Thread by @equalityAlec

THREAD. With much of the country focused on search warrant raids, here are a few important and surprising things to remember:

First, the vast supermajority of search warrant raids are brutal, unnecessary invasions of the homes of poor families, usually for drugs. It's what killed Breonna Taylor. Horrific things happen every day:

https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1555193804000460800

Second, much of the rampant abuse of home raids by armed cops is geared toward stealing the property of mostly poor people. If you don't know about civil forfeiture you should read this and it will blow your mind:

https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1412428329806860288

Third, I encourage anyone interested to read @radleybalko's great book the Rise of the Warrior Cop about the freakish world of police raids. You will never think about police overtime, surveillance, and military equipment budgets the same way again.

Fourth, in my own years-long investigation into thousands of raids that led to numerous successful civil rights lawsuits, I learned that the vast bulk of home raids by local cops in DC were illegal and involved criminal brutality during the execution.

https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1304427214197469185

Fifth, cops justify military invasions by invoking "danger," but they create it by invading homes w/o knocking at night, killing pets, brutalizing kids for drugs. And cops are not even close to most dangerous job. Fishing, landscaping, farming, dozens of others way more deadly.

Finally, there is almost never accountability for violations committed by armed cops during home raids. In fact, they profit from the overtime cash and stolen property they take. Every police department in the country knows about and tolerates this: it's how it is DESIGNED.

Finally, one last fact that reveals to you much of what you need to know about police raids:, after Los Angeles police famously invented the country's first SWAT team, what did they choose as its very first mission? A 1969 raid on the headquarters of the Black Panther Party.