Recovering political operative, currently on sabbatical. Buy my new zine about the history of a 100-year old grocery store near my house: https://t.co/umaRVlQ0rr
Dec 28, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Not too sure about this @TexasMonthly column on Texas Rangers history, for reasons described here: disq.us/p/2shsekt
This could've been a decent column if the author wasn't engaged in the same present-day justifications of which he accuses Ranger critics. He wants to argue the "net good of two hundred years of Ranger history far outweighs the negative," but that's still a present-day judgment.
Sep 16, 2022 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Wow. I just gave the new report a quick first read and it's basically @Austin_Police justifying everything they did and making excuses terrible management decisions while eliding any specifics of the hundreds of misconduct complaints lodged against officers. 🧵
This article includes detail that explains a LOT I hadn't understood about the debate in Harris County over constable rollover funds. 🧵houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
As it turns out, county officials did NOT unilaterally scoop up rollover funds. What they did what require they only be spent on one-time expenses, not adding additional staff.
Sep 24, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Deaths at this rate for less than one week would result in more dead people than all murders statewide in the whole of 2020 (1,927 out of a state of 30 million).
This is why I see the crime hype as a deflection. Crime is important and the murder increase is concerning, but the breathless, "Be Afraid!" framing distracts from the far more serious public health dangers facing Americans. For state leaders, I think it's intentional.
Jan 11, 2021 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
Texas cop unions have put out a website to oppose police reform called Texas Police Facts. But the "facts" presented are mostly either anodyne distractions or pretty brazenly misrepresented. texaspolicefacts.com
Citing a DOJ-BJS study, they say "claims that minorities are substantially more likely to be contacted by the police are inaccurate." bjs.gov/content/pub/pd… Check out Tbls 3 and 4. Black folks are overrepresented in POLICE-initiated contacts; whites in crime reporting.
Nov 18, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Been digging deeper into Texas' 2019 #SandraBland data and Houston is a big outlier.
Of agencies reporting to @TCOLE under Texas' racial profiling statute, @houstonpolice account for 3% of traffic stops statewide and 29% of all use-of-force incidents reported at those stops.
HPD reported the highest use-of-force rate among large TX agencies at 71 incidents per 10K stops. Statewide avg around 8 force incidents per 10K stops. (N.b., this only captures force at traffic stops, not all UoF incidents.)
