County, MD, last year. Elsewhere, bills would bar police from enforcing minor traffic infractions, like tinted windows, faulty brake lights, or dangling air fresheners."
“The goal is to make traffic stops about traffic. And in doing that, address the disparity we currently have in traffic enforcement, disparities that can lead to people of color losing their lives.”theappeal.org/traffic-enforc…

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More from @ScottHech

13 Apr
"It’s easy to say you care about Black & Brown people. But when you have power to challenge systemic racism & you choose not to, that's scary."

Message to Oregon's Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum & other "progressive" leaders now calling for "justice:"
Weeks ago, Soledad O'Brien interviewed Terrence Hayes. Convicted by a non-unanimous jury. A practice enabled by Oregon's KKK to silence dissenting jurors & preserve white supremacy. Caged 13 years. His judge then is now the AG. With the power to topple this racist legal monument.
Ellen Rosenblum is now claiming falsely she doesn't have the power to act. "She said her hands were tied in the matter 16 years ago. It's no longer 16 years ago. They’re not tied today. She has ability and capacity to make a change and do something different." More:
Read 5 tweets
12 Apr
25 years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled that cops could use any pretext (read: lie) to stop a car to search it & courts would not secondguess their motivations—race or otherwise. Car stops of Black & Brown people exploded. Congress & state legislatures can & must change this.
"An analysis of 7,000 police stops in 2019 in Boston showed that 70% of the people the BPD stopped were Black, though less than a quarter of Boston’s residents are Black." wgbh.org/news/local-new…
"The Stanford Open Policing Project analyzed 200 million records finding that Black drivers are stopped more often than white drivers and that police require less suspicion to search Black and Hispanic drivers than they do to search white drivers." openpolicing.stanford.edu/findings/
Read 7 tweets
10 Apr
23 years in a cage for 2 t-shirts.

Its a human rights catastrophe this kind of punishment is allowed.

And a prosecutor requesting this punishment is so much more depraved than the vast majority of offenses for which people are punished.

“Habitual offender” laws must go.
This man. Sentenced to life for stealing batteries. Served 22 yrs before sentence finally was vacated. Sentenced like this bc of "habitual offender" laws. No matter the charge, time goes up for mistakes of the past. We are sick w/ a love for punishment.
A 63 y/o Black man will be caged the rest of his life for stealing hedge clippers. The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the sentence. The lone dissent was Chief Justice Bernette Johnson. The only female & Black person on court. The rest are white men. cnn.com/2020/08/06/us/…
Read 4 tweets
9 Apr
“Judges don't give a damn about us. They'll start to care when we have people power behind us.”

Qiana & Carmen grew a courtwatching force of hundreds. Including Fiona Apple. Courts now trying to shut them down. Not giving up. If you read one thing today: washingtonpost.com/local/public-s…
Back near the beginning of the pandemic, I met Qiana Johnson & Carmen Johnson. Two formerly incarcerated leaders of a local organization in Prince George's County, MD helping women coming out get back in to society. Started a courtwatch program. Carmen was the lone court watcher.
Carmen had just been released when she "started court-watching every day. Slowly she felt her pain transform into purpose." Took meticulous notes. Sent accountability letters. Then COVID struck. Fought to secure virtual access. Was a lot for 1 person. That's when an idea arose.
Read 13 tweets
8 Apr
TOMORROW I’ll be in conversation w/ Fiona Apple! She’s court watching now. But courts are trying to shut down virtual access & accountability. Joined by friends & colleagues: organizer Qiana Johnson & public defender Marguerite Lanaux. It’s free. Sign up: 92y.org/Event/Criminal…
Early in COVID, Fiona Apple stepped up. After a federal judge dismissed dozens of sworn declarations from inside PG County, MD jail as “unhelpful” & only “marginally relevant.” She read their words. “I’ve lost my spirit, sort of given up.” Joined 60 others:
Fiona’s reading was part of a joint collaboration between public defenders, community organizers, & artists. GaspingForJustice.org is the product. Translated the lawsuit into video declarations. Asked people to sign up to court watch. Close to 200 did. Including Fiona. Explore:
Read 8 tweets
4 Apr
ENRAGING: Queens cop kneels on a man’s neck. Couldve killed him like George Floyd. Caught on camera. Man charged w/ a crime. But DA Melinda Katz declines to charge cop. “Insufficient evidence.” Get this: Her office didn’t even interview the man assaulted. queenseagle.com/all/queens-da-…
DA Katz: “Law requires that the officer restricted the flow of air or blood by either compressing Mr. Arnold’s windpipe or carotid arteries on each side of his neck. There could be no such finding under the facts here.” 

Any other case, the DA would rely on the survivors’ word.
Arnold’s public defender Olayemi Olurin (@msolurin) said no experts spoke to her client.

“How could make that determination with no one ever speaking to him? My client said the officer obstructed his breathing. He could not breath. Deliberate miscarriage of justice.”
Read 9 tweets

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