Look at the choice to use the word “overarching” here. It’s important to understand how it is sophisticated propaganda.
At a time of global ecological catastrophe, rising overt fascism, and rampant death and suffering from lack of healthcare, housing, and inequality, elites foment panic re: small categories of “crime” that cause exponentially less harm but provide excuses for repression.
Interests that own news outlets benefit from people focusing urgently on the narrow category of police-reported “crime” and not on wage theft, pollution, evictions, foreclosures, tax evasion, etc. or myriad deeper issues of corruption/inequality.
It matters what people think the “overarching” issues affecting their lives are. Is it inequality or lack of universal health care? 100,000s of deaths from poverty? Prisons that reduce overal US life expectancy by 100,000,000s of years? Or is it shoplifting from large retailers?
I tried to explain this phenomenon in detail here:

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Alec Karakatsanis

Alec Karakatsanis Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @equalityAlec

5 Jan
THREAD. One year ago today, I argued the case of Kenneth Humphrey in the California Supreme Court. The case struck down the cash bail system as we know it in California. But the case is more important for what the court did NOT do, and more people should know about THAT.
Kenneth Humphrey was accused of robbing a few dollars and a bottle of cologne from another man at the senior living facility they both lived in. As he awaited his day in court, he was initially kept in a cage because he couldn’t pay $600,000. He decided to appeal.
Then something amazing happened: the Court of Appeal issued a unanimous opinion striking down California’s ubiquitous money bail practices. Kenneth got a new bail hearing, and he was released and did great. A beautiful photo essay by @svdebug
Read 22 tweets
4 Jan
THREAD. What’s happening at the New York Times is disturbing. Many people pointed out the headline about a mysterious bullet that killed a 14-year-old girl, but some interesting things emerge when you look closely at the article itself. nytimes.com/2021/12/30/us/…
The background: An LAPD cop killed two people with an assault rifle in a Burlington Coat Factory, including a 14-year-old girl who was trying on a dress, part of a wave of recent police murders in Los Angeles.
Here are the sources NYT chose to educate readers, in order:

-Spokesperson for cop union
-Lawyer for cop (humanizing, defending him)
-Person mentored by the cop
-New person mentored by the cop
-AG
-Professor (former cop)
-Lawyer for family
-Lawyer for cop (again, twice more)
Read 22 tweets
29 Dec 21
UPDATED THREAD: In 2021, we heard a lot about how police and prisons need more cash because "crime is surging." It's copaganda. I’ve made a new thread of threads with resources to help understand the issue and respond.
1) We must first see that there is a difference between what police do and what police say they do. For example, police talk a lot about “violent crime” in the media, but U.S. police only choose to spend 4% of their time on what they call "violent crime.” nytimes.com/2020/06/19/ups…
2) Police also talk a lot about protecting property and how bad theft is, but police steal more property through civil forfeiture than all burglary crime in the U.S. combined. Do you know about civil forfeiture?
Read 50 tweets
28 Dec 21
THREAD. The current celebration in the media of armed police as the liberal response to lack of housing, healthcare, and other inequality caused by the hoarding of wealth has the chance to be a watershed moment of consciousness for many ordinary people.
In the second half of the 20th century, police perfected a marketing strategy to portray their role as protecting against "violent crime." They did this even as police devote only 4% of their total time to what they call "violent crime." nytimes.com/2020/06/19/ups…
Police and the real estate developers, corporate interests, and corrupt municipal bureaucrats who represent the interests of people who own things have a problem: Despite police manipulation of almost useless "crime stats," their own stats show violent crime near historic lows.
Read 10 tweets
24 Dec 21
THREAD. When the history is written of rising fascism, ecological catastrophe, and disastrous lack of healthcare/housing, this CBS story can be used as a damning portrait of how the news media distorted what counts as urgent and what counts as safety.
losangeles.cbslocal.com/2021/12/07/we-…
Take a look at the sources that the CBS Los Angeles reporters and editors chose to use, in chronological order, supposedly to inform the public about what is happening in Los Angeles:
-Cop union president (who has shot 6 people)
-Cop union president (again)
-Random woman who moved to LA 6 months ago.
-Police Chief
-Police Chief (denying science to criticize bail reform)
-Police Chief again
-Anonymous tourist
-Unidentified “people out in Hollywood”
-DA
Read 13 tweets
24 Dec 21
I'm not sure I've ever seen an "article" like this glowing "profile" of a DA in the Detroit Free Press. It begins with the DA telling a story about how *Angela Davis* inspired her to pursue a career putting human beings in cages. It only gets weirder. freep.com/story/news/loc…
Article is a series of soaring quotes about how amazing prosecution is, but the denial of police brutality in Detroit (not fact checked) is astonishing:

"The type of police brutality that we have seen in other places has not been tolerated in Wayne County, and mostly Detroit."
That a major newspaper would let a prosecutor falsely declare that "police brutality" has not been "tolerated" in Detroit is amazing. It flies in the face of decades of brutality and is an insult to the movement of people organizing against brutality in Detroit @DETWILLBREATHE
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(