Happy July 4th

Let’s talk about those who still aren’t free, as a result of racism in policing, prosecution, and sentencing — also known as @thenewjimcrow

Cops kill 3 people a day

Black people are 300+% more likely to be the victim

But it’s a lot more insidious than that.

🧵
1 out of every 3 Black boys and 1 out of every 6 Latino boys born today can expect to be sentenced to prison

A Black person is 500% more likely to be stopped without just cause than a white person

Black people are incarcerated at more than 5 times the rate of whites
32% of the US population is Black or Latino, but 56% of the US incarcerated population is Black or Latino

In fact, if Black and Latino people were merely incarcerated at the same rates as whites, prison and jail populations would decline by almost 40%
Black and white people use drugs at similar rates, but the imprisonment rate of Black people on drug charges is 6 times that of whites

Black children represent 14% of the child population, but 32% of those arrested, 42% of those detained, and 52% of those tried in criminal court
Black people represent 13% of the population, but of the 1,900+ exonerations of the wrongfully accused, nearly 50% were Black

Meanwhile, nearly 50% of those currently serving life, life without parole, or “virtual life” sentences are Black
On Tuesday, July 6, co-founders of @TENDEMANDS will join fellow co-founder @SocialistMMA on @FredHamptonLeft to discuss race- and class-based discriminatory policing, prosecution and sentencing — and our demand #3 to end it once and for all

tenforjustice.com/demands
Actually, this says it all.

#AbolishThePolice #AbolishPrisons Image
.@TENDEMANDS co-founders @SocialistMMA, @anhiebananhie, @zoyaislove and I appeared live today on @FredHamptonLeft to talk discriminatory policing, prosecution and sentencing, our Demand #3, and why we need to defund now on the road to #AbolishThePolice

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More from @AWKWORDrap

5 Jul
I first met with @ShahidForChange last year to talk #GeneralStrike. Then he and @EFF helped recover my Twitter account from hackers, and later he joined our call with @FlyingWithSara.

I interviewed him on everything, including the allegations against him

During our 60-min conversation, lawyer, organizer, Congressional candidate and rapper @ShahidForChange and I talked Mike Gravel, the Squad and #ForceTheVote, the George Floyd Act, police reform, #DefundThePolice and abolition, and power in protest music

"Mike Gravel was like an actual real-life Jedi… He’s one of the only members of congress in the entire last century to show up for work"

- @ShahidForChange on Mike Gravel, who endorsed Shahid and whose legacy continues today through @GravelInstitute

Read 9 tweets
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.

🧵
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.”
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.
Read 18 tweets
25 Jun
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.’”
Read 11 tweets
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
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
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

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