Yesterday, @MassAGO Maura Healey and her team issued a groundbreaking report finding that the Bristol County Sheriff's Office violated the civil rights of immigration detainees.

Let's take look at some key findings (thread

First, some background.

The BCSO is administered by Sheriff Thomas Hodgson. @GlobeAbraham has reported on his close relationship with Trump's White House. He corresponds with Stephen Miller, the notorious architect of Trump's anti-immigrant agenda.
https://t.co/SqoPOT2v3M
Although the BCSO is a state facility, it has also contracted with ICE to hold people detained for federal civil immigration proceedings.
https://t.co/PbJoZVy8hL
ICE essentially pays a per diem rate for each detainee.

In 2019, the Mass. State Auditor found that BCSO improperly failed to remit more than $300,000 in ICE payments to the state.
https://t.co/jRTXmsdGz0
BCSO also has a 287(g) agreement with ICE. It allows BCSO personnel to be deputized to do some of ICE's work. ICE does not pay for their hours. It is essentially a donation of state employee time to federal immigration enforcement.
https://t.co/3dnbxrKXtS
In March 2020, immigration detainees at the BCSO, represented by @LCRBOSTON and others, filed a class action lawsuit.

The suit alleged "dangerous conditions" at BCSO that "will imminently result in the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19."
https://t.co/iBNZKOwCn5
Starting in April 2020, a federal judge conducted bail hearings and ordered the release of more than 40 civil detainees on strict conditions in order to "meaningfully reduc[e] crowding in the [BCSO] detention facility."
https://t.co/WASWwTsA6B
On April 16, Sheriff Hodgson, appearing on Fox News, characterized the release of these civil detainees as "ludicrous" and a "serious, serious problem."
https://t.co/0LPgNIyIEJ
On May 1, there was a violent incident in the BCSO's immigration detention facility. Three detainees were hospitalized.

@ACLU_Mass has filed a lawsuit for public records relating to the incident:
https://t.co/aapx8UHYpt
According to the lawsuit, immediately after the incident, BCSO made a series of detailed public assertions about what happened:
However, according to the lawsuit, after @ACLU_Mass requested to see the actual records of the incident (e.g., reports, video, correspondence with DHS), the BCSO suddenly reversed course and claimed that every single record of the incident should be withheld from the public.
In the meantime, according to the report, @MassAGO initiated an investigation on May 5.
The results of that investigation are two principal findings.

First, that the BCSO violated the detainees' rights by using "excessive and disproportionate" force.
Second, that the BCSO deployed chemical irritants (like pepper spray) "with deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of serious harm to the health of the detainees."

One detainee had to be revived with chest compressions. He was not taken to the hospital.
The report also contains many other deeply concerning details - more than I can list, but here are some examples.
And:
And:
And:
And:
And:
And:
The entire report is available here. It is deeply disturbing.
https://t.co/FLKVdh2Sm4
The Mass. AGO also filed a letter yesterday in @ACLU_Mass's public records lawsuit. The letter urges release of the underlying records of this incident.
In summary:
https://t.co/wrAiHUErNN

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Covid recovery money is going to the oligarchy.

Ottawa and the provinces have put very little on the table to help clean-tech companies directly during Covid 19 while targeting fossil-fuel producers with more than $16 billion in aid.

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The Bank of China (BOC), SNC-Lavalin and WE Charity were recipients of taxpayer-funded the Covid 19 Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS)
I don't normally do threads like this but I did want to provide some deeper thoughts on the below and why having a video game based on a real world war crime from the same people that received CIA funding isn't the best idea.

This will go pretty in depth FYI.


The core reason why I'm doing this thread is because:

1. It's clear the developers are marketing the game a certain way.

2. This is based on something that actually happened, a war crime no less. I don't have issues with shooter games in general ofc.

Firstly, It's important to acknowledge that the Iraq war was an illegal war, based on lies, a desire for regime change and control of resources in the region.

These were lies that people believed and still believe to this day.

It's also important to mention that the action taken by these aggressors is the reason there was a battle in Fallujah in the first place. People became resistance fighters because they were left with nothing but death and destruction all around them after the illegal invasion.

This is where one of the first red flags comes up.

The game is very much from an American point of view, as shown in the description.

When it mentions Iraqi civilians, it doesn't talk about them as victims, but mentions them as being pro US, fighting alongside them.
If you're curious what Trump's defense will look like, all you have to do is turn on Fox News. My latest at @mmfa

The tl;dr is that for years right-wing media have been excusing Trump's violent rhetoric by going, "Yes, but THE DEMOCRATS..." and then bending themselves into knots to pretend that Dems were calling for violence when they very, very clearly weren't.

And in fact, this predates Trump.

In 2008, Obama was talking about not backing down in the face of an ugly campaign. He said "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun."

https://t.co/i5YaQJsKop


That quote was from the movie The Untouchables. And there's no way anybody reading that quote in good faith could conclude that he was talking about actual guns and knives. But it became a big talking point on the

In 2018, Obama-era Attorney General Eric Holder was speaking to a group of Georgia Democrats about GOP voter suppression. He riffed on Michelle Obama's "When they go low, we go high" line from the 2016 DNC.

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