Thread: More problematic “crime” reporting. This time from @NPR. The very premise—man charged in Wisconsin parade killings is “poster boy for backlash against bail reform”—is only bc outlets like NPR promote the lie. Nothing to do w/ “bail reform.” More:npr.org/2021/11/25/105…
I ache for the victims in Wisconsin. Committed to finding solutions to avoid future tragedies like this one. Thats why I want to set record straight: There is no “bail reform” in Wisconsin. No significant change to bail laws in Wisconsin in a decade. Bail was set in this case.
NPR (& other outlets) even mentioning “bail reform” in context of deaths in Wisconsin is enough to generate the fear & anger to incentivize judges & prosecutors to cage way more at expense of law/reason. Lawmakers to pass harsher laws. Real bail stories:
https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1214381554719432704?s=20
We have seen this far too many times before, from Willie Horton to today. An outlier incident garners outsized media coverage, changes political discourse, & irreversibly impacts policy. In no other area do we so blatantly and frequently legislate based on fear rather than facts.
Police & pro-carceral interests weaponize tragedies because the strategy always works. When people are scared, they want explanations. Nuance is hard to explain. And it does not sell. The media prints black and white, parroting copaganda. justicenotfear.org/debunk
Decarceration does not cause more crime. The opposite: it improves safety. Pretrial caging is proven to undermine public safety by increasing recidivism. And rearrest rates for crimes of violence during release are near non-existent. Truth should matter.
https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1465326903779373056?s=20
An incredible sleight of hand by cops & allies. The man accused was arrested, caged pre-trial, & imprisoned since age 17. “Trapped in revolving door of incarceration, drug abuse & violence.” Yet we blame non-existent "bail reform for systemic failures?"nypost.com/2021/11/25/dar…
Even though NPR includes important quotes 12 paragraphs down from a reasoned academic & advocate about injustice of bail & the pattern of media sensationalizing outlier cases, the damage is already done. Few readers will even get far enough in the piece to read this perspective. 
While amplifying & legitimizing this latest copaganda, NPR also inexplicably relaunches last month’s, including that "bail reform" caused shootings. Even after NYPD chief was forced to admit he’d been lying for years (as the data showed)! It’s incredible. newyork.cbslocal.com/2021/10/14/bai…
It’s so maddening. Last month, NYPD Chief was forced to admit that he had been lying for years tying shootings to bail reform. *He lied.* Yet this week @NPR amplifies the lie as a possibility: “Some police have blamed…” This lie literally killed people.fwd.us/news/new-york-…
When I saw the horrific news about Wisconsin, I knew cops would use the victims to push for more caging & media would take the bait. The general public would believe it. And support for greater harshness that would only make our society less safe would soon follow.
Most of all, I felt a sense of dread because I know that what is at stake here is so much more than policy. It’s about people. As a public defender, the debate over pretrial caging was never abstract. I saw the implications everyday in the courtroom.
The @NPR piece ends with a call for more preventative detention & the impossible task—w/ racist effects—of predicting future dangerousness. Opinion is offered by the Head of Research for a conservative think tank. With no counter argument, data, statistics. This is source bias.
Risk assessments—claiming to be able to predict future dangerousness—don’t work & just replicate pre-existing racial disparities because the algorithm data is drawn from criminal legal systems which are endemically racist.
https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1213848291580006402?s=20
How can anyone support pretrial risk assessments or support allowing judges to try to predict future dangerousness when Kalief Browder—national symbol of the need to overhaul pretrial detention—would have been deemed dangerous, jailed, locked in solitary, & still ended his life?
To expand pretrial caging for those we allow judges to deem “dangerous” means that for every one Darrell Brooks, there will be hundreds of thousands of people, disproportionately Black & brown, who'd be caged unnecessarily. Incoming NYC Mayor is already calling for this. A cycle.
Crystal balls don't exist. Horrible, tragic things inevitably happen. It’s a horrible, tragic reality. Only thing we can do is try to make society healthier overall. We know from decades of data that more caging gravely undermines public health & safety.
https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1102753312619851790?s=20
As always, my intention here is not to "call out" @NPR. But call them & other outlets in. I wrote recently about how even well-intentioned journalists enable carceral status quo. Offer a roadmap for how to do better journalism on crime & punishment. Here: thenation.com/article/societ…
Please read thread. The problem is @NPR & others AMPLIFYING false claims, giving air & legitimacy to lies, & FRAMING these sources as plausible, when they should instead be reporting--if they do at all--that those sources are weaponizing tragedy.
https://twitter.com/KriTims1/status/1465734382245662721?s=20
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