Anjanette Young. A 20 year social worker. Just back from work. Police invaded her home. Naked. Begged for clothes. Cuffed. 40 minutes of terror. Apologized & left. Then tried to cover it up. Defender: "What happened that night is the norm in Chicago."

"Chicago police & city officials fought to suppress the truth of what happened that night. They almost succeeded. Now, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is calling for accountability. But would she have done so if her legal team or police had been successful in burying the facts?"

"We also must acknowledge how Young’s innocence & class are connected to her believability as a victim. Change one of these factors-if they had the right house, if she was not a professional, if she was using or dealing drugs-& maybe we would all be less concerned about her."

If Anjanette Young were, in fact, "guilty," or a less "sympathetic" victim of police abuse, "her experience would be consistent w/ the logic that assumes Black women should be treated w/ suspicion. And, most likely her experience would never be made known to the general public."

The normal course: "Victims & accused are dehumanized,. Many are moved through the system in complete silence. The state decides how their stories are told & what forms of accountability are just. Neither the victims nor the accused are centered in any processes of healing."

“Giving prosecutors more authority & leverage to punish those who are despised—white racist fascists, for example—will inevitably result in more poor nonwhite people being prosecuted.” White crime often leads to harsher punishment for Black & Brown

"Even hate crime legislation specifically intended to help prosecute crimes motivated by white supremacy & other forms of bigotry, can have a disparate negative impact on minority groups. In 2019 Black people (roughly 13% of population) were accused of nearly 24% of hate crimes."

"Half-century ago, the Mafia was seen as a pervasive, violent threat. Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act or RICO the most sweeping federal criminal law ever enacted. At the time, lawmakers weren’t talking about going after Black groups." Well?

Despite RICO passed in response to predominately white Mafia threats, Black people are now "disproportionately prosecuted under RICO In a 2012 study, approximately 86 percent of federal criminal prosecutions of gangs using the RICO statute have targeted racial minorities." Why?

"[T]he implicit racial biases of prosecutors" is what drives prosecutions of Black people under RICO. "They tend to only see a White gang as a “gang” when it is formally organized while far likelier to apply the label to an informal group of Black friends in a neighborhood."

THREAD: This is a story about how police are frontline propagandists. It starts with a violent robbery at a men’s clothing store in Manhattan. It ends w/ NYPD responding, but refusing to investigate. Then lying that no one would face any consequences bc of “reform.” Read on:

A few weeks ago, a men's clothing store in Manhattan was victimized by numerous young men who, according the owners, stole $20,000 of merchandise. And worse: punched a 61 year old employee in the face. It was the second time the store had suffered similar theft recently.

The owners called NYPD both times. Both times NYPD came after the young men had left. The second time, however, one of the young men left his cell phone behind. Even apparently called it to retrieve it. The holy grail of evidence. A way for cops to catch them, right? Wrong.

Here's where the story turns from tragic to sinister. The owners called the responding cops "professional & sympathetic." But they lied to them. First, they lied they couldn't use the phone bc of "privacy laws." Despite ample justification to undercut constitutional protections.

Never in my nearly decade of public defense did the Constitution ever stop cops from acting even when the Constitution plainly prohibited their actions. Cops know their word will never be challenged & even if it is, judges will give a pass. More on this: