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Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
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Jan 22 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Corrections officers killed 17-year-old Cedric Lofton last September, but the Wichita County DA says he will not charge them because of Kansas' Stand Your Ground Law - a law passed to allow homeowners to act in self defense not give law enforcement impunity to kill.
Cedric was experiencing a mental health crisis when his foster father locked him out of the house the night he died and called the police.

Police took him to a juvenile jail. Corrections officers placed him in ankle shackles, and handcuffed him. nytimes.com/2022/01/19/us/…
The officers then pushed him face down into the ground, holding him down for half an hour until he stopped breathing. He died later at the hospital.

The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. Bodycam of the incident has been released. I am not posting.
I mean we've seen how stand your ground laws have expanded to allow White people, like George Zimmerman, to kill Black children, like Trayvon Martin.

Extending the protection to law enforcement tho is newer.
Even Republican lawmakers have some thoughts. “I don’t know how you apply stand your ground to that scenario. It's meant to be for self-defense, to allow you to protect yourself.” said Senate President Ty Masterson, a Wichita-area Republican.
I think the more prescient comment is made by @spitzerb who says the DA's decision is in fact “a perfectly logical application” of stand your ground laws, which demonstrates precisely why they're problematic, period. usnews.com/news/politics/…

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Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
Jan 20
The three Pennsylvania police officers who killed 8-year-old Fanta Bility outside a high school football game in August have been charged with manslaughter.and reckless endangerment.

The first degree murder charges against two teenagers charged in the shooting have been dropped.
The officers, Devon Smith, Sean Dolan and Brian Devaney, fired a barrage of shots into the large crowd after they say they heard gunfire.

Blocks away two Black teenagers were engaged in an altercation, during which a gun was allegedly shot. nytimes.com/2022/01/18/us/…
There was never any question that it was one of the cop's guns that had killed Fanta, but the DA charged the two Black teenagers with first degree murder.

It was unclear how they could ever prove this charge since first degree murder requires intent. inquirer.com/news/angelo-fo…
Read 9 tweets
Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
Nov 28, 2021
A group of young Black men known as "Groveland Four" were posthumously exonerated for the rape of a White woman in 1949 this week.

But this is mot just the story of a wrongful conviction, but a lynching and a White mob destroying a Black community.

nytimes.com/2021/11/22/us/…
Ernest Thomas, Samuel Shepherd, Charles Greenlee and Walter Irvin were aged between 16 and 26 when Norma Padgett, a 17-year-old White woman, accused them of rape.
Samuel Shepherd and Walter Irvin were veterans of WW2 and had continued to wear their uniforms when they returned to the US.

(African American veterans were frequent targets for lynchings - a reminder their service did not affect their status at home.)
npr.org/2018/09/20/649…
Read 9 tweets
Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
Nov 28, 2021
Let's not draw problematic conclusions from anecdotes.

There's no empirical data that says Black people are trying to get out of jury duty any more than anyone else.

What we do know is that Black people are excluded from juries because of systemic racism and racist prosecutors.
Black people are often excluded from jump because jury pools are usually drawn from lists of registered voters (felony disenfranchisement laws mean in some states as many as 10 to 20% of Black people can't vote) and DMV records (Black people have lower rates of car ownership).
This obviously affects people from more disadvantaged socioeconomic advantage regardless of race.
Read 8 tweets
Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
Nov 27, 2021
Misleading reporting from @nytimes is nothing new, but this takes the cake.

Murders in NYC have not "doubled overnight," or this year compared to last year or last year to the year before.

This isn't even an accurate quote from the article, which says NYPD "caseloads doubled."
In fact homicides in New York City are down in 2021 compared to 2020, by the NYPD's own statistics.

This includes in the Bronx, where they are down by 29%.
www1.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/do…
Yes homicides increased in 2020, compared to 2019. They did not double, nowhere near it. That's not surprising. We were in the middle of an unprecedented global pandemic.

A more relevant statistic: over the last 28 years, homicides in the Bronx have decreased 80%.
Read 8 tweets
Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
Nov 15, 2021
If you read my timeline you know how I feel about Kyle Rittenhouse, so please believe me when I tell you it does not matter legally that he "crossed state lines."
I represent people who live in other jurisdictions and are charged with crimes in NYC all the time, including serious felonies. It does not matter.
This is a state case.

Crossing state lines is one basis under which federal prosecutors get jurisdiction, but its limited to certain cases - like sex trafficking or conspiracy - it doesn't just mean you live in one state and go to another to commit a crime.
Read 4 tweets
Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
Nov 15, 2021
CW: Police Violence

When video leaked of the in-custody death of Eric Lurry, the DA declined to charge the cops shown sticking a baton down his throat and slapping him before he became unconscious.

They did, however, charge the cop who leaked the video.
chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/…
That cop, Javier Esqueda, now faces 20 years in prison for felony official misconduct. He's on administrative leave and the PD is trying to fire him.

Meanwhile the two arresting cops are good - cleared by the DA and just six day suspensions from the PD.

chicagotribune.com/news/ct-joliet…
Now, the local police union has determined that Sergeant Esqueda leaking the video constitutes "conduct that is detrimental to the orderly operation of the Association" and is "so reprehensible" as to warrant removal from the organization. So he's out. shawlocal.com/the-herald-new…
Read 4 tweets

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