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Scott Hechinger

6 Jan, 10 tweets, 4 min read

https://twitter.com/jeffcmays/status/1479162533579829253

Over the near decade I was a public defender, a common refrain from people I represented was: “I feel trapped, imprisoned in my own neighborhood. On my own street. Scared to walk down my own block.” The “omnipresence” of police is violent & traumatic. Makes people feel unsafe.

https://twitter.com/jeffcmays/status/1479162533579829253

Cops already omnipresent on subway. Last year, NYC hired *500 more.* There were already 4000. $245 million/yr. They mostly target Black people for jumping the turnstile. Fail to prevent crime. Instead of investing in free/affordable public transportation. gothamist.com/news/500-more-…

This is what “omnipresent” subway policing looks like. NYPD surround woman selling churros. Crying. Telling her she stops or get arrested. Trying to talk to them in Spanish. Rolling their eyes. Lead out in cuffs. Cart taken away. This is police violence.

This is what “omnipresent” policing on subway normally looks like. They exact violence & mayhem on the subways. Here, maskless NYPD cops pushed a man out of the subway after he asked them to wear masks. One of so many examples.

This is what “omnipresent” policing on the subway normally looks like. Arresting, attacking, grabbing, & punching a man without a home. From May 2021:

https://twitter.com/davidgeorge265/status/1185663095932362752?s=21

This is what you get when you view public health & safety only through a carceral lens: An army of an cops, arrest & cuffs, fingerprints & cages because a single young Black man couldn’t afford $2.75 for a subway ride. What if we: Paid his fare?

https://twitter.com/davidgeorge265/status/1185663095932362752?s=21

“Williams spent countless nights over 2 decades sleeping on the subway. Left him w/ a stack of $50 tickets he has no way to pay off.” We pay NYPD $494 million to police transit instead of investing in affordable housing. nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-mt…

I count 5 NYPD grabbing, pushing, & cuffing this man for not obeying social distancing rules because it’s impossible on the Subway platform.

“Officers were pointing guns into the subway. Some yelled in horror as they squeezed together on either end of the car. Adrian kept his hands in the air & asked officers whether he should stay in the seat or lie on the floor.“Call my mom,” He told someone. washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10…

https://twitter.com/scotthech/status/1239410067549696004?s=21

This is what “omnipresent” policing on the subway already looks like. In the height of the pandemic. Arrested for moving between subway cars.

https://twitter.com/scotthech/status/1239410067549696004?s=21

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More from @ScottHech

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

8 Jan

Thread: As Eric Adams promises to flood NYC w/ even more cops, know this: The NYPD *orchestrated an attack* on 100s of protestors in June 2020 in the Bronx. Used the curfew to trap, assault & arrest. Mass human rights atrocity. NYPD called it “restraint.”hrw.org/news/2020/09/3…

@hrw

Human Rights Watch (@hrw) conducted an investigation. Based on videos, mapping tech, hundreds of interviews. Found NYPD planned a coordinated assault. Trapped them 10 minutes before curfew to justify attacking them for being out past curfew. All on film.

"About 10 minutes before curfew scores of NYPD surrounded & trapped protesters–tactic called “kettling”–as they marched peacefully. W/o warning, they moved in, wielding batons, beating people from car tops, shoving, firing pepper spray into faces before arresting more than 250."

Read 25 tweets

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

2 Jan

@sfchronicle

Whether 5 or 18 days in jail: People are leaving those cages far worse off than before. More desperate to sell to survive &/or support their own habit. With even longer criminal records. At a cost per person of $10000s, can’t imagine a worse investment. And yet, @sfchronicle:

https://twitter.com/sfchronicle/status/1477028931630997505

@sfchronicle

The data @sfchronicle cites is a glaring indictment of policing & caging as a “solution.”

“The arrest data…raises questions about the efficacy of the city’s approaches to law enforcement & prosecution as the drug epidemic has spiraled into a state of emergency.”

Exactly.

“65 adults were arrested more than once for the same alleged crime in the same neighborhood during the same nine-month period. Sixteen of those were arrested more than twice, and four were arrested four times.” And SF’s Mayor is investing more in police?? sfchronicle.com/bayarea/articl…

Read 5 tweets

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

1 Jan

NOW PRESENTING: A *short film festival* right here on Twitter for New Year. A collection of some short films & other story-telling projects my team & I produced in support of our local allies. Range of justice issues. All over country. First hand accounts. Thread w/ selections:

Still in Prison: On how a law passed by the KKK 80+ years ago to maintain white supremacy keeps disproportionately Black people locked up in Oregon. How a jailhouse lawyer got the case to the Supreme Court. And how to topple this monument to racism. Watch:

https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1396934976466210824

More on the ongoing fight for fairness in Oregon and what you can do to help in this thread and on the campaign site: stillinprison.org.

https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1396934976466210824

Read 16 tweets

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

1 Jan

Thank you to all on here & off who I had the awesome honor of working with (or just be inspired by) this past year fighting to topple the imbalance of power, voice & control over criminal policy & media. We’re going to win. Sometimes doesn’t feel that way. We’re going to. Onward.

@pdxlawgrrrl

Looking at you:
@pdxlawgrrrl
@GregoryMcKelvey
@equalityAlec
@GalvinAlmanza
@davidminpdx
@DigiAbby
@MichaelKleiman
@kinsngops
@chloecockburn
@RachelBarkow
@BrendonWoodsPD
@K_Nicole_Hudson
@jduffyrice
@soledadobrien
@QasimRashid
@AWKWORDrap
@prisonculture

@mkkaishian

Continuing in no order:
@mkkaishian
@davidgeorge265
@jchausow
@JaredTruEsqueer
@shanahanlawprof
@CBHessick
@radleybalko
@allegrakirkland
@TanaGaneva
@ReporterTopher
@BreeNewsome
@SharoneMitchJr
@JamilSmith
@Jamiles
@keribla
@SomilBTrivedi
@Laurapitter

Read 10 tweets

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

31 Dec 21

@nytimes

It was the bullet’s fault, the @nytimes told us. For the second time in 5 days.

https://twitter.com/scotthech/status/1474736853509156866

@nytimes

But the cop who shot & killed a 14 year old inside a dressing room was a “good cop,” the @nytimes told us.

@nytimes

“Whose bullet killed.” “A shooting that killed.” This is intentional & pathological behavior by the @nytimes. Refuses to assign accountability or agency to an armed state agent who unjustifiably killed two people.

Read 22 tweets

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

30 Dec 21

THREAD: As COVID surges again, I’m sharing here some firsthand accounts—audio, video, letters, art—of those who are & have been caged during pandemic. And their loved ones. Desperation. Denied medical care. Fear. Death. We could have done so different. We still can. Listen:

Charles Hobbs was suffocating in a cell of men infected w/ COVID in a Miami jail. Those men tried saving his life. Guards ignored them. He died. Those men spoke out. “I went to sleep w/ tears in my eyes. Grabbing my bible.” These are their voices:

LISTEN: 2 men caged pretrial on affordable bail in Harris County, TX. No food. Denied meds. Freezing. Over 7000 caged during a pandemic. Treated like animals. "Theyre not worried about us. Theyre not worried about nothing going on with us." More: