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3 Nov, 5 tweets, 2 min read
The Supreme Court argument today about NY’s racist gun laws underscores how fearmongering & police lies have infected the Court. Here Justice Alito uses the police-created, racially-coded myth of “high-crime area” & fear about nighttime danger to drive point home. There’s more:
Here, Justice Robert’s invokes the police-created fear over “muggings,” and the presumption that armed robberies are rampant in NYC. They aren’t. Meanwhile, in his mind, crime just doesn’t happen with guns upstate.
Here, in open court, on the record, for country to hear, Justice Alito scaremongers over “these people w/ illegal guns — on the subway…walking around the streets” & distinguishes them from “ordinary hardworking people.” Read: He means Black & brown people versus white people.
Here, Justice Kagan assumes--contrary to all evidence--that policing helps secure safety. And the DOJ attorney assumes that the relevant concern is protecting POLICE from civilians who carry out of self-defense, when it's most definitely the opposite.
It's wild to see Paul Clement, who was George W. Bush's top SCOTUS attorney, making most sense in these arguments. It is outrageous that predominately Black & brown people, carrying out of reasonable fear for safety, get arrested/charged w/ violent felony.

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Scott Hechinger Profile picture
6 Nov
When you think of a state w/ most racist, cruel, & outrageous system of criminalization & incarceration, you probably don't think of Maryland.

Learned some brutal facts today. Let's start w/ this:

Maryland incarcerates more Black people than any other state in country. More: Image
70% of people in Maryland prisons are Black.

That's the highest percentage in the nation.

Double the national average.

More than 25% higher than MD's nearest competitor - Mississippi. Image
Maryland charges more children as adults per capita than any other state besides Alabama. And Alabama recently changed their law, so Maryland is now likely the worst.

Maryland charges children *automatically* as adults for more than 33 offenses, including misdemeanors. Image
Read 11 tweets
Scott Hechinger Profile picture
4 Nov
Teen Vogue has become the most unexpected yet indispensable journalistic voice for exposing the horrors of mass incarceration. Such important and impressive work. Grateful.
This powerful commentary by Iveliz Orellano about prosecutions of protestors, is just the latest in a Teen Vogue series written by Chicago public defenders about media sensationalism and crime policy. teenvogue.com/story/black-li…
In July, public defender Takenya Nixon Brail took on violence & fearmongering about a "surge" in a crime. "A tragic death was once again being weaponized by the media, police, leaders, & lawmakers to scare the public into thinking more police is the answer.teenvogue.com/story/rising-c…
Read 4 tweets
Scott Hechinger Profile picture
4 Nov
THREAD: For stealing dish soap: 7 years prison! Prosecutors call it "looting." Not one Chicago cop charged in violent crackdown. Yet nearly 200 protestors still face 100s years for similar things. Their public defender explains why we allow this to happen: teenvogue.com/story/black-li…
"During court hearings, people I & other public defenders in Chicago & suburbs are now fighting for are reduced by prosecutors & judges to words like “looter,” “rioter,” “mob,” and “criminal,” racially coded terms that politicians have long used to refer to Black & brown people."
A familiar cycle: "Outside of court: Police & prosecutors share their version; then the media, prints black-and-white stories devoid of context using words like "looting"; the public then equates protest w/ violence & calls for justice w/ “criminality.” teenvogue.com/story/black-li…
Read 14 tweets
Scott Hechinger Profile picture
4 Nov
Just 1 Black juror. 11 white. To decide killing of Ahmaud Arbery. Simply jogging. Pursued & shot by a group of white men in a pickup truck last year. Judge found “intentional discrimination” in jury selection. But hands tied by law. This is not okay. More:cnn.com/2021/11/03/us/…
Even though judge in Ahmaud Arbery’s case found intentional discrimination in jury selection, in Georgia “all the defense needs to do is provide that legitimate, nondiscriminatory, clear, reasonably specific & related reason," for why they struck a juror. usatoday.com/story/news/nat…
Ahmaud Arbery’s killer’s attorney: “We are very pleased that we have been able to select now 16 members of this community.” In Glynn County, GA, more than 26% of the 85,000 residents are Black. Only one Black juror was picked. “Community.” cnn.com/2021/11/03/us/…
Read 7 tweets
Scott Hechinger Profile picture
3 Nov
THIS IS IMPORTANT: I want all my SF friends to read this. The people scaremongering you into recalling Chesa Boudin are far right wing donors & the dangerous, racist Police Officers Association of SF. "A singularly destructive and reactionary force." More: sfexaminer.com/news/the-dange…
The same Police Officers Association (POA) loudly calling for Boudin’s recall has been a singularly destructive and reactionary force in San Francisco politics for decades.
The Police Officers Association of San Francisco, the primary force behind the recall effort of Chesa Boudin, fought "efforts to racially integrate the police in the 1960s and 1970s."
Read 9 tweets
Scott Hechinger Profile picture
2 Nov
THREAD: This story is important. Clarifies the failure of the criminal legal system. A man w/o a home. Trauma. Substance use. Mental health. 50+ arrests/convictions didn't "help" him. Right now: Caged over 800 days for stealing cold medicine. Faces 4 years.theappeal.org/rikers-nyquil-…
As a public defender, I met people like Reginald Randolph frequently. RAP sheet was literally heavy w/ crimes of desperation. To police, prosecutors & judges he was a "menace." To defenders: He long needed helped, but was failed time & again. "Homeless, sick, & trapped."
In San Francisco, NYC, & other cities, more & more people are expressing disgust over "shoplifters" & homelessness. Think it's a choice. The truth: "Shoplifting was to support my addiction & to deal with my homelessness, deal w/ my poverty." You can't deter desperation w/ cages.
Read 26 tweets

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