Feminist law prof, former public defender, biracial Asian, cat 😻 person. Author of The Feminist War on Crime (history and analysis of carceral feminism)
After a necessary hiatus from here, I am back with some news: I'm honored to be the Harold Heimbaugh Professor of Law at USC Gould Law School & I just posted my latest article, A Tale of Two Me Toos , a critical postmortem of the
#MeToo
movement (thread).
"Policing and Bluelining" is officially published! I argue "Police draw blue lines around Black neighborhoods—just as banks drew red lines—designating them as pathological spaces. Police use aggressive stops & home raids to keep people in their spatial and social place."
Here's what I think every college/university should say abt controversial tweets:
"Faculty members have a right to public expression. As a general policy, we do not comment on the content of public statements made by faculty members in their personal capacity."
That's it. Done.
US Const. Art. II s. 2:
"The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States; he shall deny allegations of rape that may arise in the course of carrying out his duties . . ."
Welp, apparently it is worse to be a Black woman who has defended those accused of sex offenses than be a white man who has been accused of sex offenses.
Watching a dumb, sexist Adam Sandler movie with my 9 yo. Some guy says to Adam, "You need a prostitute." My 9 yo repeats it.
Me: Do you know what that means?
9 yo: Yes, a prostitute is a type of a lawyer.
Me: That's a prosecutor.
Essay: "Policing manages people & communities to serve powerful interests. Police forces did not originate to fight crime, they did not expand in response to crime spikes, and it remains contested whether they fight crime at all"
@davidminpdx
@equalityAlec
Sorry but there won't be a women's revolution. 55% of white women voted for Trump. Republican women giddily supported Barrett and even around 30% of Dems. Women helm the majority of anti-choice groups. We need strong left-coalitions, not reliance on a mythical "women's uprising."
Here's a mouthful: Ira C. Rothgerber Professor of Constitutional Law and Criminal Justice. Humbled & grateful that
@ColoLaw
gave the chair to someone who argues criminal justice can exist only after the carceral state is dismantled & con law needs to evolve to make it happen.
My latest project, "Sex Exceptionalism in Criminal Law" explores why adding sex to a crime (assault, fraud, etc) totally changes how we think about prison & state management of private behavior & why it shouldn't.
Coming in 2023 in
@stanlr
and I'll post in full on SSRN soon.
Dear administrators who have few personal dealings w/ police,
Police will not keep campus safe. They bring violence, injury & escalation (and later lawsuits). You still can listen & dialogue with students.
Sincerely,
Someone who has studied criminal law & policing for 22 years.
This is big.
@ManhattanDA
not prosecuting protesters: "The prosecution of protesters charged with these low-level offenses undermines critical bonds between law enforcement and the communities we serve."
Et tu other DAs? Ht
@CBHessick
@ASFleischman
This is so emblematic of our senselessly harsh system and the total lack of judgment of those who operate it. And what's so amazing is that how many people died was purely a function of luck. If it were 1, he'd get 10 years, if 10, he's get 200 and if none, perhaps no time.
We have witnessed horrific killings. Amid the demands for individual accountability, we should remember that "brutality is the business of policing." Racialized police violence is structural & we should also demand institutional accountability.
My 2 cents for what it's worth: a group of super privileged white men (and Thomas) mansplaining to women of color that they (the women) are the racists in the room.
This is my grocery store. I was picking up my kid at 3 & saw the SWAT. Praying for the victims/families
I moved to idyllic Boulder 10 yrs ago from Miami & since, I've had a student who was shot in Aurora and have been in an active shooter incident myself
Gun violence hits home
9. Rittenhouse may very well succeed on his self-defense claims, and for many that will be an outrage. But even if he is convicted, we should be outraged at what the Kenosha police let happen, both to Jacob Blake (his shooter has been fully cleared) and to Rittenhouse's victims.
9/10 on room rater . . . Almost made it with it that I spent entire year in this tiny corner in front of my kitchen counter (where I strategically placed books and pics to hide the messy stove). 👃👃😀
My mom's Japanese internment camp at Heart Mountain, Utah circa 1944, and the migrant children detention center at Tornillo, Texas circa now.
#KorematsuDay
Be warned, reading this article made me physically ill. All imprisoned people suffer, but the conditions the mentally ill face are horrific. What kind of country is this where shoplifting a few dollars worth of food gets you torture, starvation, and death?
Back on Twitter for two big announcements. 1. "Sex Exceptionalism in Criminal Law" is in print. The
@StanfordLaw
editors did an amazing job! Check it out. 2. I am so thrilled to be joining the faculty at
@USCGouldLaw
in the Fall. California here I come.
Official release date of The Feminist War on Crime was pushed to June 20 bc of
#covid
, but books are shipping! Below is the discount code (30%!) The book speaks to recent events like
#TitleIX
regs,
#TaraReade
, and DV in lockdown.
I think it's what universities should do. They can start tomorrow. They think it's easier not to (& just have to remind faculty who is boss). But, if all/most universities adopted this general policy, the public would eventually get used to the norm & the schools would benefit.
#Weinstein
will die on a cold jail cell floor long before 23 years. Survivors are relieved and for that I'm happy. But is the new normal
#Feminism
celebrating extreme prison sentences or is it just this case? Will we move away from the carceral agenda or is this the beginning?
23 years for Harvey Weinstein.
@mega2e
and I just witnessed it for ourselves. Weinstein was cuffed to his wheelchair then rolled away. The women who testified sobbed afterwards. Irwin Reiter, his accountant of 30 yrs who secretly helped us break the story, sat just behind.
4. Police didn't say "Hey kid, get out of here, this is dangerous & you're making it worse." They didn't think, "How does a kid have a rifle like that - I should check if it's legal." And they certainly didn't arrest or or force him away as they do to unarmed BLM protesters.
Some thoughts on
#AmyCooper
and "the modern alliance between police and white women." I give some background on why some women are quick to invoke racialized police authority. I don't weigh in on trial-by-twitter, if she should have lost her job, etc.
I join. Dauber embodies a troubling liberal/feminist stance that some defendants (sex) shouldn't get zealous advocacy & some social probs (guns) must be addressed thru criminalization. PDs' are true to principles: you don't choose your clients and everyone gets a vigorous defense
Fellow law faculty: Please read this statement condemning Stanford Professor Michele Dauber’s comments about public defenders and consider joining it by retweeting.
@vidabjohnson
@RobinWalkerSte1
@KWeisburd
Just posted my latest article, "Policing and 'Bluelining,'" part of a symposium on police killings of Black Americans. I examine the claim that policing isn't broken but functioning as intended. The thread below (and abstract pasted) previews my argument.
Law profs are a privileged group. We get to try to change the world with our writing & connect with students & we get paid (too much). Still, w/in this privileged group, some always hit the jackpot with placements, prizes, promotions, etc.
There are times I long for such luck.
Some thoughts on
#RittenhouseTrial
(a thread)
1. Rittenhouse is on trial and rightfully so, but much like in the Chauvin trial, policing is getting a pass. Regardless of the verdict here, the racialized and violent institution of policing is once again poised to be acquitted.
Ooohhh. It's official!! So excited to join this university where my aunties and uncle found a welcoming college environment after suffering through the internment (Mom went to LA city college).
We are pleased to welcome Aya Gruber to
#USCGould
. Prof. Gruber teaches & writes in the areas of criminal law & procedure, critical theory, feminism & comparative and international law. Her scholarly works appear in leading journals including
@StanLRev
,
@CalifLRev
, and
@NwULRev
.
My mom folded 218 origami cranes - one for every day of quarantine. She's alone since my Dad died last year, and we miss eachother. But like so many people, we haven't been able to visit her because of
#COVID19
.
Don't forget that the Court can eviscerate rights and destroy lives, not by riling up MAGA crowds or sending in troops, but by the stroke of a pen. ACB's opinions will be "nice" &"brilliant." They will also deny the sick care & women bodily control. Evil is, in the end, banal.
This email was everything!: "The Feminist War on Crime has gotten fantastic reviews so you probably don’t need the praise of a random college student. But I wanted you to know just how much of an academic and personal impact your book has on me & express how grateful I am for it"
Does anyone else feel uneasy with the Democratic strategy of criticizing the insurrection, not because it was an attempt to end our democracy, but because the unruly crowd threatened cops?
Why Do Republicans Hate Cops?
3 tactics white carceral feminists use to discipline dissenters:
1. Claim epistemic superiority: I was there; you don't know feminism; I'm fancier
2. Marshal faux outrage: You are "deeply offensive" to victims etc.
3. Be dismissive: Tone/language painting you as novice & idiot
#Dershowitz
was my criminal law prof, and he was a good one. But as a crim law prof myself, I can say his motive argument (Congress shouldn't examine the internal motives of potus so long he could have had a good reason for withholding aid) is shockingly wrong. Here's why:
Lisa Montgomery got a short reprieve from Bill Barr's kill list because her lawyers caught Covid. Her execution is now scheduled for Dec. 8th. This wrenching story underscores that Lisa's killing will be one of the final acts of a heartless administration.
The claim that cops using deadly restraint is "just doing their job" is belied by the adjacent dehumanizing conduct. From replying to "I can't breathe" with "If you can talk, you can breathe" to addressing cries for "Allah" with "Allah can't help you."
Fellow women of color law profs will relate that I'm often plagued with imposter syndrome and obsess over negative feedback. This student took time to say thanks, and it reminds that many students feel this way about us, even if they don't say it. This is why we love our jobs.
I totally get the giddiness over
#MattGaetzIsGoingToPrison
given his deplorableness, but as people who are thoughtful about sex law & policy we might analyze why his alleged sex with a 17-year-old is being met with such disdain, horror & calls for a long prison term (a thread)
You asked, and here it is. Sex Exceptionalism in Criminal Law is on SSRN. This is a draft so I still have time to revise it in response to your comments. All reactions welcome . . .
We finally laid Dad (shark doc) to rest in Bimini. I baited in the reef sharks and Mom spread the ashes and joined him with the animals he loved so much. Dad, I know you're out there, somewhere, swimming with hammerheads in that great reef in the sky.
Ever since I tweeted about NYPD police shootings on Friday, cop twitter has taken over my timeline. For the most part I have not engaged. It's kinda been escalating tho and I just saw this.
Warning - brag: I met my colleague for lunch & brought a signed copy of The Feminist War on Crime for her to gift to her student. As I handed it over, our server came up and said, "I read that book!" Ok so she was a recent soc. grad. who read it for class, but still, it was COOL.
Kudos
@ENBrown
for keeping this in the public eye. The (white male) prosecutor's crusade to save women from sex "trafficking" ("evil in our midst") resulted in a Chinese grandma losing her life savings for "soliciting" billionaire Robert Kraft.
I was reading the annoying-teenth article in a “liberal” paper simply declaring that crime rates are “skyrocketing.” So I went on a research spree to find out what new info I've missed. Short answer, uh not much (a thread).
Have any prosecutors" offices, especially "progressive" ones, vowed not to prosecute curfew violations and other protest-adjacent charges and nolle them immediately?
Have police departments committed to releasing those detained on curfew violations promptly without charge?
I'm old & can say it. There's a "boomer"-ness to the outrage against students. The kids are all right. They raised their voices on critical issues with passion. They weathered an onslaught from admin & police with nonviolence. Not every word is perfect but they're a shining light
Ummm. The person who controls the nuclear codes and the country's most sensitive secrets uses "maga2020!" as his Twitter password?? (An older password was "yourefired").
#twittiot
So inspired by
@helenprejean
talk at
@CULaw
tonight. Here are some more quotes:
"Believing in Jesus means that you go to the margins and practice social justice."
"A soul sized life means that we participate in the suffering around us."
The
@NewYorker
piece on PornHub is a prime example of Sex Exceptionalism where sex the makes liberal, pro-speech, antidiscrimination media lose its mind and ally with rightwing, evangelical, homophobic, near QAnon groups.
👇Sex Exceptionalism abstract (posting full article soon).
Prosecutors dropped charges against protester only bc of video of police beating him. Prosecutors should drop ALL curfew and protest-related charges. If not, they should not be able to do PR and media claiming they care about black lives and reform.
On
@LastWeekTonight
, Oliver calls out Clinton and the 1994 Crime Bill's (100k+ police). But that bill wasn't just Clinton's baby. It was the product of what insiders called the "Biden-Schumer" strategy to make Democrats the tough-on-crime party, as I discuss in my book.
@jduffyrice
@ASFleischman
Totally unintentional, not clearly unreasonable in his choices, under extreme pressure, no control over where and when brakes went out and the road conditions that came afterward but somehow he deserves 110 years. There are fatal accidents that don't make the news & no charges.
6. These cops who bust heads in the name of "peace" stared into the pubescent face of impending disaster and said keep up the good work. Just another pebble in the mountain of evidence that police don't don't prevent violence; they're in the business of dealing violence.
The first line is the most telling. Alito is the only conservative justice who attended public school, and Sotomayor is the only liberal justice who attended private school.
Interesting article by
@CathyYoung63
noting that "antiracism and victim-centered feminism share a strange, tense coexistence in progressive communities."
5. They said, "We appreciate you guys. We really do," literally as they were telling protesters to leave. These "peacekeepers" enabled an untrained, amped up teen with a rifle to patrol the streets, where he would encounter conflict and maybe a person with mental health issues.
Statues are not history.
Statues are exercises in power.
You can keep the stories, memory, and analysis of complex humans without having their bronzed icons staring down at you.
Time for some new public art.
Reminds me of a conversation when I first came to my law school.
Me (with big pregnant belly): I'm worried about keeping up with all the work I've taken on.
Male colleague (with SAH wife): Don't worry, I got so much writing done when I had parental leave last year.
My latest, on
@CalifLRev
: "Feminists have underestimated the potential for the women-police alliance to inflict harm on marginalized men and communities, reinforce larger hierarchies, and backfire on the women most vulnerable to state and private violence"
I'm noticing that increasingly depolicing is translating into new criminal laws, novel union-busting arguments, and more public registries.
How about just less policing and fewer police.
Hi friends. I finally launched my website, where you can read excerpts from each chapter of The Feminist War on Crime, as well as other works from me. Check it out and let me know what you think!
For those who may have noticed my relative Twitter absence (& I don't flatter myself that are many/any), I've been entirely too depressed and defeated to tweet. But I'm in the process of pulling myself up by the bootstraps and getting back into it.
Here's the thing about court pleadings -- you can put the most outrageous, ridiculous, malicious, and vile claims in them, and no one can sue you for defamation.
Read
@davidminpdx
's takedown of
@nytimes
's sensationalist and reckless claim that NYC is experiencing a "spike in violence not seen in decades." Turns out YTD major felonies are down from last year and in fact at a 20 year low.
#FactsMatter
1. Once again, the New York Times Metro section – as part of a long history of crude, sensational journalism – publishes a blatant falsehood in order to stoke and exaggerate crime fears.
Dipping my toe back on Twitter after a long hiatus. NY Court of Appeals just struck down address registration requirements as applied to unhoused sex-offense registrants. This is the right decision and a move toward undoing a draconian, ineffective system.
When I was a public defender, this was called felony ADW (assault w/ dangerous weapon-10 yrs). I had a black teen client charged with ADW for pointing a "realistic looking" TOY gun at a passing car from inside another car.
@lee_kovarsky
When I was a PD, I noticed that whenever my clients were beaten up, they charged them with assault. It makes it difficult for victims to sue and prevents them from speaking to officials investigating the misconduct because they have a pending charge & can't make statements.
This is important. The
#RittenhouseVerdict
should remind us that the police, who said "we really appreciate you guys" to the war-weaponed armed teen, are not violence interrupters, they bring the violence.
Support
@UChicago
students in
@care_not_cops
today as they gather to demand real healing & safety. They're resisting carceral responses being promoted by CPD, UCPD, and some students & faculty after recent shootings near campus. Join them at 3pm and/or sign their petition below!
I feel a bit icky when looking at citation rankings (we all do it right?). But this time the authors used the US News survey for comparison & I saw that our colleagues voted
@aonwuachi
the 4th most influential law scholar in the US. Now I feel great!
How was mass incarceration built? This! Crime is down. Murder (localized & complex) is up. But hey, Atlantic, don't call experts, publish an anecdote from some guy who said he came away with "no better understanding of how to improve policing" or safety.
Unpopular take: This isn't a travesty of justice. The man pled & prosecutors requested an outlier sentence for that crime (1.5 yrs), with their typical proof-less argument that high sentences "send a message." He got 8 mos in fed. prison. Let's move on.
Don't get me wrong, the allegations are "gross," sexist, and unbefitting a public official. But the commentary on this case has implications for policy on sex work, sex among young adults, & how to define "trafficking" & I think ppl should be thoughtful about the issue.
This👇 is policing. So it was a hard to hear the Chauvin prosecutor emphasize that conviction is "pro-police" b/c it proves Chauvin is a total outlier. Was that a strategic choice? Or is it in prosecutors' DNA to deny structural police violence even during a cop's murder trial.
Thread: You probably missed an important story this weekend. Cops in Minnesota arrested, sexually assaulted, electronic body-scanned, and mocked for not "speaking English" an Asian-American CNN producer who was covering racial justice protests. (1)
My latest
@Slate
: "The question 'What about domestic violence?' is better understood not as a critique of
#DefundPolice
but as an argument for it."
Feminists once saw DV policing as the worst alternative. Then it took over, and now we seek "alternatives."
Yesterday, my wonderful student, an aspiring defender & Asian woman, asked me abt being taken seriously. Got the same question in the below Hong Kong magazine interview. I was often mistaken everyone BUT the lawyer. Still, you can't "let the small-minded make you any less big"
😳That feeling when you taught your class today and then did a guest appearance in a class at another law school and just now realized that your husband had left an enormous multi-liter bottle of Ketel One (nearly empty) on the table directly behind your right shoulder.
NIMBY personal anecdotal whining from a man horrified by seeing a poor person shoplift beef jerky from a corporate giant w/o arrest for a felony isn't journalism - or proof. I guess he wants the employee to call the cops like in George Floyd's case. Do better
@nytimes
.
Re-upping this thread in light of the police's (in)actions yesterday and the fact that apparently SSRN just now made it available to download. (). Policing was never about neutral crime & order. It was always about race & class hierarchy.
Just posted my latest article, "Policing and 'Bluelining,'" part of a symposium on police killings of Black Americans. I examine the claim that policing isn't broken but functioning as intended. The thread below (and abstract pasted) previews my argument.
Awesome to be back in the office & teaching fantastic
@ColoLaw
students in person! Class topics discussed/watched today: Death Wish, Willie Horton ad, Trump's Angel Mom's tour & COPS. The seminar is: Criminal Law in Context: Legal & Social Images of "Victims" & "Perpetrators"
Most of you are lawyers so you know this, but here's a quickie on
#DueProcess
to forward to nonlawyers feeling
#gaslit
1. Due process (5th Am.) is literally the process due in a specific govt proceeding (impeachment)
2.
#DueProcess
does NOT always mean criminal trial rights
@ScottHech
@LaurelOutLoud
I agree & like many atty's had those words on my card. But the fact is that ppl will talk to police from fear, lack of knowledge, confusion, even hope. It is the police who shouldn't talk to us. But our sad legal system makes our rights a matter of self-help.
2. Rittenhouse was a product of the racist, militaristic, and masculinist cop culture he idolized. The teen, dolled up in authoritarian finery, armed with an illegal weapon of war, went to battle "rioters," not his 1/6 allies, but those who dared protest raced police brutality.
This racism has deep roots. During 1870s "yellow panic," Cal. legislators called female Chinese emigres innate sexual servants. This led to the first federal antimmigrant law (Page Act), excluding "debauched" women, used to ban Chinese women from West coast
#TheFeministWarOnCrime
Orgs like Polaris, Sanctuary for Families conduct police “trainings”, reporting the reason for “trafficking” as because Asians are more docile, more “collective-minded”.
This cultural ignorance encourages police racial profiling & underplays economic reasons people do sex work.