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Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
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11 Nov, 5 tweets, 2 min read
Prosecutors have charged two teenagers with the first degree murder of eight-year-old Fanta Bility, even tho it was the police who shot and killed her back in August outside a high school football game.

inquirer.com/news/angelo-fo…
It's not uncommon for prosecutors to charge other people with murder in cases where the police admit to killing someone, but the charge would usually be reckless or felony murder, not first-degree murder as it is here.
One of the most well-known cases is that of LaKeith Smith who was convicted of felony murder and sentenced to 65 years in prison, after a police officer killed his friend Adonte Washington when they were aged 15 and 16 respectively.

usatoday.com/story/news/nat…
Adonte and LaKeith were two teenagers among a group of five people who broke into a house. When police responded, one killed Adonte. The three adults took plea deals. LaKeith took the case to trial and was convicted.
It's all so fucked up. It's not just that the police get away with killing a child, it's that prosecutors absolve them by prosecuting another child or children for the crime.

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More from @DrRJKavanagh

Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
9 Nov
CW: Police violence

Police shot and killed an Indigenous man in Sydney today. This, just two days after another Indigenous man died in a prison located three hours outside of Sydney.

Indigenous peoples make up less than 5% of the Australian population.
smh.com.au/national/nsw/m…
Aboriginal people die in custody at a rate of 0.61 per 100,000 people. More than 55% of these people were in police custody or being pursued by police. A small number were remanded pre-trial (Australia does not have cash bail).

theguardian.com/australia-news…
In the US, Black people die in *police* custody at a rate of 0.60 per 100,000 people.

This does not include people who die in jail or prison, so the rate would be higher if those numbers were included.

I will look for the total figure.

journalistsresource.org/politics-and-g…
Read 4 tweets
Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
8 Nov
So missing the point.

In NYC, people who live in dangerous neighborhoods - primarily Black and Brown - often feel the need to carry a gun.

And they are the people who get prosecuted - not privileged people.

That's why public defenders supported this challenge to NY's gun laws.
People really don't understand how gun laws are enforced in New York.

They criminalize young Black and Brown people.
I don't think I have ever represented a White person charged with possession of a gun.

Not because they don't carry them, but because police are not smashing down their apartment doors to find them and they're not conducting illegal stops and searches.
Read 12 tweets
Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
7 Nov
Well this seems problematic - police need probable cause to pull you over for a traffic infraction *or* reasonable suspicion that a crime has been or is about to be committed. Neither exist here.

That's before we even get to, what the hell, this is what we pay cops to do?
The New York Constitution offers greater protection than the 4th Amendment protection against search and seizure. See People v Robinson 767 N.E.2d 638 (N.Y. 2001) and People v. Spencer, 646 N.E.2d 785 (N.Y. 1995).
DWI check points are allowed but they must be conducted pursuant to non-arbitrary, nondiscriminatory criteria. People v. Sobotker, 373 N.E.2d 1218 (N.Y. 1978).
Read 5 tweets
Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
4 Nov
It's not just that only *one* Black juror has been seated in the trial of the three men charged with killing Ahmaud Arbery.

It's that the judge acknowledged the defense was using *intentional discrimination* in selecting jurors and did nothing about it.
cnn.com/2021/11/03/us/…
During jury selection, the defense and prosecution have unlimited challenges for cause - they simply have to show the judge why a juror would not be fair and impartial.
The defense and prosecution each then have a number of peremptory challenges where they can ask for a juror to be struck for any reason.

Except race. The reason has to be race-neutral.
Read 16 tweets
Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
3 Nov
This analysis ignores the fact that White women benefit from White supremacy because of their race.

White women may be disempowered by their gender, but are empowered by racism.
I always go back to the brilliant book by @sejr_historian, "They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South."
She says: “Most of us continue to see white women through the lens of gender. This allows for us to be optimistic about the possibility that their gendered oppression will allow for them to find common cause with other dispossessed groups.”
Read 5 tweets
Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
23 Oct
Maybe we could just stop mythologizing people all together?
If RBG taught us anything it is that we have blind faith in liberal icons at our own peril.
For the record, I think RBG was racist and that Justice Sotomayor is a million times better jurist.

I also know she joined in this decision upholding child slavery (in which notorious conservative Justice Alito dissented). news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/su…
Read 6 tweets

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