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Billy Binion Profile picture
Billy Binion
@billybinion
Reporter @reason covering all things injustice. Yes, this is my real name.
11 subscribers
Sep 11 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
When I found out that Colorado essentially permits abortions up until someone's water breaks, my reaction was: "That can't be correct." It's correct.

Whatever your views on abortion, I struggle to understand how anyone supports this. If a baby is viable, how is that OK? I know people get abortions for different reasons, including health issues. I want to be empathetic. But it is also true that some people are aborting healthy fetuses that would survive outside of the womb. I can't wrap my head around that not being a form of murder.
Aug 29 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
This is Chelsea Koetter & her sons. A few years ago, she accrued a small property tax debt.

So the government seized her home, sold it—and kept the $102,636 profit.

The Supreme Court said this practice is illegal. But some states are subverting that. A thread. Image Koetter, who is a single mother, fell behind on her 2018 taxes. She owed $1,199.59.

With all penalties/interest/fees, her debt came out to $3,863.40.

To collect that, the government auctioned off her home for $106,500. It gave her nothing in return. /2 reason.com/2024/07/26/she…
Aug 13 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
This is wild. Indiana law enforcement is seizing millions of dollars by rummaging through packages at the local FedEx hub & taking the money they find—without saying what crime the sender or recipient supposedly committed.

The scheme may violate Indiana's *own laws.* A thread. The FedEx hub in Indianapolis is the 2nd-largest in the US. It seems law enforcement may have seen that as an opportunity.

Police find reasons—many of them bogus—to flag/search packages. If the packages have cash, they often take it.

Since 2022, they've seized $2.5 million. /2
Aug 9 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
This is Curtrina Martin. In 2017, the FBI raided her home. They detonated a flash grenade, ripped the door off the hinges & broke in with guns drawn.

They had the wrong house.

All these years later, the gov't still won't let her sue. There are many stories like hers. A thread. Image In the early morning, Martin says the FBI lit up her home "like the 4th of July." She initially had no idea it was law enforcement.

Agents ran into her room screaming. They handcuffed her fiancé & held them at gunpoint.

Until they realized their suspect lived a block over. /2
Aug 8 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
This story is bonkers. Cops in this South Carolina town run an annual 5-day operation where they stop as many cars as possible. They find any reason to pull people over. And often if the driver has cash, police steal it.

In 2022, cops seized $968,611. That's $194,000 per day. Police stopped one car for "driving in the left lane while not actively passing." Then they claimed to smell weed. So they searched the car.

They didn't find drugs. But they did find $15K, which the driver said she was using to start a hair business.

The cops took it anyway.
Jul 23 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
This is disgraceful. The Trump campaign is referring to Jaleel Stallings, a veteran who was acquitted of all charges and who won a $1.5 million settlement because police violently attacked him during his bogus arrest.

The only party convicted in this case was a cop. A thread. In 2020, Minneapolis police shot Jaleel Stallings with rubber bullets because they found him out past curfew.

Thinking he was being attacked, he fired his gun, for which he had a concealed carry permit. He didn't hit anyone, and when he realized it was police, he surrendered. /2
Jul 10 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
This is Laurens van Beek.

Not long ago, he was kicked out of the U.S.—even though he immigrated here as a child. Legally.

The kicker: If his family had come *illegally* he would've gotten to stay.

A thread on our insane immigration system. Image DACA protects some folks from deportation if they arrived in the U.S. illegally as kids. Many recipients do not know any other country but America as home.

Laurens can relate.

But his story diverges in a crucial way: His family came here lawfully. /2
Mar 20 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
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. Image 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
Mar 14 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
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
Jan 31 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
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. Image 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
Jan 23 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
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: 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…
Dec 21, 2023 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
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. Image 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…
Dec 13, 2023 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
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. Image 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
Dec 7, 2023 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
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. Image 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
Nov 28, 2023 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
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. 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 Image
Nov 21, 2023 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
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. Image 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
Oct 23, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
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? ...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.
Oct 9, 2023 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
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. 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
Sep 22, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
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. 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
Sep 22, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
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. 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
Sep 7, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
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. 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...