The US spends a lot on jails, and many jails charge cities and states a minimum occupancy penalty if they're not filled.
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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.
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.
Five Facts About Fines and Fees Revenues
The latest data from the US Census Bureau can help policymakers, advocates, and other stakeholders understand where fines and fees fit in current revenues and design more effective and equitable policies.
Tax Policy Center (taxpolicycenter.org)
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.
Dismantling Policing for Profit: How to Build on Missouri's Post-Ferguson Court Reforms - Fines and Fees Justice Center
This article recommends a new approach to prevent towns from keeping proceeds from their ordinance enforcement.
Fines and Fees Justice Center (finesandfeesjusticecenter.org)
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 prey upon, that their revenues dropped. Just like public transportation revenues dropped. And bar and restaurant revenue dropped. And drug store revenues dropped.
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.
Every Three Seconds - Every Three Seconds - Emerging Findings
Vera works closely with government and civic leaders to urgently build and improve justice systems that ensure fairness, promote safety, and strengthen…
Vera Institute of Justice (www.vera.org)
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.
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mekka okereke :verified:replied to mekka okereke :verified: last edited by
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.
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.
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David Scott Moyerreplied to mekka okereke :verified: last edited by
@mekkaokereke For profit prisons are one of the greatest evils in our country, followed by for profit healthcare and for profit education.
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@farbel It's the whole system including the not-for-profit prisons:
"I have found that state legislatures controlled by Democrats from 1984 to 2004 were more likely to build prisons. A common dynamic when a prison is being built is that Republican-led legislatures afterward pass stricter laws ensuring there will be more incarcerated persons."
"the supply of prisons generates demand that states grow the population of incarcerated persons. In fact, our working paper suggests that prison demand is not only inelastic but drives incarceration, not the other way around. States that build more prisons incarcerate more people."
The Big Prison Myth That Hurts Reform
It’s important we get the story right about why we build prisons in the first place.
Slate Magazine (slate.com)
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AJ Sadauskasreplied to mekka okereke :verified: last edited by
@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 + 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.
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{Insert Pasta Pun}replied to mekka okereke :verified: last edited by
@mekkaokereke honestly your tireless informative posts are an amazing thing - if only people would pay attention and learn from them.
Doing all the hard work of digging up what's important, in bite sized chunks, with links to longer reads? That's a godsend.
Normally out of touch people would be like "so, I don't know anything about this race issue, will you do free labor to explain history to me? I'm lazy and entitled"
And these threads are just that without asking - it's so much to learn 🤯
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Makyrisreplied to mekka okereke :verified: last edited by
@mekkaokereke All I know is Trump is going to be a thousand times worse.
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O [email protected] shared this topic
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mekka okereke :verified:replied to Makyris last edited by
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.
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mekka okereke :verified: (@[email protected])
Attached: 2 images @[email protected] @[email protected] No, but the road to it getting better does lead through Dems realizing that if they don't start listening to Black voters, that we're all going down together. So it's in their best interests to be a little less racist and selfish with their politics. And what y'all are now calling "Project 2025," Black folk tried to warn white voters about in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, etc. The same authors. The same strategy. Those same people now say "anti-DEI!" and Dems listen?🤦🏿♂️
Hachyderm.io (hachyderm.io)
2. Most of the people yelling "Trump is worse!" haven't really looked at the Biden numbers from his first term.
Mekka Okereke (@mekka.mekka-tech.com)
No! You're not allowed to say that! You're not allowed to say that Biden carried out more deportations than Trump... That more Black people were incarcerated under Biden than Trump... That more people died of Covid under Biden than Trump... That cop funding increased more under Biden than Trump! [contains quote post or other embedded content]
Bluesky Social (bsky.app)
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.
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@[email protected] @[email protected] California is a state covered in lies to be honest. if you really want to see something - look at the water rights in California. Something tangibly related to the wildfire, why did they not have enough water? Because California has a rich agricultural scene that owns most of it. https://www.npr.org/2021/10/07/1037369959/new-protections-for-californias-aquifers-are-reshaping-the-states-central-valley it is insane how deep it goes.
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Emmy "Pristine Blade" Durdenreplied to mekka okereke :verified: last edited by
@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 loseIf 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.
