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Scott Hechinger

Nov 29, 2022 • 21 tweets • 11 min read • Read on X

Giving Tuesday (#GivingTuesday2022) is a good opportunity here to raise up some of the amazing local partners I get to work with round the country who fight everyday for fairness, freedom, health, & safety.

Thread on how to support:

Texas Jail Project. Empowering incarcerated people in Texas county jails by lifting their voices through stories, testimonies, & community building. Providing aid and support to people, families, and communities. Fighting for truth. Give here:donorbox.org/texasjailproje…

Silicon Valley De-Bug (@ . A community organizing, advocacy, & storytelling organization based out of San José, California. Leading a national network of "participatory defense" hubs supporting public defenders secure the best outcomes in & out of court: mightycause.com/donate/Silicon…

@ContextosChi

Contextos (@ContextosChi). Working to prevent, interrupt, & end cycles of violence in Chicago, while complicating the narrative w/ true stories that illuminate, elevate voices, create proximity, build empathy & change minds and actions of diverse audiences.contextos.org/donate/

@Gideons_Promise

Gideons Promise (@Gideons_Promise). Supporting public defenders so that we can be a nation where every person has access to zealous, outstanding legal representation necessary to ensure “equal justice for all” in the criminal justice arena. gideonspromise.org

@PFJ_USA

Partners for Justice (@PFJ_USA). Training non-attorney Advocates to provide clients with case navigation and wraparound support, while helping public defenders protect people from incarceration and other criminal penalties.partnersforjustice.org

@healthyhoodchi

Healthy Hood (@healthyhoodchi). Providing affordable programming & resources to combat the current twenty-year life expectancy gap between undeserved communities and high-income communities in the Chicagoland area and around the country. healthyhoodchi.com

PEN America Prison & Justice Writing Program. Amplifying the work of 1000s of writers who are creating while incarcerated. Providing resources, mentorship, & audiences outside the walls.
pen.org/prison-writing/

@fund4gi

Fund for Guaranteed Income (@fund4gi). Proving a viable path to guaranteed income–direct, recurring cash transfers that support those who have been locked out of welfare programs and economic systems. Based in Los Angles. f4gi.org

@JusticeLANow

Justice LA Coalition (@JusticeLANow). Grassroots orgs, advocates, directly impacted communities, & stakeholders, working to reduce the footprint of incarceration by stopping jail expansion & reinvest dollars into community-based systems of care. justicelanow.org

JustMedia. Organizing, amplifying, and sharing existing films and videos that tell a variety of stories as a media literacy tool for the movement to end mass incarceration and achieve abolition. justmedia.org

Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP Campaign. Working to end racist policies that have more than doubled the number of elders behind bars, to expand the use of parole, compassionate release, & clemency, and to end life imprisonment. rappcampaign.com

Orleans Public Defenders. Representing nearly 20,000 people each year utilizing a client-centered, community-oriented defense model that puts the client first & takes a 360 degree approach to advocacy & representation. opdla.org

@freeheartsorg

Free Hearts (@freeheartsorg). Led by formerly incarcerated women, Free Hearts supports, empowers, reunites, and organizes families impacted by incarceration in Tennessee. freeheartsorg.com

Our courtwatching family over the next several threads. Don't just consider giving. Consider volunteering. Truly one of the best, most direct ways right now to help transform the criminal legal system. Accountability. First up: Courtwatch PG in Maryland.courtwatchpg.com

Baltimore Courtwatch. Don't just consider giving. Consider volunteering. Truly one of the best, most direct ways right now to help transform the criminal legal system. Accountability. baltimorecourtwatch.org

Court Watch LA. Don't just consider giving. Consider volunteering. Truly one of the best, most direct ways right now to help transform the criminal legal system. Accountability. courtwatchla.org

Court Watch NYC. Don't just consider giving. Consider volunteering. Truly one of the best, most direct ways right now to help transform the criminal legal system. Accountability. courtwatchnyc.org

Support worker-led journalism that exposes injustice and challenges our reliance on police and punishment. theappeal.org/donate/

If you made it this far, thanks! More on my org, Zealo.us. Working round country to support local coalitions of defenders, organizers, artists, & people w/ direct experience to topple imbalance of power over justice policy & media.

Donate: flipcause.com/hosted_widget/…

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More from @ScottHech

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

May 11

Wow. Fiona Apple is a real one. Watch this video. Calling for donations to bail out Black mothers for Mother’s Day. Her fans already came through w donations & spreading the word. Over $30k! Let’s “fetch the bolt cutters” & support even more. I just gave. givebutter.com/nHSrnp

Two years ago, Fiona Apple popped up on a zoom call to get trained by local organizers to Court watch. Dedicated ever since. Her work has led to freedom, lawsuits, accountability.

The stories all here in this short video. She wrote & performed the score:

Be like Fiona Apple. Volunteer to CourtWatch. Visit this campaign hub, learn more, connect w/ a local courtwatch program, &/or learn how to start your own.

Injustice happens in empty courtrooms. Which allows police brutality to continue outside of them. Courtwatch.org

Read 10 tweets

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

Mar 18

“No judge has ever lost their job setting bail on someone.”

A NYC judge whispered that. To a public defender. Before depriving their destitute client of freedom. This happens every day. Judges are intimidated to throw poor people in cages.

Thread on a history of intimidation:

Public defenders @elizaorlins & @APetrigh tell about the open secret of "justice" throughout the country People are deprived of liberty, not based on merit. But judicial fear of negative press.

Story is paywalled. So Im transcribing it here:nydailynews.com/2024/03/15/int…

"The NYPD’s recent social media attack against a judge who released a defendant under supervision instead of setting bail and detaining them. The case drew headlines because the NYPD’s aggressive social media posts were full of misinformation, including misidentifying the judge."

Read 11 tweets

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

Feb 17

How copaganda works. Police, prosecutor, & prison interests use media to exaggerate & lie about "sensational" cases. Amplify them on repeat. Create the *perception* that "crime" or "migrants" are a "Crisis!"

Perpetual anger/fear buys votes & public opinion. Facts be damned.

How copaganda works. Police release a highly edited video that doesn't include their unprovoked, violent, & unjustified attack on a migrant. Manufactured "outcry" ensues. Lawmakers call for sweeping policy changes. New video later released. It's too late. Profound damage done.

How copaganda works. Even after previously withheld police footage showed the "attack on police" in Times Square was the opposite: An unprovoked attack *by police* on innocent people, reports continue only center the lie.

None (that I've seen) report on the overt police lie.

Read 12 tweets

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

Dec 4, 2023

An interesting story for you. Was catching up w/ a friend at coffeeshop. The mother of her friend walked by & joined us briefly. She’s from Chicago. She told us a story about talking to a Chicago police officer. Thanking him for his service.

What he told her will surprise you.

As quick background, she is a white woman. In her 60s. Well off. Grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. Now downtown. Forever Dem. Supported the end of cash bail. But is “fed up” w/ “all the violence.” Thinks “something has to be done.”

She saw a cop the other day & went up to him.

She told the cop how scared she was by everything she was reading in the news. Couldn’t imagine how tough things were “for him” given the “crime rates.” (Note: Homicides are down significantly in most of Chicago, but violence remains a scourge).

The cop told her to “buy a gun”

Read 17 tweets

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

Sep 18, 2023

Extraordinary work again from @TeenVogue -- the best justice journalism outlet in the country. On the day that cash bail is finally eliminated in Illinois, they release a critical explainer on "Copaganda."

How to identify & respond to lies & fearmongering about safety. Watch:

Must watch. The week that cash bail is finally eliminated in Illinois, local experts debunk harmful myths that the media peddles about bail reform. In this @TeenVogue video explainer.

"This fear has been built up & stoked by media misinformation. A refrain. A scapegoat " Watch:

Last year: Artists, survivors of violence, organizers, entrepreneurs, public defenders, policy experts, restorative justice practitioners, and system-impacted people sat for a series of conversations while exploring a groundbreaking exhibition on torture and incarceration.

Read 9 tweets

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

Aug 4, 2023

Teen Vogue out again w/ the best in political commentary, justice journalism & truth. A compelling & easily digestible explainer on "Abolition."

New vision of safety: "If policing prosecution & incarceration created safety, we'd be the safest country in the world." Watch. Learn:

When people hear the word "abolition" they think 'crazy leftist.' 'Idealistic.'

In reality: "We're the clear eyed ones. We have the whole history of the world to let us know what were doing now is not sustainable. We want a world where violence isn't the norm." Part 2: