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Anti-Fascist Abolitionist AWK Profile picture
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25 Jun, 11 tweets, 9 min read
If you haven’t heard of @MOHAVVKJOHNSON, it’s because @LoriLightfoot and the Chicago PD don’t want you to.

Mohawk has been on house arrest for 309 days — with no trial, and despite having no criminal record

#FreeMohawk

🧵 Image
The Chicago PD “has tried to turn the rapper and comedian into a cautionary example to social justice protesters” - @imLeor, @chicagoreader

Mohawk Johnson was arrested at a protest to #DefundThePolice and #AbolishICE

He was charged with aggravated battery of a “peace officer”
While @MOHAVVKJOHNSON was charged with battery, here’s what really happened, in his words:

“Four to five officers grabbed me and held me against the car before they handcuffed me, and didn't tell me why. They kept yelling, 'Don't struggle…’ I said, 'I'm not struggling.’”
What happened to @MOHAVVKJOHNSON at the August 2020 protest is not uncommon.

Cops arrested about 15,000 people at #BlackLivesMatter and related protests last year

@amnesty condemned US law enforcement for “violating protesters’ human rights”

amnesty.org/en/latest/news…
ICYMI: House arrest was touted on both sides of ‘the aisle’ as a criminal justice reform

But as @LVikkiml and @MayaSchenwar demonstrate in their @thenewpress book, it’s just prison by another name

And the ‘reform’ merely *expanded* the carceral state.

thenewpress.com/books/prison-b…
For @MOHAVVKJOHNSON, limited mobility is the least of what house arrest has meant

“My monitor goes off constantly while I’m in my house. It is a common problem but nobody seems interested in helping me.”
The @chicagoreader covered @MOHAVVKJOHNSON’s story in March, with @imLeor interviewing the rapper, comedian and activist at his home

chicagoreader.com/chicago/jereme…

But something more needs to be done to end this injustice
On June 21, @MOHAVVKJOHNSON tweeted:

“Judges were told to release me without condition… Judge said I wasn’t recognizable in the video being used as evidence against me. CPD outright ignored a consent decree”

This is the CPD we’re talking about:
Chicago gave $280 million of its $403 million in federal COVID funding to the police department

Public Health got $18 million

Family and Support: less than $200,000

The same city whose police arrest Black people 410% more often, and murder Black people 2210% more often Image
Reforms don’t work in a police state.

@MOHAVVKJOHNSON is part of a larger national effort to end police violence and mass incarceration.

To learn more about the movement to #AbolishThePolice and prisons, start here with @equalityAlec:
Want to take action in your community to #AbolishThePolice and prisons?

Join a #MutualAid group (check the @MutualAidHub), watch the courts, film the police, and send your mayor and city council the @TENDEMANDS

tenforjustice.com

In Chicago? Join up with @GKMC18

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More from @AWKWORDrap

Anti-Fascist Abolitionist AWK Profile picture
27 Jun
The #1 way cops are equipped to repress protest movements and perform no-knock raids on private homes is the BILLIONS of $ in military weaponry from the federal govt.

This is the militarization of the police, and it’s made an already violent institution even more dangerous.

🧵 Image
The origins of the 1033 program lie in the “forever wars” on drugs, crime, and terror.

In 1989, Congress gave the Pentagon temporary authority to give military equipment to local law enforcement.

Anything was OK as long as it was deemed suitable “in counter-drug activities.” Image
In 1996, Congress made the Pentagon’s temporary authority to give weapons of war to local law enforcement agencies permanent and expanded its purview to “counterterrorism”, creating 1033 as we know it.

Since, 10,000 jurisdictions have received $7 billion-plus in equipment. Image
Read 17 tweets
Anti-Fascist Abolitionist AWK Profile picture
18 Jun
Today was the 50th anniversary of the #WarOnDrugs.

@TENDEMANDS, the abolitionist org I co-founded last year, is committed to its end.

Here’s a thread on why the @ACLU calls it “bullshit”, and so should you.
Drug offenses are the leading cause of arrest in the United States.

More than 1.5 million people were arrested on drug charges in 2019 alone.

The vast majority of drug arrests are for simple possession (pictured).

Every 25 seconds, someone is arrested for drug possession.
1 in 5 people in prisons and jails are locked up on drug charges.

There are another 750,000 people under state surveillance (on parole or probation) for drug offenses.

150,000 people have been killed in the War on Drugs; another 73,000 have disappeared.
Read 10 tweets
Anti-Fascist Abolitionist AWK Profile picture
5 Jun
The most common question posed to abolitionists is ‘what about rapists and pedophiles?’ 🧵

While this is a sensitive subject, the facts clearly demonstrate that criminalization, cops and cages don’t protect us from the sexual predators the politicians and media warn us about…
Sex offender registries were designed to track perpetrators of the most heinous offenses, but their reach has extended exponentially to include even teen sexting and consensual relations between young people.

Those on registries are denied civil, constitutional and human rights.
1. “Stranger danger” is a myth: 90% of sex assault victims know the attacker

2. 95% of sexual offenses are committed by someone *not* on a registry

3. Only 3.5% of registrants are convicted of another sexual offense within 3 years, compared to the average recidivism rate of 67%
Read 11 tweets
Anti-Fascist Abolitionist AWK Profile picture
12 May
Want answers on what it means to #AbolishThePolice and #AbolishPrisons?

I interviewed @equalityAlec of @CivRightsCorps, and I don't say this often but this is a *must watch*

I interviewed @equalityAlec about his work ending the criminalization of poverty, the history of policing and prisons, the real motives behind reforms like body cams, arguments against #DefundThePolice, what abolition really means, and...

What you can do in your own community:
"No society in recorded history of the modern world ever attempted to take so many human beings from the schools, and families, and jobs, and medical care, and children, and put them into government run cages" - @equalityAlec

Read 8 tweets
Anti-Fascist Abolitionist AWK Profile picture
6 May
TW: rape, police violence

“The detectives took turns raping her in the backseat as the van cruised the dark streets and as she sat handcuffed, crying and repeatedly telling them ‘No.’ Between assaults… the van pulled over so the cops could switch drivers”

#AbolishThePolice

🧵
New York is one of 35 states where cops can evade sexual assault charges by claiming it was consensual

Some states have recently closed this loophole

Most have not, “because it has been politically unpopular to push laws that target cops and anger their powerful unions”
In most of the states that do not outlaw sex between on-duty cops and detainees, an officer can claim consent and face only a misdemeanor “official misconduct” charge, which carries a maximum one-year sentence
Read 9 tweets
Anti-Fascist Abolitionist AWK Profile picture
2 May
“State officials will continue to violate people’s rights with impunity”

Ron Keine was convicted and sentenced to death for kidnapping and murder in 1974

He was exonerated in 1976, 9 days before his execution

#EndQualifiedImmunity 🧵
Misconduct in Ron Keine’s case was “so egregious” the prosecutor lost his license and several officers were fired - @innocence

Yet Ron’s lawsuit was dismissed — because of qualified immunity

And Ron’s case isn’t rare

Qualified immunity enables police brutality and corruption
Qualified immunity is a judicial doctrine from the 1960s that allows public officials, like cops, to act with impunity — even when they break the law

And as we know, the very people empowered to uphold the law break it every day — and laugh about it

nytimes.com/2021/04/27/us/…
Read 7 tweets

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