In this viral thread, a “journalist” takes us back to the late 19th century good-old-days of media propaganda for a *railroad monopoly.* He even throws in a little science-denying innuendo that more human caging would make it all better. A few thoughts:
First, there is not a single shred of evidence that more prosecution and caging would reduce any supposed theft. This is the most studied and settled question in all of criminology. Just ludicrous, irresponsible propaganda to suggest otherwise.
Second, take a look at how similar this media panic is to the fabrication of low level crime hysteria in victorian England as soon as reform became popular. It’s both profitable to people who own things and a cultural pathology in media. daily.jstor.org/how-crime-stor…
Third, this is part of a Los Angeles media assault on the most minor reforms to make punishment less harsh, and part of a corporate press release deluge to extract more tax $ to pay for corporate security. This story has all the hallmarks of a simple corporate press release.
Fourth, it repeats outlandish corporate/police speculation that this is “organized criminal syndicates,” just like they did with the shoplifting panic. Notice that the cops and this journalist don’t offer a single piece of evidence for that. It’s designed to scare you.
Finally, not every problem in our society has something to do with police, prisons, and punishment. In fact, few of them do, and they never meaningfully reduce crime or make us safe compared to reducing inequality. Read this:

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More from @equalityAlec

Jan 16,
It is a deliberate choice by the New York Times to cover the Bronx fire that killed 17 human beings as some sort of vague tragedy and to publish an article that does not mention the safety and fire code violations or the name of the rich landlords. nytimes.com/2022/01/16/nyr…
Compare the lack of blame, lack of accountability, and pathological inability to discuss the causes of the harm to how the New York Times regularly covers "crime" by the poor.
You can read more about the rampant health and safety violations caused by the wealthy slumlords here: theintercept.com/2022/01/11/bro…
Read 4 tweets
Jan 14,
Something alarming is happening. I've been tracking this around the country, and I have never seen a judge in modern U.S. history responsible for more people in jail. Judge Ramona Franklin just hit 500 people in jail at the same time solely because they can't pay cash.
Also striking is Judge Kelli Johnson. She has the 6th highest number of people in jail because they lack cash, but records suggest that Johnson has a reduced docket because she is the admin judge. Alarming that her numbers are so high. This was her case:
None of these people are convicted. Given the comprehensive research on how jail kills people, these judges' recent decisions are now likely responsible for thousands of years of human life lost. @TexasCJE @OrganizeTexas
Read 5 tweets
Jan 13,
THREAD: It's a lot of work to catalog the new copaganda unleashed each day by the New York Times. However, today's piece glorifying authoritarian violence in San Francisco is scary. Some of it is subtle, but it's worth unpacking a few key points. nytimes.com/2022/01/13/opi…
First, NYT lets a corporate/police backed politician criticize all of her opponents who want less poverty/more housing/more healthcare/more investment in community and less investment in for-profit surveillance and state violence as "white." She says: “They are not Black people."
This trope of glorifying elites engaging in state violence and using their racial identity to insulate them from criticism is propaganda. It's especially jarring when many of the core intellectual and strategic leaders of the movement against cop/prisons are Black women.
Read 12 tweets
Jan 12,
What if local news media reported on safety code violations by landlords in the same way they report on low-level crimes that police send them in press releases? What if they reported on local pollution and wage theft violations that local governments document each day?
It's vital to see that editors choose which stories to cover, and they are typically the stories that police and corporations want covered. It shapes our assessments of what is urgent, and focuses us on things that cause minuscule relative harm. A thread:
This single fire killed almost double the number of people as all murders in NYC combined in a typical week. As this great journalism by @akela_lacy demonstrates, no local news had found it important enough to report on the fire code violations.
Read 4 tweets
Jan 11,
THREAD: This story is about a 68-year-old unhoused military veteran who just spent 382 days in jail because he lacked cash. His story is important. How he was treated by prosecutors, judges, and his own defense lawyer is chilling.
The man was arrested on Christmas Day 2020. He was accused of stealing a bottle of wine from a CVS and threatening to hit someone with the bottle of wine. He wasn't even brought to court for his own bail hearing, where the judge required him to pay $30,000.
A few days later, a judge reduced the cash bail amount to $5,000. Because only the U.S. and the Philippines have for-profit commercial bail industries, this meant that he could have paid $500 or less to a private company to be free. He couldn't pay.
Read 10 tweets
Jan 5,
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

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