alec karakatsanis

@equalityalec

founder, Civil Rights Corps civil rights lawyer author of usual cruelty (2019) and copaganda (2025) any views expressed here are my own, and not those of civil rights corps

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alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Jun 25

THREAD. Stories like today's catastrophic Supreme Court ruling on pesticides go under the radar, but they shape our society and determine our lives.

The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with the manufacturer of the weedkiller Roundup, overturning a jury award for a Missouri man who claimed the widely used herbicide caused cancer in a decision that could have sweeping impacts on thousands of other Americans who similarly claim the product sickened them.

In the 7-to-2 decision, written by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, the majority found that a federal law that regulates pesticides barred the Missouri man’s lawsuit.

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Jun 18

In Chapter 10 of my book Copaganda, called Progressives Want a Pro-Crime Hellscapte, I talked about this phenomenon at length with lots of interesting and funny examples to illustrate how harmful people like Klein are and to show exactly why they are so vital for the ruling class:

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Jun 18

Ezra Klein is a serious threat to a world of true equality and justice because he is so effective at masking his service to the ruling class through (often faux) intellectual cooptation of progressive people who otherwise would support much more profound social change.

Hacked list of Peter Thiel secret society including musk and Kushner and Ted Cruz and Ezra Klein.

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Jun 10

First, several years ago, as right-winger Brooke Jenkins was positioning herself to roll back progressive policies that were widely popular, Heather Knight (then of SF Chronicle, rewarded with promotion to NYT) inserted the paper at a key moment to "report" Jenkins was "progressive."

Screenshot of Chronicle headline "why a progressive prosecutor just left DA Chesa Boudin's office and joined the recall effort."

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· May 30

This lawyer represents New Jersey Democrats and national Democratic Party. He cheers using militarized state troopers to crush protesters as a *strategic move* to protect residents from being brutalized by different cops. The Democratic establishment will walk us off a cliff.

Raj parikh responding to tweet about using state troopers at Delaney hall: This misses the point.
@GovSherrillNJ
eliminated the ability of the Trump admin to create a pretext to make NJ into the next Minnesota for an ICE “surge”. This is exactly how to protect our neighbors from illegal Federal overreach while also ensuring safe free speech & protests.

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· May 28

First, forcing law clerks and staff to listen to sexual sounds from an extramarital affair during business hours in a publicly funded courthouse is bad. But lying about it and retaliating against law clerks who heard the sex should disqualify someone from being a federal judge.

screenshot of order for private reprimand described in text of post from Eleventh Circuit.

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· May 19

One reason I talk about language and framing so much is that it matters a great deal what behavior and what horrors become normalized. Especially in our civil rights work, we must never lose the capacity to become shocked by things that should shock us to the core.

screenshot of headline about IRS being prohibited from auditing trump and family

screenshot of todd blanche document purporting to grant these tax immunities.

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· May 19

The Washington Post calling this an unusual deal is like saying Chevron has an unconventional approach to global warming.

Wapo headline calling trump tax settlement an "unusual deal" that creates a $1.8 billion fund that could help trump allies.

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· May 19

THREAD. The San Francisco DA gave an "exclusive" interview to the New York Post yesterday that is full of egregious misinformation. But something deeper is going on that should worry everyone who cares about the possibility of a democratic society.

Headline about DA Brooke Jenkins warning CA supreme court decision unleashing crime wave

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· May 6

Additional flyer here for sharing:

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Apr 30

The genre of New York Times propaganda where it credits as reported fact the stated motivations of powerful people should be confined to the dustbin of history. Compare how it reports the unquestioned true intentions of right-wing judges versus the merely declared views of “Black southerners.”

Conservative justices “see” progress on racism while black southerners “say” the voting rights act ruling missed the mark and “felt” like an end to racism progress.

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Apr 21

THREAD. I am so glad to celebrate the 1-year anniversary of the publication of Copaganda. It's more relevant than ever. We must understand how people are brought along to support the most monstrous and repressive institutions. (And we should have some fun and make some jokes while doing it!)

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Apr 13

The major newspapers and tv channels of the United States have been filled with these kinds of unquestioned statements about nearly every evidence-based progressive attempt to reduce inequality and make our society less cruel and more safe. As I explained in Copaganda:

Given the evidence, suggesting that mass-incarceration advocates
are being “tough on crime” when they push for policies that do not
make people safer is like praising fossil fuel profiteers for mitigating
global warming. It is one of the great achievements of modern copaganda
that police, prosecutors, prison guard unions, bail bond companies,
private equity firms, surveillance corporations, for-profit prisons,
and politicians have convinced news outlets to call the policies that benefit
them “tough on crime.” But it gets worse, because “tough on crime”
groups are among the biggest proponents of shifting “law enforcement”
resources away from investigating and prosecuting millions of much
more threatening crimes by powerful people

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Apr 13

Trump saying today that the pope is “WEAK on crime” is extremely funny, but as with much of what Trump does, he also helps expose how baseless and cynical the liberal establishment has become.

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Apr 12

THREAD. This single headline in the NYT contains two outrageous claims reported as fact: 1) Vance "tried" to end the war; and 2) he "opposed" it. Neither is supported, but the thing to understand is: why is lying about the *intention* of powerful people so key to propaganda?

21 Hours in Pakistan: How Vance Tried and Failed to End a War He Opposed

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Apr 7

The President of the United States just said “A whole civilization will die tonight.” Any politician or person within the chain of command who does not speak up and do everything in their power to stop this will be complicit in the gravest crime against humanity, and there’s no return from that.

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Apr 1

This was a hallmark of Obama-era Democratic party and elite professor-led "consent decrees." I discussed them a bit in my work on the massive fraud liberal politicians and certain academics/nonprofits perpetrated on body cameras: campuspress.yale.edu/yjll/volume-...

When necessary, such as with the LAPD after the Rampart scandal or Ferguson after the
2014 uprisings, police themselves will support this narrative that entire departments are in need of
“reform.”266 After the 2020 uprisings, many liberal politicians pointed to Camden, New Jersey as
a model because the town had “disbanded” its police force after repeated police violence. (What
is often left out of this story is that the city simply rehired far more officers on lower salaries,
expanded lucrative surveillance contracts, and made even more arrests of almost exclusively poor
people in the subsequent years for low-level crimes.)267 Similarly, it is common for powerful local
or state officials to ask the Department of Justice to investigate an entire troubled police force in
their area.268 Dozens of mayors, governors, and even police chiefs have done this in recent years,
not out of a belief that federal intervention will make their police force behave differently in
fundamental ways, but to distract from local attempts at more radical solutions. Cooptation like
this routinely happens through federal intervention because of the well-understood, well-trodden
periods of delay, expert consulting, rationalization of more resources which often becomes court-
ordered additional spending, and pacification of liberal residents who are only passively interested
in knowing that something is being done.
In this political and narrative act, the

This kind of scapegoating of particular police forces is often welcomed by police, not just
because it tends to mean more investment in more resources for those “bad” officers, squads,
precincts, and departments for “training” and technology, but because it also distracts people from
asking too many fundamental questions about the enterprise of mass processing of punishment as
a way to make our society less violent. This framing discourages people from asking the core,
unorthodox question: “is there something about this bureaucracy, and the social and economic
arrangements it protects, that simply is not amenable to reform (because its primary function is not
to promote holistic human equality and flourishing)?”
What might it suggest that each local police bureaucracy in each of thousands of cities and
counties has similar policies, technology, demographic disparities, statistics on their activity and
arrest patterns, infiltration by right-wing groups, and recurring scandals of illegal corruption and
violence? A national conversation flares up every few years about how U.S. police are violent and
unaccountable, but the public discourse does not connect it to the prior conversations that society
just had several years before.270 What might it suggest that every generation of people in the United
States for 125 years has had the same conversation on newspaper editorial pages about pervasive
police corruption, violence against marginalized people, and surveillance of progressive social
movements?

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Apr 1

Here are some of the key findings. First, note the key finding: All of this "reform" to reduce police violence didn't reduce police violence:

Failure to de-escalate the use of force.
A statistical trend analysis demonstrates that the most severe
level of use of force has remained stable while other levels of use
of force have increased. Clearly, there is no evidence of de-esca-
lation in the use of force. The Police Reform Agreement, prompt-
ed by the USDOJ’s (2011) documentation of unreasonable use of
force, was unable to curb the frequency with which officers use
force. Moreover, an official PRPD report acknowledges that the
annual trend of use of force has increased.
2. Failure to eliminate racial bias in use of force.
Statistical evidence demonstrates that the PRPD disproportion-
ately directs use of force against racialized communities. The
department’s failure to track racial data creates a blind spot that
precludes it from identifying its own bias. Using census racial
data, an area-based statistical analysis confirms that nonfatal
police shootings occur more frequently in neighborhoods with
higher concentrations of Black and low-income households.
3. Failure to identify and correct deficiencies in the
use of force.
There is a systematic practice of under-registration, under-re-
porting, and under-counting of police use of force. Under the
notion “no data, no problem,” the PRPD uses ignorance as a
strategy to avoid or obstruct the production and dissemination
of the necessary information that makes police violence visible,
measurable, and accountable. The PRPD has failed to identify the
excessive use of electronic control devices among its officers and
deceived the public by under-counting the number of ECD-associ-
ated deaths

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Mar 29

A common mistake is that the most nefarious propaganda must look like Fox News. In fact, huge resources are put into propaganda like the post below—which uses baseless assertions and innuendo couched as reasonable progressive-feeling analysis—to push uncritical consumers of info to the right.

Ok after some reflection and talking to people (including locals) that are smarter than me, points 3 and 4 seem way too cynical/galaxy brained. There are local factors at play, and it’s probably not some strategic 4D chess to triangulate a middle path to the nomination between El-Sayed and Stevens.

I had completely forgotten that the West Bloomfield Temple Israel attack — where 140 preschoolers could have been blown up — was two weeks ago.

And that for many for whom that is still raw — even in a mostly very progressive Jewish community like that — Piker’s presence nearby (both are within about an hour drive) would be raising the temperature, not lowering it.

I think the difference in encouraging people to go on a guest on Rogan/Piker type streams — who have said controversial things in the past — and actively campaigning with them is an important distinction. Some may infer the latter as an endorsement of their views.

Which, no matter what you think of Hasan, you have to admit that some of what he has said could be hurtful to some Jews at a time when many are already deeply concerned for the safety of them and their children.

For those who think McMorrow is bought and paid for by AIPAC, I would like to remind them that they are expressly backing Stevens in this race, and that McMorrow has stressed that she has not and will not take money from AIPAC.

Anyway, I’m willing to bet it’s not a strategic move, it’s a line in the sand for her.

If you disagree with what she said, that’s fine. Your voice will be louder than those that appreciate what’s she’s doing because that’s what algorithms do — promote conflict.

Important to remember that Twitter is not real life.

I like Abdul, and totally get why people are voting for him. But let’s not jump to the worst conclusions about other candidates just because tensions are high.

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Mar 25

This would be a good time to also get my English books: Copaganda and Usual Cruelty. As always, all royalties are donated to amazing charities fighting against authoritarian repression, and we have free copies for anyone in prison or teachers who want them for students.

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Mar 25

I'm excited to announce the publication in France of my book on police body cameras--one of the great achievements of liberal Copaganda in modern history. I'll be in Marseille on March 29 and Paris on March 30 for events. Please join us!

Picture of french book cover: la bureaucratie de la punition

March 29 Marseille: 16h30 Fraternite Marseille 3E
Paris March 30 Fleche d'or Paris 20E

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Mar 22

I’ve been studying the punishment bureaucracy and suing judges, prosecutors, and police across the U.S. for more than 15 years. One defining feature of our legal system is that there is rarely any accountability for massive corruption and criminality by those with power.

Phoenix police won’t discipline any officers in massive scandal of testing fake gangs and charging protestors falsely as members in 2020.

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Mar 18

There has been an alarming development in our legal system. Judges are starting to contract with a private corporation started by an ex-Palantir employee--whose bio says he is also a former speechwriter for Israel's UN ambassador--to have **secretive proprietary AI help decide cases for them.**

Judges in one of the nation’s largest court systems have started using artificial intelligence, testing a tool that can rapidly distill hundreds of pages of legal motions and use samples of a jurist’s writing style to help reach conclusions and even draft tentative rulings.

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Mar 8

When I watched a smiling Lionel Messi applauding Trump’s cartoon villain bloodlust, I thought about Muhammad Ali going on international television to deliver his poem condemning the Attica prison massacre, telling the world that fascists would never conquer the human spirit.

Screenshot of video of children burning Lionel Messi jerseys

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Mar 5

The Democratic Party's apparent plan is to have every worker in the U.S. forced to wear a surveillance camera. One of the many consequences of the celebration and funding of this nonsense in elite liberal circles. As with any policy, ask yourself: what kind of society does this reflect and create?

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Mar 5

On top of the concentration camps, kidnapping, and murders, the news now reports ICE is buying microwave tech to kill the car engines of first amendment legal observers. And Democrats are still not even asking to claw back the 2025 budget increases.

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Mar 4

I'll be speaking in Ottawa next Tuesday, March 10. Spread the word! I'll be talking about our groundbreaking quest to establish a constitutional right for children to hug their parents, and what it means for fights against power, profit, and propaganda in increasingly fascist times.

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Mar 4

I'll be speaking in Montreal at McGill on March 13. Please join us. I'll be talking about our groundbreaking quest to establish a constitutional right for children to hug their parents, and what it means for fights against power, profit, and propaganda in authoritarian times.

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Feb 20

This same tactic to funnel outrage over intentional, lawless police violence into **more resources for police** was used in response to Bloody Sunday:

$On March 7, 1965, white police in Alabama beat hundreds of civil rights marchers—including fracturing the skull of civil rights icon John Lewis—as they walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on “Bloody Sunday.” The very next day, President Lyndon Johnson announced an unprecedented expansion of funding for U.S. police departments, including for “improved training of policemen.”8 In his history of U.S. policing,$

alec karakatsanis@equalityalec· Feb 20

One of the most important? Telling liberals who become concerned about all this violence that the solution is more "training" and technology for punishment bureaucrats. As I explain in Copaganda: