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Sherrilyn Ifill Profile picture
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16 Sep, 9 tweets, 4 min read
THREAD. This was a big week for civil rights at the DOJ. Proof that elections matter and that having civil rts attys in DOJ leadership matters. Let me walk you through what’s happened in just this one week. It’s actually astounding. 1/
On Monday, AG Garland announced a review of its use of monitors who oversee the implementation of consent decrees. This has been a concern among community groups in cities where police dept’s are covered by consent decrees after DOJ investigations. justice.gov/opa/pr/attorne… 2/
On Tuesday Asst AG for Civil Rights @KristenClarkeJD announced that the @CivilRights Division has opened an investigation into conditions in Georgia’s prisons. This is huge. The humanitarian crisis in southern prisons is a critically important issue.

nytimes.com/2021/09/14/us/…
Then the DOJ announced that it will ban the use of no-knock entries and chokeholds by federal law enforcement officers (except in cases where deadly force is authorized - more to probe abt the exception to be sure) . politico.com/news/2021/09/1…
And then today Assoc AG @vanitaguptaCR announced a review to ensure that its grant programs to law enforcement comply w/Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which forbids the provision of federal funds to programs engaged in racial discrimination. nytimes.com/2021/09/16/us/…
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a week in which DOJ has announced that it will undertake multiple measures, each with the potential to result in fundamental shifts in longstanding discriminatory practices by officials in the criminal justice system.
I’m remembering AG Garland’s confirmation testimony in which he explained that he needed AAG @vanitaguptaCR & Asst AG for Civil Rights @KristenClarkeJD on his team in particular to help him with critical areas of the work with which he does not have experience.
This week feels like an important return on his commitment to assembling this rich team. And it’s still Thursday. So there’s still time for more…../
For many I know this all may seem slow and clunky - it is after all, the government. I’m gratified to see that they’re using the tools they have to undertake measures civil rights groups have been asking for for years. And they’re working carefully and smart.

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More from @Sifill_LDF

Sherrilyn Ifill Profile picture
17 Sep
Another devastating story about Facebook. You think you know the worst of it, but there’s always more. wsj.com/articles/faceb…
Ok I’ll thread some of the recent ones.
wsj.com/articles/faceb…
Read 4 tweets
Sherrilyn Ifill Profile picture
1 Sep
It’s critical to understand the TX law b/c it is part of a desperate effort to do by harassment, intimidation, & menacing what could not be accomplished by regular channels of democratic engagement. It is of a piece w/recent voter suppression bills and anti-truth school bd mobs.
By authorizing “citizen suits” vs. anyone facilitating an abortion, the law deputizes ordinary ppl to terrorize women seeking abortions w/lawsuits against their friends, partners, doctors, providers. In essence allowing zealots to do the work of overturning Roe by intimidation.
Georgia’s new voter suppression allows any voter to make unlimited “challenges” against the legitimacy of other voters. Unlimited. Even though in Nov 20 there were 360,000 challenges w/only a score of ballots found to be illegitimate. ajc.com/politics/georg…
Read 5 tweets
Sherrilyn Ifill Profile picture
7 Aug
You’re being ridiculous. Samuel DuBose, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Botham Jean, Michael Crawford, Jonathan Price, Emantic Bradford, Atatiana Jefferson and so many more. Can I add in choking and tasing? Cause then there’s Philando Castile, Elijah McCain, Eric Garner & so many more.
Going about their business or trying to help others. When one man knelt to protest this injustice that you claim “no one denies” he was blackballed from a pro sports career. Protesters were accused of demonizing the police.
Over and over we were told “if they just complied” they would be alive. Have you read the transcript of the killing of Elijah McClain? None of these unarmed ppl killed were breaking and entering into the Capitol w/the intent of overthrowing the govt.
Read 4 tweets
Sherrilyn Ifill Profile picture
11 Jul
So pleased to see this from @BrentNYT. In “On The Courthouse Lawn” I wrote extensively about the failures of the white press in its reporting on lynchings, leaving the Black press “to speak to & about Blacks, who experienced firsthand the consequences of lynching.”
The white press also used erasure to gaslight and minimize the truth about white violence. The day after Matthew Williams was lynched in Salisbury, MD in 1931, the local paper - The Salisbury Times - issued a “Statement” below the fold. It read:
“This paper is omitting the details of the demonstration here last night….for the very obvious reason that almost every reader of our paper had an opportunity to learn of them firsthand from eyewitnesses.”
Yes, DEMONSTRATION. Also, one of the publishers was an eyewitness.
Read 4 tweets
Sherrilyn Ifill Profile picture
1 Jul
We are fighting against the most concerted state-based effort to undermine Black voting strength since the Civil Rights Mvmt. And in that context, the Supreme Court has again, & w/abandon, shredded a core provision of the Voting Rights Act.
The move is bold. The announcement of a new "test" for vote denial cases - jettisoning the "totality of circumstances" test that has been adjudicated by trial & appellate cts for decades in these cases & replacing it w/a test that put a hand on the scale for "state interests."
The test itself is deeply cynical. First, the bait & switch. While the Shelby Court insisted we must not focus on the past, but must take acct of the new voting landscape, the Court in Brnovich suggests a presumption of validity for voting measures that were in place in 1982.
Read 8 tweets
Sherrilyn Ifill Profile picture
30 May
Bill Bratton knows for sure that this did not happen. In fact in many places, quite the opposite. But this narrative is a convenient one - diverting from the catastrophic failures of police leadership to make necessary changes & from the truth that recruitment is low b/c of that.
And I will keep saying, crime rises when 1) the root causes of violence are not addressed (poverty, joblessness, trauma & abuse) and 2) when violent crimes are not solved. Look at the abysmal clearance rate for murder in most cities.
Violent crimes are not solved by police acting on their own - no matter what you see on TV. It requires the engagement of community members working w public safety ofcrs they trust. Trust is at an all-time low. That’s why police lying, misconduct & brutality drives up crime.
Read 4 tweets

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