@equalityalec - Twitter Profile Analysis

Under the plan proposed by two Harvard professors—Adaner Usmani and Christopher Lewis—to add 500,000 armed cops to make 7.8 million more arrests, Florida’s fascists could get almost 33,000 more cops to surveil, arrest, and jail teachers for having books. https://t.co/QQ226WHTDw

It is a disservice to not name this as fascist. The lack of courage by the College Board, its lying to the public about why it capitulated, and the failure of the corporate media to name what is happening is putting us on the very brink.

Take a look at how New York Times described the rampant police violence against protesters in 100s of cities across the U.S. in 2020: "Mistakes" resulting from *not enough resources and training.*

Breaking from my sabbatical to publish Part 2 of my series on how the news covers police violence and racial justice protest. Understanding how the media can help police use their own violence to justify increasing their size, power, and budgets is vital. https://t.co/aS4iMIYV25

Calling poor, deliberately segregated neighborhoods “high crime areas” is one of the most disgusting and persistent examples of modern copaganda. The New York Times should be ashamed, four times over.

As Memphis releases video of the police murder of Tyre Nichols, I'm returning from my sabbatical briefly to post Part 1 of my series about how the media will likely cover it: helping cops use their own failures and violence to get more power and money. https://t.co/HFifiIS9Jq

I will be on sabbatical for the next 6 weeks and posting less frequently. Going to be doing a lot of reading, writing, researching, painting, spending time with friends/cats, playing piano, and planning new big projects to challenge the punishment bureaucracy. See you in March.

If you live in D.C., this is an important article to read, especially if you've been exposed to some of the right-wing hysteria about the modest but important changes to the local criminal code, which not should be controversial in the least. https://t.co/ncWHoycPGO

The thing that eats away at me again and again is that this sloppy paper in which two Harvard professors call for 500,000 more armed cops to arrest 7.8 million more people appeared in the new journal that Harvard Law pitched as a response to the murder of George Floyd. https://t.co/3TT3rT1KQP

To summarize: Two professors at Harvard release a proposal to add 500,000 cops, calculating that benefits outweigh costs. Then, I point out ethical errors, including that they *hid many of the costs* from the published version. Then, they accused me of trying to "censor" them. https://t.co/3TT3rT1KQP

I wrote about how two Harvard professors accused me of trying to "censor" them when I showed their proposal to add 500,000 cops to arrest 7.8 million more people was riddled with dishonest errors. Then it got weirder. Students sent me the final exam question from Prof. Lewis.

One of the most bizarre aspects is that the Harvard profs market themselves as “socialists,” but explain their turn to authoritarianism by saying that redistribution of wealth would require “the mobilization of the poor and the working class,” and this is “a distant prospect.” https://t.co/7NMPQ5s0dB

Other professors of good will are going to have to make important decisions about how to meet this moment of rising fascism, and the role elite institutions play in validating the authoritarian project. Faux complaints about censorship re: aggressive critique have no place. https://t.co/7NMPQ5s0dB

When all is said and done, one fact remains: these profs published a poor article with serious errors, manipulations, and omissions. It's not work that would have passed peer review. It isn’t the commitment to ethical rigor that institutions of learning should countenance. https://t.co/7NMPQ5s0dB

If one of the Florida professors threatened with firing for teaching about racism were to come to school after being fired because of Desantis's new fascist law, the *police* would arrest them. These Harvard profs proposing 500,000 more cops are crying about *me* censoring them. https://t.co/7NMPQ5s0dB

One of these Harvard professors accusing me of censorship even signed the Harper's Letter. Can't make this stuff up. https://t.co/7NMPQ5s0dB

Do you remember the two Harvard professors who wrote the article riddled with errors calling for 500,000 more cops? I learned last night that they circulated a PDF to other profs a couple months ago replying to my critique suggesting that I was trying to "censor" them.

Thread: Seven years ago, Christy Dawn Varden became the first person since the rise of mass incarceration to win a federal lawsuit challenging the U.S. money bail system on equal protection and due process grounds. Her story is tragic, but important.

The Houston jail is one of our society's great horrors. A grotesque monument to bureaucratic violence that extracts billions of dollars to separate families and kill people. Its deliberate facade of fake windows is a metaphor for how "well-meaning" people are made to look away. https://t.co/3Yb8X148mX

THREAD. An interesting question is how the news media came to adopt the cute term "tear gas" to describe a chemical weapon that is internationally banned in war. Plus, it's not even a gas.

The news media often suggests an equivalence between left-wing and right-wing "extremism." People on the far left want things like access to healthcare, housing, clean air, etc. People on the far right want to round up immigrants, kill abortion providers, deny the Holocaust, etc.

In my years of teaching, one of the most transformative things for students has been showing them examples of powerful people openly ignoring the law with no consequences. Nothing better illustrates how our society works: who makes laws, and who the laws are for. https://t.co/nSjlx8Tzea

Punishment bureaucrats have so infected our culture with nonsense that the country’s leading public news broadcaster can only think of criminal prosecution when a 6-year-old child gets access to a gun and shoots a teacher.

He has devoted his career to using the power of the state to crush the most vulnerable people in New York. That Governor Hochul chose him and is trying to rely on white supremacist Republicans to push him through over progressive opposition is alarming. https://t.co/aqPKJ3z29F

Read this piece by three prominent New York law professors. The chief judge that New York Governor is attempting to force through with fascist Republican support is a major threat to the future of New York State. https://t.co/cq0G7NkIin

As 2023 begins, it's time to remind people that the only two countries in the world with for-profit cash bail industries are the U.S. and the Philippines. Only in those two places do companies make billions of dollars from a system of mass detention of presumed innocent people.

I have surpassed 10,000 free subscribers for the newsletter about copaganda! If you want to engage with my critiques of how the news media discusses safety and the punishment bureaucracy but don't want to depend on the twitter algorithm, please sign up. https://t.co/rtIv1qowYo

I have received another round of messages about my tweets no longer appearing in people's feeds. As I mentioned before, engagement on my tweets is down over 80% in 2 months. If you are interested in following my thoughts you can always sign up for free: https://t.co/rtIv1qowYo

This lying about homeless sweeps by SF lawyers is not isolated. Across U.S., we are seeing an epidemic of lying by government lawyers. One of many causes is that bureaucrats who run state bars do not use their authority to discipline government lawyers. A shameful whitewash. https://t.co/1tMRSPFLYi

A new study estimates corporate fraud to cause $830 billion in damage, over 50x the cost of all FBI reported property crime combined. Ask yourself: who benefits from the nightly news ignoring corporate crime and focusing on shoplifting instead? https://t.co/G9Tf6JbA0j

This is actually fascism, in broad daylight. And cowardice beyond words. Absolutely ghoulish and spineless decision. https://t.co/0P2PBfXD16

TIL that in the 2000s, the mayor of Bogotá fired the city's traffic cops and replaced them with mimes. Instead of fining people who committed infractions, the mimes would mock them. It apparently worked. And somehow, no mimes were murdered. https://t.co/TBDdSFLJAc

By the time this article was published, a fourth community member, a 23 year old, was killed in Harris county jail. 4 deaths in the first month of the year. Who still believes wealth based pretrial detention keeps our communities safe? https://t.co/1s0jNI21lx

Alec came on our show to break down the egregious errors in this paper. Listen here: https://t.co/9QntLnAKlJ https://t.co/Yk5TX5PADR

Whenever someone calls for more police resources and training, they're ensuring the police state's growth. https://t.co/i9rlCtumQA

Portlanders know the sound of PPB's surveillance planes. Did you know those planes are also poisoning you? A report on PPB's Poison Planes. https://t.co/JwdOTfMYWS

it’s an absurd oxymoron to call for further impunity of a corrupt system that has persistently violated citizen rights and taken countless lives. yet, the NYT applies a dangerous double standard that assumes police good faith despite the mass of evidence contradicting this. https://t.co/FNMglR3Zuw https://t.co/vQJRbcjsrJ

Excellent read: How the Media Enables Violent Bureaucracy: Part 2 ⁦ by ⁦@equalityAlec⁩ https://t.co/ITHcQcv2r2

An important general theme of government propaganda is how bureaucracies shape narratives about their own failures in order to get more resources. — @equalityAlec https://t.co/wALv6KA3Ir

On Ep. 316 of #AirGo, we’re joined by @equalityAlec, the founder and executive director of @CivRightsCorps! He's a lawyer by training who creates impactful, detailed, and thoughtful critiques of the ways that carceral sentiments and ideologies pervade corporate newsrooms. https://t.co/9MxM2xVjtB

This #mustread on how law enforcement turn their own violence & failures into more money & power by shaping public narrative about causes & solutions. Case study in Alabama: @GovernorKayIvey's solution to a corrupt, failing DOC is to build new mega-prisons for $1.2 billion. https://t.co/sUkyyUU7cS

Police murder. Then lie. Then are exposed. We mourn. Protest. Demand change. Protests are demonized. Then co-opted. Then ignored. Rinse, wash, repeat. This is learned helplessness. Unlearn it. There are people organizing to defund and abolish policing near you. Find them.

NEW: This afternoon the LAPD reached out to the Venice NC to alert them that they are aware of incidents in Memphis and Atlanta that "may portray law enforcement in a negative light." Says they are ready to address demonstrations that may occur "after the video is released" https://t.co/zp4QHSKtOd

If you do one thing today, read this powerful piece about Tortuguita, the protester murdered in Atlanta as part of a coordinated campaign of state terror against the movement against the construction of Cop City. https://t.co/YYfeFtbecx

BREAKING: The person who appears to be the first climate activist killed by US police has been identified. A trained medic, Tort was "kind and compassionate" and "a loving partner and brave soul." Godspeed to a hero. We must demand an independent investigation. @defendATLforest

The identity of the forest defender who was shot and killed by police in Atlanta, Georgia yesterday morning has been released. Their name is Manuel Teran, aka Tortuguita or Tort.

The media demonization of Tortuguita, the forest defender murdered by police yesterday, is going to start in no time. Read more about them here instead: https://t.co/eCxSkKeIt4 #StopCopCity https://t.co/g7ufc00Qm0

In a letter obtained by @ABC, FL Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration penned a letter to the College Board (the body that administers the SAT and other exams) rejecting plans for an AP African American Studies course claiming that it “significantly lacks educational value.”

This is the most bananas crim law final and this professor should be ashamed https://t.co/JMFOWfl634

I’m interrupting my break from social media to retweet this absolutely bananas story about a really bad study of policing that just keeps getting weirder and weirder and weirder. https://t.co/RjzdJfOcPH

Some law professors put policy questions in their final exams. Nothing I saw in my entire time at law school came close to this level of railroading and agenda-pushing. And this is not a theoretical seminar—this is a black-letter law core class that everyone needs to take. https://t.co/j7Kc3tshEj

Police killed a forest defender today, someone who loved the forest, someone who fought to protect the earth & its inhabitants. This is why we organize to stop Cop City. And we will. In honor of their life, and the lives of everyone killed and imprisoned by the police.

Assume the following empirical premises to be true: (1) massive particles can travel faster than the speed of light; and (2) the laws of physics remain otherwise unchanged in such a scenario. https://t.co/69BrASNuai

my jaw is hanging open https://t.co/PnUjr2OYGr

@equalityAlec Forcing students to accept the huge assumptions that undermine the whole argument's validity is bad teaching.

This framing and premises appear to be less about pedagogy and the advancement of knowledge and more about using student labor to help the professor prepare for public reactions and objections to his own work, which advances his own career.

First, these are stressful, mandatory exams. Although not uncommon at Harvard, it has always been a practice that rubs me the wrong way: using student labor **during exams** to generate useful ideas for professors, who then publish writing that doesn't credit the students.

Here is the mandatory exam question from the first-year criminal law class:

I wrote about how two Harvard professors accused me of trying to "censor" them when I showed their proposal to add 500,000 cops to arrest 7.8 million more people was riddled with dishonest errors. Then it got weirder. Students sent me the final exam question from Prof. Lewis.

hi!! today is the day!!!! UNREFORMED premieres. i really think this is the most meaningful project of my career. i'm so excited for you all to listen. https://t.co/AMRyfbDGKz

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