Mapping Police Violence documented nearly 1,200 killings by police in 2022, a record year for police violence nationwide. Here’s what the data tells us about rising levels of police violence. (1/x) policeviolencereport.org 1. Killings by police have increased, but these changes haven’t been uniform. GA, NM, OH, TX reported record highs in 2022. CA and MD reported record lows for the decade. Within states, *County Sheriffs Depts* are increasing killings, but most local PDs are not.

PAY ATTENTION TO COUNTY SHERIFF ELECTIONS. This is one of the biggest ways you can help combat police violence and mass incarceration this year. Let me break it down… Sheriffs control most local jails and have also been responsible for a growing share of the nation’s deadly police violence. 1 in every 3 people killed by law enforcement is killed by a sheriff’s department. *Half of those sheriffs are on the ballot in this election.*

Since October 2019, the DOJ missed:
18% of deaths in state prisons
39% of deaths in local jails
62-71% of deaths in police custody

Meanwhile, media orgs and nonprofits like mappingpoliceviolence.us are doing a far better job than the federal government at collecting this info.

https://twitter.com/EthanSCorey/status/1572287628250353665

Now projects that *have* done a good job tracking these deaths are gone/at risk. Some state databases have been shut down (ex: Colorado’s police shootings database). Non-governmental databases by The Guardian, HuffPo Jail Deaths tracker & Killedbypolice.net no longer exist.

The research indicates Biden’s plan to hire another 100,000 police officers WILL increase arrests, incarceration and police violence ESPECIALLY for petty non-violent issues. Research also indicates these harms WILL be concentrated in Black communities. That much is crystal clear. Study: “low-level arrest rates declined most in places that reduced police expenditure and personnel…findings suggest increasing police budgets or police force size will likely be accompanied by increases in misdemeanor arrests and their attendant harms.” academic.oup.com/bjc/advance-ar…

Low level arrests have been declining in almost every major city, with New York City cutting these arrests by more than 2/3rds since 2014. This spared hundreds of thousands of people from arrest, criminalization and police violence. Now that progress is being actively reversed.

https://twitter.com/FolaAk/status/1564608137537126407

From 2013-2020, the nation’s largest cities saw overall arrests decline by 46% and low level arrests (which make up 2/3rds of all arrests) were cut by more than half. This has outpaced other parts of the country and accelerated during the pandemic. AND… policescorecard.org/findings

The level of structural change required to make this country a democracy is too great for our backwards constitution to accommodate. This outcome isn’t happenstance, it was enabled by the current structure. A system - especially the courts - designed to reject the people’s will. It shouldn’t be up to interpretation whether the people have a right to vote, to healthcare, to privacy. Clearly defined rights countries around the world have enshrined in their constitutions. And a process to amend those constitutions that isn’t impossible in the modern era.

Despite all its flaws, Twitter has been critical infrastructure for social movements around the world. It’s an invaluable tool for marginalized people to organize together and confront the most powerful groups in society with realities and ideas that would otherwise be ignored.

https://twitter.com/breenewsome/status/1514625282749128705

This is built into the design of the platform. For example, Facebook reinforces existing social hierarchies by replicating your existing social network online. You connect with people you already know and get influenced by big money advertisers who manipulate these silos. So if…

The Grand Rapids Police Department refuses to release the name of the officer who killed #PatrickLyoya. How often do police release the officers’ names after they kill people? The answer depends on where you live. Let’s examine the data. (1/x) abcnews.go.com/amp/US/wireSto… Using data our Mapping Police Violence organization collected on killings by police, here’s how many killings in 2021 had officer names identified in news reports in the 100 largest cities. Officers were identified in 57% of these cases. But look at the huge differences by city.

In most cities, the person with final say on police discipline is not the police chief. Not the Mayor, any elected official or civilian review board. It’s an arbitrator the police union contract gives the power to reinstate any officer no matter how egregious the violation.

https://twitter.com/prison_health/status/1513175722239660035

In most of these cities the arbitrator is selected in part by the police union or accused officer. They’re a lawyer who usually has no connection to communities harmed by police. Not accountable to the public at all. You rarely even see their names when they make these decisions.

This policy is not going to stop police from killing people. It should be obvious by now but let’s examine why, based on facts and data. (1/x)

https://twitter.com/startribune/status/1511684395454717958

First, most obviously, it does not even ban no-knock raids. It allows them under “exigent circumstances” which is a glaring loophole police will use to continue breaking into people’s homes unannounced. But even if that loophole were removed it’d still be problematic because…

Nuclear research reactors and power plants dramatically increasing the potential harm caused by conventional warfare is something I haven’t really seen discussed as a risk factor.

https://twitter.com/kyivindependent/status/1507807651975118854

The convo about nuclear power often cites risks of meltdown due to accidents or mismanagement or terrorism which are all major reasons not to use/expand nuclear power. But conventional war in any country with nuclear plants/reactors might be an even more likely scenario/risk.

At some point I want to study the iconography of religious figures. For example, how soon after Jesus’s time did the Romans establish images of him as white/Roman? How has this image evolved by place and time or denomination? How does this relate to religious figures worldwide? The earliest images of Jesus I’ve seen were at a museum in Aswan, Egypt dated somewhere from the 3rd-5th century AD. The Egyptians I spoke to said his images were reflections of the Romans who were the colonial power at the time and made sure any images/paintings reflected them.

🚨Video has just been released of deputies in Baton Rouge shooting and killing #DeaughnWillis through the door of his home in a case of mistaken identity. Read the details about this story. Police have been trying to cover this up for 2 months. A thread. wafb.com/2022/03/11/inv… East Baton Rouge deputies showed up looking for Deaughn’s brother. They knocked, waited 15 seconds and then fired multiple shots killing Deaughn. Police refuse to release the body cam video. But video was captured by a Ring camera next door. That video raises even more questions.

Here are some facts about no-knock raids from the data that’s available. A thread. (1/x) First, data on police raids is extremely limited. Nobody knows how many raids there are, no-knock or otherwise. Like other forms of police violence, there’s no national database. Surveys of police suggest 20,000-60,000 raids/year. But the data isn’t public and over a decade old.

Minneapolis Police Department. policescorecard.org/mn/police-depa… New York Police Department. policescorecard.org/ny/police-depa…

We just issued a Cease and Desist letter to #CampaignZero over their attempt to plagiarize our Mapping Police Violence platform. They have until next Weds to stop masquerading as Mapping Police Violence and misappropriating our work & site as their own. Here are the facts. (1/x) I began building the Mapping Police Violence project in 2014, before I met @deray and before Campaign Zero existed. The first time he found out about my project was in this email on February 4, 2015.

There are more than 2,400 elected prosecutors in America. Keith Ellison is *1 of only 4 prosecutors* who has prosecuted and convicted officers in two separate incidents where police killed someone in the past 9 years.

https://twitter.com/axios/status/1489631915753811969

The 4 prosecutors who’ve convicted officers in two separate police killings are Keith Ellison (MN), Faith Johnson (Dallas), Paul Howard (Atlanta), Steve Kunzweiler (Tulsa). 3 of them are Black despite fewer than 5% of all prosecutors being Black. 2 were elected out of office.

🚨After @Nettaaaaaaaa and I called for accountability for #CampaignZero, @deray is trying to forcibly take over the Mapping Police Violence database that I and my team have built for *years* - redirecting it to a COPY he has no capacity to maintain in an act of retaliation. 🚨 Before I even met Deray and before Campaign Zero existed, I began building Mapping Police Violence to give communities data to fight back against police violence. It has since become among the most cited resources in the space. The real site is still here: mappingpoliceviolence.squarespace.com

The simplest explanation for this is that the high-profile murder of civilians by police traumatizes and destabilizes communities, which leads to increases in crime. Police violence periodically generates crime in communities.

https://twitter.com/aaronchalfin/status/1485731834633895936

This has nothing to do with police “pulling back.” It has to do with police aggression leading to catastrophic results for communities. Population-wide effects of police violence on community health, particularly in Black communities, are well-documented: news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/…

Mapping Police Violence just released a report finding 2021 was one of the *worst years for deadly police violence on record.* See the report at policeviolencereport.org. Here are some of the key findings from our analysis (1/x)… In 2021 police killed at least 1,134 people. The majority of these killings began with a mental health crisis, traffic violation, disturbance, other non-violent offense or situation with no crime alleged. Only 1 in 3 cases began with a reported violent crime. (2/x)

A nationwide public initiative process would be a far superior mechanism of governance than the United States Senate. You’d preserve the Presidency and US House (the more representative institutions) and where those (or the courts) fall short you’d have direct democracy with initiatives to cut through institutional barriers and enact laws (even constitutional amendments with a higher threshold).