Thread by @iMusing

Deb Kilroy appreciation tweet #RebLawAu

abolition is an everyday practice. It opens up so much possibility. Prisons are not sites of accountability. What about the murderers and rapists? Welp, the current system does not stop murder and rape. #RebLawAu

abolition stands counter to reformism, says Alison Whittaker. Reformist changes try to change conditions in prisons rather than challenging the legitimacy of prisons and carceral logics. Tinkering at the edges. #RebLawAu

reforms cause expansion of the carceral complex. Example is home detention and electronic surveillance, proposed as a softer option yet in fact transform homes and public spaces into open air prisons - Alison Whittaker #RebLawAu

non-reformist reforms chip away at the armour of the prison industrial complex. Example is the law that passed SA parliament this week - thanks to the tireless work of “force of nature” Latoya Rule - banning spit hoods in ALL settings. #RebLawAu

the use of spit hoods, which was implicated in the death of Latoya’s brother Wayne Fella Morrison, is now no longer possible in South Australia. Incredibly significant change. #RebLawAu

the legal system is a punishment system and instrument of ruling class oppression, white supremacy, and the colonial racist project - Deb Kilroy not holding back #RebLawAu

abolition is committed to dismantling the system of human caging, ending police violence, and advises lawyers to stop being an ally and providing alibis for the state - Deb Kilroy, abridged #RebLawAu

“Department of Corrections” is propagandistic and so is law enforcement, justice system, “holding” people in cages. Language is a site of struggle - Deb Kilroy #RebLawAu

lawyers must centre clients humanity in everything we do. #RebLawAu

Alison Whittaker on Prof Derrick Bell, a founder of CRT who theorised interest convergence to explain when the system actually allows some kind of change via strategic litigation (re Brown v Board of Education of Topeka (1954) 347 US 483, the desegregation case). #RebLawAu

practical ways that lawyers and organisers on this continent can be of service to abolition: don’t diminish direct service work. Tending to the small changes that can be made in a persons life, like getting them out - Alison Whittaker #FreeHer #RebLawAu

the presence of abolition is seeking to supplant the prison industrial complex with something else. Keep in mind the people who have the most to lose if we fail. #RebLawAu

if you are a prosecutor, don’t be. Quit on Monday. #RebLawAu

so many lawyers have an investment in the production of police and prisons - Alison Whittaker, abridged. #RebLawAu

the lawyering around Black Lives Matter rallies - making sure people have legal representation, recording police violence, including the authorised use of violence by armed agents if the state (NSW LEPRA s. 231) #RebLawAu

abolition is the destination, decarceration is the journey. It is not about getting people out and dumping them in the street. It is about poverty, racism, capitalism, the welfare industrial complex, everything - Deb Kilroy. #RebLawAu

there are many people making money on the backs of the most marginalised people - Deb Kilroy.
In fact, the actions of these moral entrepreneurs is what does the marginalising - me.
#RebLawAu

Sisters Inside has never called the police or any other agents of the carceral state. Deb Kilroy then tells a harrowing story to illustrate how carceral logics default to forced child removal and calling the police. #RebLawAu

lawyers are violent. Not hitting. Structural violence. Lawyers have to be aware of what our actions do. Ask ourselves is what we do going to cause more harm or less harm? #RebLawAu

here we go. Criminalising coercive control.

Alison Whittaker says we have to deal with the root cause of violence. The evidence of effectiveness is scant. First Nations women will bear the brunt of criminalising coercive control through misidentification (police racistly assume she is a perpetrator). #RebLawAu

carceral feminists expanding the carceral state. Deb Kilroy says the numbers of incarcerated poor women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women skyrocketed when DV was criminalised. Breach of AVO the no. 1 offence women are imprisoned for #RebLawAu

Deb Kilroy addresses women-only police station proposals. We are talking about the violence of policing, no matter how you [gender] identify, she says. People assume women are not violent but Policing is violent. #RebLawAu

we must listen to First Nations People who have been resisting invasion and colonisation all along. Not the state, not the white carceral feminists. Listen to First Peoples and stand alongside. Whites need to stand between police and First Peoples. #RebLawAu

put your body on the line. Put your whiteness on the line. #RebLawAu

Alison Whittaker on the 5-year campaign by Latoya Rule and their family to ban spit hoods. Says families of people whose lives are taken by the system must lead with agency, to tell their story of their loved one, the value of their lives. #RebLawAu

the incredibly important work of bearing witness at inquests, something Alison and others - the Day family, Natalie Ironfield, Amanda Porter, many more - have done so conscientiously. We know what is at stake, says Alison. #RebLawAu

breaking for lunch. Wonderful session👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼#RebLawAu