This is Sylvia Gonzalez. At age 72, she won an upset victory for city council after campaigning to oust the city manager. The mayor didn't like that.

So he had her arrested & jailed.

The Supreme Court is about to hear her case, which has largely gone unnoticed. A thread. In 2019, Sylvia began her tenure on city council with what she'd promised constituents: a citizen-backed petition calling for the city manager's removal.

So the mayor, Edward Trevino, responded by setting in motion a monthslong *criminal* investigation. But that's not all. /2

It should be a scandal that in 2024 federal police can *still* seize your life savings & leave you destitute without even charging you with a crime. But lawmakers can come together in 30 seconds to vote on possibly banning TikTok, because culture war. I find it deeply depressing. I'm talking, of course, about civil forfeiture, which lets law enforcement take your assets if they merely *suspect* you of a crime. Many lawmakers claim to oppose it. Yet nothing changes.

Which is a shame, because it's ruined innocent people's lives. Let's talk about them. /2

This is journalist Priscilla Villarreal. A few years back, police in TX arrested her—because her work is often critical of them.

Last week, a federal court said those cops didn't necessarily violate her rights. Everyone got qualified immunity.

That should concern you. A thread. Priscilla lives in Laredo, TX, where she's amassed a huge Facebook following.

Her work often exposes police abuse, which angered some in law enforcement. So they set about trying to punish her.

But free speech is, uh, pretty important here. So they had to get creative. /2

This story will fly under the radar. It shouldn't.

Houston tried to prosecute a woman for helping the homeless. And the state couldn't even impanel a jury, because the bulk of potential jurors saw the case for the insanity that it is.

This is why jury trials are essential:

https://twitter.com/HoustonChron/status/1748491707652460922

In July, the gov't prosecuted a Houston man for the same thing: feeding the homeless.

A jury acquitted him. That's likely not because the defendant didn't break the law. It's because the jury thought the law was asinine.

Jury nullification at its best. reason.com/2023/10/10/the…

This is Amy Hadley & her kids, Kayla & Noah. In June 2022, police tossed dozens of tear gas bombs into their home, smashed windows, punched holes in the wall & more.

A cop's error led them to Amy's home. She hadn't committed a crime.

The gov't won't pay her back. A thread. A year and a half ago, police in Indiana were trying to locate a fugitive. One officer tried to find him via Facebook, concluding that the suspect was accessing social media from Amy's IP address.

He was not.

They destroyed her home anyway. /2 reason.com/2023/12/20/thi…

This is LaShawn Craig. He faces years in prison after he shot a masked man who had broken into his home.

What's rich: New York prosecutors agree it was self-defense.

They're trying to lock him up anyway. He's not the first. A thread. Last month, Craig was standing outside his NYC home when he heard his alarm go off. He entered his residence, where he saw a masked intruder, who reached for something in his pocket. Craig fired his gun.

The homicide was labeled justified.

And yet... /2

This is Joseph Ruiz. In 2021, the FBI seized his life savings—$57,000—from his safe deposit box in LA. He could no longer afford his medical treatments & he struggled to buy food.

The kicker: He wasn't suspected of a crime.

There are many other victims in this saga. A thread. In early 2021, the FBI raided US Private Vaults, a business in LA that offered a place to store valuables.

The gov't thought USPV might be engaged in illegal activity. But they were specifically told *not* to seize innocent customers' safe deposit boxes.

They did anyway. /2

Today Marvin Guy was sentenced to life in prison for killing an intruder. That intruder happened to be a cop executing a no-knock raid.

Guy says he didn't know it was police.

He's not the first who has struggled to reconcile no-knocks with the right to self-defense. A thread.

https://twitter.com/billybinion/status/1726775103562600501

This is Kenneth Walker. After cops broke into Breonna Taylor's home, Walker fired one shot, hitting a cop in the leg. He was charged w/ attempted murder.

That was later dropped. But I highly doubt that would've been the case if the story hadn't captured the world's attention. /2

This is Marvin Guy. He's been in jail almost 10 years waiting for trial.

He's facing life in prison—for killing someone who was breaking into his house before sunrise. The kicker: That person was a cop conducting a no-knock raid.

His trial ended today. A thread. In 2014, a Texas SWAT team—consisting of about 2 dozen officers—got to Marvin's apartment at 5:45 AM. They suspected him of dealing cocaine.

Cops smashed his bedroom window, thrashed his door with a battering ram & detonated a tear-gas grenade.

It did not go as planned. /2

This story is rage-inducing. Dallas cops violently arrested an innocent man after mistaking him for a guy with a similar name.

The kicker: After noticing their error, they can be heard making up bogus charges. He was jailed for days & lost his job.

And the worst part?

https://twitter.com/kellixsmith/status/1716462162724503898

...The worst part is that he will face an extraordinary uphill battle just to get the privilege to state his case before a jury, thanks to the made-up immunity doctrines our government gives its employees.

The most powerful people should not be held to the lowest standard.

This story is nauseating. A man molested a 5-year-old girl. That victim won't see a dime of the settlement a judge ordered—because cops seized her abuser's cash via civil forfeiture & refuse to give the money back.

It somehow gets worse. A thread.

https://twitter.com/reason/status/1711392832441782400

The man who molested that girl is now in prison (rightfully so). Cops found weed in his home & used that to seize about $70,000. He was never charged with a drug crime.

Police reportedly told the victim the money would be available to her after she filed a civil suit. Well. /2

Tony's parents & son testified today. Vicki, Tony's mom, cried & recalled how the cops lied to her repeatedly after his death. She said she needs "to get some closure."

And then the gov't asked the judge to dismiss the suit. On qualified immunity grounds. AGAIN. A brief thread.

https://twitter.com/billybinion/status/1681833934462627840

In making their motion to dismiss, the gov't said there was no way a jury could find the cops acted unreasonably.

The funny part about that is that we are literally in the midst of a jury trial. If they're right, the cops will win anyway. But that's not what this is about. /2

Officer Dustin Dillard, who kneeled on Tony Timpa's back for those 14 minutes, testified at trial today. He cried talking about his past & said it wasn't his fault Timpa died.

But something his lawyer said caught my attention more than anything. A thread.

https://twitter.com/billybinion/status/1681833934462627840

Lindsay Gowin, an asst DA, lamented that Dillard has had to deal with this incident for 7 years. That is...rich.

It was Dallas police that lied about Timpa's death & hid the bodycam video for 3 years. And it was Gowin's office that tried for another 3 years to stop a trial. /2

That these guys received sentences *100%* longer simply for going to trial should shock your conscience, no matter how much you hate them.

This happens all the time, except to people whose names you'll never hear. No one should be punished for exercising a constitutional right.

https://twitter.com/rparloff/status/1699751415076266140

Consider the case of Brandon Bostian, an Amtrak engineer who in 2015 accidentally crashed a train.

Prosecutors brought over 200 charges against him. Then they offered him a "deal": Plead no contest to 9 of those charges, or go to trial & potentially die in prison. So...

THREAD: Detroit cops took both of Stephanie's cars—despite that she was never suspected of a crime. Then the government made her wait years just to go before a judge.

But NOW: A court said that was unconstitutional. Here's what that means for innocent victims like Stephanie.

https://twitter.com/billybinion/status/1678934250299506692

I wrote about Stephanie's case last month. I've thought about it a lot since. Cops seized her vehicles over the span of 5 months.

Their justification: They alleged her ex was a petty drug offender. No drugs or guns were found, & no arrests were made. /2 reason.com/2023/07/11/pol…

In 2017, a woman in Louisiana was shot in the head. Her house was burned down with her inside.

Cops have made one arrest. It wasn't the murderer.

It was a man who criticized police's stagnant investigation. He's not the first person whose words have been criminalized. A thread. In 2019, police heard that a man named Jerry Rogers Jr. had criticized their slow-going investigation over email.

So they got an illegal search warrant—citing crime "14:00000," which does not exist—to read his messages. And then they arrested him for defamation. /2

This is a perfect example of why jury trials are so important.

Here, a trial forced the government to argue, in public, that people should be punished for...feeding the homeless. And a jury saw that for what that was: bullshit. How embarrassing.

https://twitter.com/HoustonChron/status/1685801175822553088

Last year, cops in Colorado charged a man with possessing child porn. The state knew that was a lie.

So prosecutors offered him a "bargain": If he pled guilty to obstruction, they'd close the case. If he insisted on a trial, he'd risk 12 years in prison & sex offender status.

This is Carlos Pena. Last year, a SWAT team threw more than 30 grenades into his printing shop, destroying almost everything. Carlos was not suspected of a crime.

Then, the city left him with the bill. He can no longer make a steady living.

He's not the first victim. A thread. It's not unheard of for SWAT teams to destroy innocent people's property—with extreme displays of force—while pursuing fugitives.

It's also not unheard of for the state to ruin those people's lives by refusing to pay them for the damages.

Which is what happened to Carlos. /2

This was Tony Timpa. At 32, he died after cops kneeled on him for 14 min & taunted that he just needed some "tutti-frutti" waffles.

You may not have heard his name. But his mom's 7-year, ongoing fight for justice epitomizes how hard it is to hold police accountable. A thread. After Tony died, his mom, Vicki, asked the police what happened. They told her several fake stories. None of it added up.

So she sued. The cops refused to give her the video or any specific info.

And then they tried to get her lawsuit dismissed for not being specific enough. /2

This is single mom Stephanie Wilson. A few years ago, police seized *both* of her cars. She hadn't committed a crime and was never arrested.

The government spent years trying to keep her property anyway.

She is far from the only victim. Their stories will shock you. A thread. Civil forfeiture allows police to take people's assets without proving the owner did anything wrong.

I spent time looking at one of the most coercive tactics they use to ensure innocent folks never get their stuff back: depriving them of due process. /2 reason.com/2023/07/11/pol…

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will release its opinion in the case concerning the designer who doesn’t want to make websites for gay weddings. She will almost surely win.

She should. And everyone—including gay folks—should want her to prevail. A thread. The answer to the first question in front of SCOTUS—Is creating a custom website a form of expression?—seems fairly obvious. Of course it is.

If a liberal designer were asked to create a site about the “thin blue line,” then she should have the right to say no. Same concept. /2