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13 Apr, 5 tweets, 2 min read
"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:
Terrence: "So I look back to a 20 year old guy who is looking up at this judge & thinking, you can make things better in this moment, but you didn’t. Now I’m 37 and I’m saying, 'You’re totally in control. You have the laws now in your favor. Why not make that decision now?'”
"For me it is prototypical. It’s easy to claim to be 'progressive' without living it."

Visit StillInPrison.org & follow @stillinprison to learn more about the injustice of this KKK-influenced law & the Attorney General's current refusal to do anything about it.

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More from @ScottHech

Scott Hechinger Profile picture
14 Apr
What if Derrick Chauvin didnt asphyxiate George Floyd? Kim Potter didnt shoot Daunte Wright? They'd still be alive, of course. But George & Daunte would still have been subjected to normal, brutal systemic physical & emotional violence. Like tens of thousands nameless every day.
The epidemic of police *murders* (call it what it is) underscores the ultimate & inevitable result of hypermilitarized policing w/o accountability. The ultimate loss for George Floyd, Duante Wright, & 1000s other Black men & families. But there's so much more invisible violence.
Millions of people each year suffer violence short of death. Unnecessary interactions not just with the police, but the legal system that go unnoticed. Not talking about just physical violence -- although state violence short of murder is also an epidemic. Emotional violence.
Read 10 tweets
Scott Hechinger Profile picture
12 Apr
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.
Read 10 tweets
Scott Hechinger Profile picture
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
Scott Hechinger Profile picture
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
Scott Hechinger Profile picture
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
Scott Hechinger Profile picture
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

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