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Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture
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11 Dec, 11 tweets, 4 min read
THREAD: As you read this article in the most prominent news service in the country, ask yourself: Why is this news? What is the goal of the journalists? How did they choose which voices to quote and which to ignore? Who benefits? apnews.com/article/corona…
Ask yourself how an article about homelessness in SF could include a gentrifier saying “I’m over it” but not a single word on profit, wealth inequality, affordable housing, racism, or capitalism. Astonishing myopia and manipulation.
The article is filled with false claims and inferences that are like climate change denial, but the worst is this: there is not a shred of evidence that lax enforcement of criminal laws has anything to do with the problems that the (exclusively) affluent people quoted identify.
Finally, the supposedly new “feeling” of lack of safety that the article describes (whose novelty is contrary to all available objective evidence) is itself the product of the barrage of this kind of article. A self perpetuating cycle of mass delusion among wealthy liberals.
We cannot mince words: reporting like this that distracts from investments needed for real safety to bolster useless cops and cages will empower fascist violence against poorest, most vulnerable people in our society. People will be separated from their kids, and many will die.
More on this @AP reporting here and it’s parallels to Rupert Murdoch and police union tactics.
And more insight here:
I'm genuinely interested in your reflections on the question in this tweet above. Why does the article not include these issues (profit, wealth inequality, affordable housing, racism, or capitalism) or sources quoted on them? @janiehar @OlgaRRod
@janiehar @OlgaRRod
also, article makes it seem like there is no possible, easy solution to unhoused people going to the bathroom other than giving more money to cops for human caging. just astonishing failure to engage with how our society really works.

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More from @equalityAlec

Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture
12 Dec
THREAD. I noticed something fascinating: many of the reporters concocting the new hysteria over "retail theft" are using the *exact same* words and patterns in each story. It's pretty wild. Let's take a look:
Let's use today's dangerous @chicagotribune article as an example. First thing to notice: who does the newspaper choose to use as sources? Here they are in chronological order: chicagotribune.com/business/ct-bi…
1. CEO of local retail lobby
2. National Retail Federation
3. Police
4. CEO of state retail lobby (5 paras!)
5. CEO of World Business Chicago
6. Pres. of restaurant lobby
7. CEO of Illnois Hotel lobby (7 paras!)
8. New hotel CEO (6 paras!)
9. CEO from earlier (7 more paras!)
Read 16 tweets
Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture
10 Dec
THREAD. As we hit an unprecedented 100,000 drug overdose deaths, I answer the following question in this thread on the "War on Drugs": are punishment bureaucrats incompetent at achieving their goals, or are they pursuing goals that are different from what they tell us publicly?
After over 40 years, the drug war has:

-Cost more than $1 trillion
-Caused over 50 million people to be caged (almost all of them poor), including over 20 million for marijuana
-Caused an estimated hundreds of millions of police stops that meet legal definition of kidnapping.
The drug war has:

-Caused tens of millions of years in prison
-Separated tens of millions of children from their parents
-Cost tens of millions of people their education, houses, and ability to make a living
-Caused millions of square acres of pristine land to be spray-poisoned
Read 10 tweets
Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture
7 Dec
THREAD. The @AssociatedPress has published another irresponsible, dangerous article contributing to a manufactured panic about "retail theft." It's basically an corporate and police union press release. A few things about it are astounding: sfgate.com/news/article/D…
First, I cannot say this strongly enough: the thesis of the piece is that harsher prison terms are needed. **This is the equivalent of climate science denial or peddling tobacco industry propaganda about cigarettes being healthy.**
Second, notice how article could have told readers the scientific consensus: more imprisonment has zero effect on crime, and actually make crime worse. The article simply did not tell readers about this. Take a look at the largest meta study ever:
Read 8 tweets
Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture
4 Dec
THREAD: The San Francisco Chronicle just published a Iong article on drug addiction. Prominent national journalist @ezraklein told people to "stop scrolling twitter and read it." The piece is a dangerous manipulation of a personal story for reactionary ends.
The article tells a tragic, moving story about a mom grappling with her daughter’s addiction. But this deeply personal story is leveraged to back up quietly asserted and highly consequential policy claims in favor of human caging and needles suffering.
Let me note right away and in simple terms that the article's pro-human caging policy suggestions are like climate science denial.
Read 14 tweets
Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture
4 Dec
Earlier today, I posted a disturbing story of an NBC reporter threatening a community group who questioned his police bias. I’ve now been shown an old email the reporter apparently sent to police chief calling him “bro,” inviting him for “beers,” and giving info on unhappy cops.
Here is a link to the unprofessional threat to retaliate by not covering the community group’s concerns in the news. @nbcbayarea can you confirm the authenticity of the email? Did you know about it? Do you condone the threats?
Another mystery: reporter seems to be claiming in his twitter rant against the community group that he learned of the misleading story from police twitter, but it seems like he may have close relationships with police who asked him to do an anti-bail reform story. @nbcbayarea?
Read 4 tweets
Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture
3 Dec
Thread. The New York Times has published another irresponsible, dangerous article contributing to a manufactured panic about "retail theft." A few points you should know. nytimes.com/2021/12/03/bus…
First, look at the "expert" sources the reporters choose to rely on in this story. It's unbelievable, even for a paper that routinely skews toward corporate and police sources. Here are the expert sources the NYT cites, supposedly to help people understand the issue, in order:
-Corporate spokesperson
-Corporate VP
-"Retail executives and security experts"
-"Industry veterans"
-"President of the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail"
-"Some industry experts"
-"Head of the California retail trade group"
-Governor
-CLER president (again, twice)
-Sheriff
Read 13 tweets

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