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1. Embed this notice
   mekka okereke :verified: (mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 21:00:39 JST mekka okereke :verified:

   The US spends a lot on jails, and many jails charge cities and states a minimum occupancy penalty if they're not filled. Seriously. And then Covid dropped the prison population by 157,000 people.

   https://eji.org/news/private-prison-quotas-drive-mass-incarceration/

   I've told you before that Black folk mainly get pulled over for systemic racism, not interpersonal. Court fee revenues are a lot, and traffic ticket revenues are approx $14B a year.

   https://taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/five-facts-about-fines-and-fees-revenues

   Some small cities like Ferguson Missouri get 23% of their city revenue from these tickets and fines. This doesn't only happen to Black drivers, but it disproportionately happens to Black drivers.

   https://finesandfeesjusticecenter.org/articles/dismantling-policing-for-profit-how-to-build-on-missouris-post-ferguson-court-reforms/

   Many of these local criminal justice departments and city governments nationwide were worried that they were about to go bankrupt during the pandemic, because there was so little traffic, and so few Black motorists and families to pray upon, that their revenues dropped. Just like public transportation revenues dropped. And bar and restaurant revenue dropped. And drug store revenues dropped.

   https://www.dcfpi.org/all/raising-revenue-through-fines-and-fees-is-unsound-and-unsafe/

   The thing that Biden rescued most with his "American Rescue Plan," cop fund diversion stunt, is this awful, racist, predatory criminal justice system. This money covered these local government budget shortfalls, as well as expansion of more policing.

   As we can see now, the "crime spike" was a lie. And they knew it was a lie at the time. Like Black folk have said, police don't do what you think they do. By time, by number of arrests, most of what police do (~80%) is giving tickets and fines to poor people, disproportionately Black, and arresting them for low level offenses, creating court fees and prison revenue.

   https://www.vera.org/publications/arrest-trends-every-three-seconds-landing/arrest-trends-every-three-seconds/findings

   We keep up the pretense of crime waves, to keep this wealth extraction from Black folk going. Because local governments are financially dependent on it. Because they don't want to tax rich people.

   You might think that "Biden had no control over local governments." But Biden himself, even as a senator, bragged about how much control he had over how local governments spend their criminal justice money, and set policy, even though it was on paper only a federal bill. So please don't argue with me on this point. Argue with Biden himself.

   • Rich Felker repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     mekka okereke :verified: (mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 21:11:32 JST mekka okereke :verified:

     in reply to

     I know this feels like an invitation to debate, but I promise you it's not. I'm tired, and will be muting people on this.

     This is not an invitation to debate. It's just another futile attempt to try to get people to see what Biden looks like from the perspective of someone who lives on the other side of his criminal justice policies.🙋🏿♂️

     It's not "👴🏻Black men don't know all the good that Biden did like I know it! He rescued the economy! Why don't they get that? I know more about his policies than they do!"

     It's "👴🏻I don't know the horrific scale of what Biden policies have done. I don't know anyone that has had their life savings stolen by asset forfeiture, or who has been shot by police, or who is innocent and in jail at the moment. These things aren't real to me."

     It doesn't matter whether you agree or disagree with Black men who are disappointed in Biden. But you should at least *understand* why. You should at least know the *specific policies* that Black voters are upset at.

     https://theappeal.org/covid-funds-police-prisons-arpa/

     Because as I said before, Dems cannot win an election without the Black voting block. For any Dem candidate: If you do not create sufficient distance from these Biden policies, you will lose.

     anban repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     AJ Sadauskas (ajsadauskas@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 23:06:51 JST AJ Sadauskas

     in reply to

     @mekkaokereke Something utterly appalling about America that I learnt in the past week.

     Yes, it's a tangent, but it has everything to do with your core point.

     Many of the firefighters that have been battling the bushfires in Los Angeles these past few days are prison inmates: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3rwdjwglx2o

     "Nearly 1,000 incarcerated men and women have joined the frontlines in a battle against record-breaking wildfires burning across southern California.

     "The number deployed - now 939 - are part of a long-running volunteer programme led by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

     "The state pays inmates a daily wage between $5.80 and $10.24 (£4.75 and £8.38), and an additional $1 per day when assigned to active emergencies."

     In the richest country on Earth, making inmates put their lives at risk fighting bushfires for US$5.80 an hour + US$1 a day?!

     Genuine question: How do you allow that to happen?!

     And in the supposedly liberal state of California!

     As a foreigner, with all the crazy stuff that's happened in America recently, that managed to shock me.

     In good conscience, how do you allow your nation's prison–industrial complex to get that bad?

     And that's just one manifestation of it!

     Any Democrat who calls themselves a "liberal" and enables it should hang their head in shame.

     mekka okereke :verified: repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Jennifer (jennifer@m.ai6yr.org)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 00:50:06 JST Jennifer

     in reply to

     @mekkaokereke I live on the TN/Al border. A few years ago I went to to Equal Justice Initiative museum in Montgomery and the museum has a whole section about the shift from slavery to mass incarceration. I didn't know anything about that until I visited and it was illuminating and horrifying. I highly recommend everyone visit that museum, especially white people. Our prison system really is modern day slavery and democrats have done a really bad job helping to create a truly equitable society. Alabama used a chunk of its covid relief money to build more prisons and the Biden administration didn't try to stop them.

   • Embed this notice
     mekka okereke :verified: (mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 01:10:48 JST mekka okereke :verified:

     in reply to

     • Makyris

     @Makyris

     1. Yelling "Trump is worse!" Is not a strategy. Yes, we know Trump is worse. We've been telling people *exactly* what their plan is, from before it was called Project 2025. Look at the date on this post, and how accurate each of the bullets is. I'm not clairvoyant. I just read the first draft of their paper. 🤷🏿♂️

     https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112440450555443222

     2. Most of the people yelling "Trump is worse!" haven't really looked at the Biden numbers from his first term.

     https://bsky.app/profile/mekka.mekka-tech.com/post/3ldqptiz4622y

     A key difference is that Trump doesn't expect or need *checks notes* 90% of Black people to vote for policies that destroy themselves in order to win elections. A political party that puts up anti-Black numbers like this, but expects Black people to vote for it? Is not going to win elections. Not in 2025 and beyond.

     Imagine I'm being attacked by a great white shark, 20 feet from shore. 🦈 Another shark, an oceanic white tip might yell, "Swim over here! I'm 2 miles from shore! 2 miles is a long way, but you can make it!" I might ask the oceanic white tip shark if swimming that 2 miles will save my life. "LOL! No! Absolutely not! I'll eat you too! But I take smaller bites! I'm a slower eater! The great white shark is worse!"

     I'm not swimming that 2 miles, and I'm not staying in the water 20 feet off shore. That's a false choice. I'm getting out of the water.

     Many people reading this think that means 3rd party or Jill Stein or some nonsense, but it doesn't. Harris was not Biden or Trump. But then she re-Bidened at the last minute and lost.

   • Embed this notice
     Makyris (makyris@friendsofdesoto.social)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 01:10:52 JST Makyris

     in reply to

     @mekkaokereke All I know is Trump is going to be a thousand times worse.

   • Embed this notice
     Ben (sangster@macaw.social)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 01:12:18 JST Ben

     in reply to

     • AJ Sadauskas

     @ajsadauskas @mekkaokereke hey, don’t forget that they’re not allowed to become full fledged firefighters after they get out of prison and the state just voted overwhelmingly to keep involuntary servitude for prisoners (including firefighters).

     As a California resident: the image most people have of a “liberal bastion” state is a lot less true than is portrayed. A lot of it is cosplay, and that often shows up when it’s important.

   • Embed this notice
     Coach (coachmark@beige.party)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 01:12:33 JST Coach

     in reply to

     @mekkaokereke if they actually prevented or deterred crime they would put themselves outta business...

     Much easier and more profitable to pick on the poor and vulnerable through tickets and fines etc while generating revenue for their employers

     It's a fucked up model and system.

   • Embed this notice
     mekka okereke :verified: (mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 01:29:14 JST mekka okereke :verified:

     in reply to

     • Coach

     @CoachMark

     The most stolen items in New York City are a cell phone, and a bicycle. Most bicycles are stolen while they are in public, either not locked up, or locked up with an insufficiently strong lock. The most effective way to stop your bike from being stolen while unattended in public in NYC, is to attach it to the right type of immovable object, with a heavy duty lock. Most universities in NYC recommended a particular brand of heavy duty lock and chain (Kryptonite New York "FAHGETTABOUDIT" chain), because of its balance of usability, affordability, and preventative effect. Because students and professors tend to have bikes.

     Despite a $12 billion dollar annual budget, NYPD leadership *doesn't even recognize* one of the most recommended models of bike lock. Billion. Not a typo.

     https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112451441016741832

     NYPD is not designed to recover stolen bikes, or to prevent them from being stolen in the first place.

   • Embed this notice
     mekka okereke :verified: (mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 02:02:47 JST mekka okereke :verified:

     in reply to

     • Ben
     • Matt McIrvin
     • AJ Sadauskas

     @mattmcirvin @sangster @ajsadauskas

     One of the best ways to close the gap between the way that most white Americans see criminal justice and mass incarceration, and most Black Americans see it, is to watch 13th by Ava Duvernay (Netflix movie, available to stream for free in many places)

     https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8

     The recent California fire fighter vote was shameful. By definition, if you trust someone to fight a wildfire, you trust them to be:
     * Employed
     * Out of prison / jail
     * Unsupervised / under-supervised
     * With dangerous weapons
     * And plenty of opportunity to flee / overpower guards / escape
     * Capable of working together for a common goal
     * Capable of acting bravely in defense of others

     In short, you need people that are incarcerated that probably shouldn't be incarcerated. A hardened career criminal, or unpredictable and violent person, or flight risk, or person incapable of working on a team, is not a good candidate for a fire team. Instead, for firefighters, you need to lock up people like this:

     https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8GJL11WaG2s

     Years ago there was pushback on paroling non-violent inmates, because it would then be harder to recruit firefighters. The same thing happened during Covid.

     https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ub8MgvMLBa8

   • Embed this notice
     Matt McIrvin (mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 02:02:53 JST Matt McIrvin

     in reply to

     • Ben
     • AJ Sadauskas

     @sangster @ajsadauskas @mekkaokereke the 13th Amendment banning slavery had a loophole big enough to drive a truck through, which was an explicit exception for convicts. Exploitation of this became normalized almost immediately, not just in the former Confederacy, and it can even get framed as "rehabilitation".

   • Embed this notice
     mekka okereke :verified: (mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 02:26:25 JST mekka okereke :verified:

     in reply to

     • Makyris
     • Jennifer

     @Jennifer @Makyris

     I don't think so. And most Black folk in my group chats don't think so either. Centrist Dems are already tacking even further to the far-right. They moved against AOC and kept her off of committee. They are terrified of her. And rather than stop exploiting Black people and treating our rights as trading chips, even more Dems are offering trans people and their rights up too as another ill-conceived appeasement chip alongside Black people.

     So no, I don't think we have learned any lessons at all. We're all still doing the same things:

     * Black men are still trying to explain what we're asking for: basic human rights. And we're still being infantilized as just wanting "legalized weed and crypto," 🤦🏿♂️ or not understanding Trump's plans, or not appreciating Biden enough.

     * Centrists are still saying, "We should have stanned Cheney even harder!"

     * anti-DEI rhetoric is still ongoing, and being treated by Dem leadership as legitimate conversation rather than plain old racism and sexism. Dems that will ask Black women to save us again in the mid-terms, are again saying nothing now while Black women are being attacked. We're still expecting one-way solidarity.

     * Police budgets are still increasing. "Tough on crime Dem," is still something that they aspire to.

     In short, no tigers have changed any stripes.

     I am optimistic that AOC support will continue to grow, along with support for other progressives. Centrist candidates lost, and progressive candidates won. In a "free flow of information" political landscape, centrist Dem candidates cannot win. And right-pushing newspapers have gone full mask-off. Everyone sees it now, which limits their influencing effect.

   • Embed this notice
     Jennifer (jennifer@m.ai6yr.org)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 02:26:26 JST Jennifer

     in reply to

     • Makyris

     @mekkaokereke @Makyris I'm wondering if the DNC is going to recalibrate to appeal to its previous base. I'm guessing the answer is no. The party pretty much abandoned my state after 2010 at both the state and federal level.

   • Embed this notice
     Matt McIrvin (mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 02:27:03 JST Matt McIrvin

     in reply to

     • Ben
     • AJ Sadauskas

     @mekkaokereke @sangster @ajsadauskas My experience of talking to white Americans across the political spectrum about this is that there's a lot of instant resistance to almost anything that might make life better for convicts. "What? No, that's part of the punishment. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime" etc. It's like we're frozen in the 1970s-80s-90s high-crime world where "get tough" was the universal prescription for a rise in crime nobody understood.

   • Embed this notice
     Emmy - Dial Tone *biiiiip* (sillycoelophysis@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 13:57:42 JST Emmy - Dial Tone *biiiiip*

     in reply to

     • Makyris

     @mekkaokereke @Makyris this is the thing I have a hard time articulating when I get frustrated with people yelling "non-voters really screwed us this time!"

     When your choices are:
     -Vote against your own interest
     -Vote against your own interest, but harder
     -Vote in your interest, but know your candidate will lose

     If you want to win a political race, you have to actually oppose your opponent. Being a watered down, respectable version of them is a terrible way to show you're different, mainly because it doesn't show that.

   • Embed this notice
     carl marks (tillshadeisgone@blackqueer.life)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 22:17:23 JST carl marks

     in reply to

     • Makyris

     @Makyris @mekkaokereke no he literally does not need those votes. Do you know how we know?

     Because he didn't have them, and he won anyway. Did you miss that?

   • Embed this notice
     Makyris (makyris@friendsofdesoto.social)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 22:17:24 JST Makyris

     in reply to

     @mekkaokereke "A key difference is that Trump doesn't expect or need *checks notes* 90% of Black people to vote for policies that destroy themselves in order to win elections." Yes he does, that's why I'm flummoxed by your assertions. He absolutely does, and far far worse. Good Lord have you listened to his rhetoric?

   • Embed this notice
     carl marks (tillshadeisgone@blackqueer.life)'s status on Wednesday, 15-Jan-2025 00:24:15 JST carl marks

     in reply to

     • Makyris

     @Makyris okay you're not understanding what I'm saying, or what mekka said. So let's go back, once again, to what mekka posted, which you then quoted.

     A key difference is that Trump doesn't expect or need checks notes 90% of Black people to vote for policies that destroy themselves in order to win elections.

     So from the article that you just posted, did Trump need 90% of Black voters to vote for him in order to win? No. He won with way, WAY less than that. That's a fact. Not disputable.

     90% of the Black vote is what Biden had, and he won. It's also what Kamala didn't have, and she lost. Mekka was referencing those exact numbers to make his point. Does that make more sense?

   • Embed this notice
     Makyris (makyris@friendsofdesoto.social)'s status on Wednesday, 15-Jan-2025 00:24:16 JST Makyris

     in reply to

     • carl marks

     @tillshadeisgone @mekkaokereke Trump did indeed expand the number of Black and minority votes. The Black vote isn't a monolith just like the White vote isn't. Every vote matters.

     https://apnews.com/article/election-harris-trump-women-latinos-black-voters-0f3fbda3362f3dcfe41aa6b858f22d12

   • Embed this notice
     Stasea (stasea@weather.family)'s status on Wednesday, 15-Jan-2025 14:06:26 JST Stasea

     in reply to

     @mekkaokereke
     Biden is an old man with dementia, lol, however I do disagree that police pull permits over because of race. Maybe ask to do a ride along with your local police station. I am an FOP Auxiliary chaplain and we have officers of every race, maybe just walk a day or two in their shoes.