Sociologist Samantha Simon's work has found that police academies socialize officers into an us-versus-them mentality against communities. "This worldview makes the institution incredibly durable and resistant to any kind of change or reform," she writes. inquest.org/the-bad-guys/

In California, Black people are 4x more likely to be sentenced to death than non-Black people for the same acts. It’s time to confront racism & admit CA’s death penalty is #BiasedBeyondRepair. Rob Bonta Gavin Newsom Our statement: naacpldf.org/press-release/…

Today in The Nation we have a piece by Lujayn, a 14-year-old girl in Gaza, that has floored me every time I've read it. It's about what happened when an Israeli bulldozer came to destroy the house she was staying in, and you must, must, must read it. thenation.com/article/world/…

It is worth watching this CNN video from the moment Emory Econ Professor Caroline Fohlin came across the violent arrest of a protester on campus and asked the police, with shock, "What are you doing?" That's all that prompted an officer to hurl her to the ground and handcuff her.

This is virtually the only honest head that has appeared on this topic lately.

The Legal Defense Fund has created a new webpage explaining the recent systemic challenge to California's death penalty: CHALLENGING CALIFORNIA'S DEATH PENALTY SYSTEM. Confronting Racial Bias in Capital Punishment Sentencing Schemes. naacpldf.org/case-issue/cha… Death Penalty Focus Smart Justice California ACLU

Dozens of GW and DC students gassed and arrested in the early hours for setting up encampment to oppose genocide. Coincidentally, it happens the same day Mayor Bowser testifies in front of a congressional committee on why she *hasn’t* sent in the cops. What McCarthyism looks like

Two big takeaways: 1) More unexploded missiles and bombs have fallen in Gaza than anywhere in the world since at least the Second World War. 2) Ukrainian frontline is 600 mi long, and Gaza frontline is 25 mi long. There’s more rubble—37m tons—in Gaza than in Ukraine.

U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves issues brilliant opinion in Green v. Thomas, holding qualified immunity unlawful for having “no basis in law” calling it “an extra‐constitutional affront to other cherished values of our democracy” & “a perpetuation of racial inequality.”

I triple checked this bc I was so baffled that no one had covered it yet. Link in bio

One of these Justices is not like the others. cc: Fix the Court

Three of the nation’s leading advocates—James Forman, Jr., Premal Dharia, and Maria Hawilo—provide us with tools to move from despair and critique to hope and action. Their co-edited book, Dismantling Mass Incarceration, is forthcoming in July. Learn more: bit.ly/3RqJvNY

Overwhelming evidence shows that prosecutors use peremptory challenges to discriminate against jurors of color. The answer to this problem is simple, as Adam Murphy, Miriam Krinsky, and I explain: prosecutors should simply stop using them. cnn.com/2024/06/15/opi…

Read several BR contributors on policing and mass incarceration—including derecka, Angela Y. Davis, James Forman Jr., Sarah Seo, Marie Gottschalk, Nathan J Robinson, Jessica Pishko, and Clint Smith—in this new anthology from Farrar,Straus&Giroux: