The Massachusetts Department of Correction has been fighting me for months, trying to withhold data about its collaboration with ICE.
Yesterday, I won that fight, and obtained records showing that the state has transferred more than 2,000 people into ICE custody since 2009.
A quick thread:
Left, my story about how the right wing ex-Honduran president was given special treatment after he was pardoned for drug trafficking - and had his ICE detainer dropped.
Right, a story about a man who spent 43 yrs in prison for a wrongful conviction & was deported once his convicted was overturned
"In fact, Massachusetts is the only state that voted against Donald Trump in 2024 where a state agency is contracting with the 287(g) program."
#mapoli
boltsmag.org/massachusett...
The current demands and suggested action items are here:
bit.ly/southbayactionhour
There is also another toolkit available here:
bit.ly/ShutDownSouthBay
And there will be another in-person stand out at the Roxbury courthouse on Warren Street this Tuesday, 2/10 at 10 AM. #bospoli
It is unacceptable that a man was killed in the Sheriff’s Department custody, neither the Boston mayor nor Governor has said his name, & the office “investigating” this tragedy is simultaneously prosecuting the witnesses against the officers (who are still working there), a clear conflict. Shame!
It is unacceptable that a man was killed in the Sheriff’s Department custody, neither the Boston mayor nor Governor has said his name, & the office “investigating” this tragedy is simultaneously prosecuting the witnesses against the officers (who are still working there), a clear conflict. Shame!
This has barely gotten any attention even though it should be one of the biggest stories in #Massachusetts. While Maura Healey was attorney general, the Attorney General's Office covered up evidence that hundreds of thousands of criminal convictions may have been tainted by criminal misconduct.
In New Hampshire, law enforcement interrogations are not legally required to be recorded, leaving innocent people more vulnerable to wrongful convictions based on false confessions.
Help the @newenglandinnocence.org change that: https://bit.ly/3ZJvKgZ
If your response to state-sponsored killing is "more training," you need to seriously examine your theory of change alongside decades of data. Only a significant reduction/elimination of power, authority, & resources in policing/enforcement can change our dystopian relationship with state violence.
I've read most of the scholarship about US policing since the early 20th century. What you learn from this is that violence is inherent. You cannot "separate" out violence from policing. Police in the U.S. are violence workers.
"[H]e found specific evidence of major detail wrongdoing by 43 officers involved in more than 693 instances and enough evidence against 45 other officers to warrant starting internal-affairs investigations" #bospoli
@mayorwu.boston.gov: BPD Commissioner said keep it quiet, don't tarnish my record
"Superintendent Marcus Eddings today sued his boss, Police Commissioner Michael Cox, charging Cox demoted him when Cox demanded he bury proof of fraud among numerous officers on paid details and he refused."
Cops are stealing. Jail guards killed a man. @wutrain.bsky.social is silent. #bospoli
FYI: Judge Ellis (Chicago ICE case) noted in November that video evidence shows ICE "brake-checked other motorists in an attempt to force accidents that agents could then use as justifications for deploying force."
If your response to state-sponsored killing is "more training," you need to seriously examine your theory of change alongside decades of data. Only a significant reduction/elimination of power, authority, & resources in policing/enforcement can change our dystopian relationship with state violence.
This man was presumed innocent and killed in the custody of the Suffolk County Sheriff. While our elected officials speak out about what is happening elsewhere, they’ve remained silent about what is happening right here in Boston. State violence is unacceptable in all forms in all places.
Too many people are trying to differentiate between ICE and police.
I will hold your hand as I say this:
Police in the US treat marginalized people the way ICE treats everyone. They're far more similar than you want to admit.
Defunding the police and abolishing ICE are the same fight.
We have a "presumption of regularity" where courts presume that our government acts according to the law & tells the truth. This leads to an uphill battle for our wrongfully convicted clients who have been imprisoned based on false narratives. Let current events lead us to abandon this myth.
People proclaiming to protect public safety are kidnapping, caging, & killing community members. From South Bay to Minneapolis, from sheriffs’ offices to ICE, it’s the same story. It’s not about training; it’s about power & endless resources with no accountability. Gov’t violence is not safety.
What this administration is doing is accelerating and building on what already existed. This is disorienting, I know. We have to do what we can to protect each other locally while we also seriously address the foundational issues. This country has to disempower policing. I hope people understand now
The MPD union, at least, has made it clear which side they are on.
This is the cost of DECADES of (everyone, everywhere) refusing to deal with the rising right-wing and white-nationalist involvement in policing.
Pinning your hopes on police orgs breaking with ICE is not sound thinking.
sherrilyn.substack.com/p/whether-it...
When the government wants to kidnap, cage, or kill you, the first thing they do is dehumanize you. As a community, if we refuse to allow people to be dehumanized, the propaganda loses its power. If we agree that we all deserve freedom and life, none of this can be justified or excused
It's bad enough that the #Massachusetts Trial Court is allowing ICE agents to abduct people from courthouses—they definitely shouldn't be letting them do it in total secrecy by stopping people from recording it.
#mapoli
It may be comforting to believe that the violence and injustice of our government/“law enforcement” are a product of “mistakes” that can be “fixed,” but its response tells you they are BY DESIGN. Therefore, the only way to end it is through collective work to strip it of resources and power.
New: we've obtained material explaining how an ICE surveillance system, called Webloc, works. Draw shape on a map, see all phones available there, follow them home. All without warrant
“This is a very dangerous tool in the hands of an out-of-control agency.” www.404media.co/inside-ices-...
A 35 year old letter to the editor, written by a very ballsy 15 year old, about the Rodney King verdict.
Remembering today that having your heart broken is a necessary step on the path to becoming fully human. Whichever heartbreak is your first, it’s probably critical that a state break your heart so that you can develop a political imagination. If this is your first, I’m sorry and also welcome.
Let this be a call to action, but let us not believe any of this is new or isolated to ICE. We have given our government the power to kill and cage people by saying it protects us, and we must now say that none of this makes us safer.
www.themarshallproject.org/2026/01/07/i...
It doesn’t matter if the person is a US citizen or an immigrant, a mother or a teenager, a person with no criminal record or one accused of a crime: COMMUNITY MEMBERS SHOULD NOT BE MURDERED BY THE GOVERNMENT. If we cannot agree on that, then it empowers propaganda about whose lives matter.
People proclaiming to protect public safety are kidnapping, caging, & killing community members. From South Bay to Minneapolis, from sheriffs’ offices to ICE, it’s the same story. It’s not about training; it’s about power & endless resources with no accountability. Gov’t violence is not safety.
