Thread by @matt_cam

UPDATE: Client arrested in #EastBoston court still in #ICE custody. Fighting to get him out, but that's not what this thread is about.

This thread is about how @bostonpolice carelessly railroaded an innocent man & handed him to ICE

#AbolishICE #bospoli

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BPD maintains a "gang assessment database" with the Boston Region Intelligence Center, "fusion center" which combines the worst information and impulses of local, state, and federal law enforcement. Their intel on suspected gang members is... well, it's bad. It's very bad.

The database gives BPD cover to "confirm" who is a "VERIFIED & ACTIVE" gang member. It's a serious allegation, something they'd be immediately sued for publicly suggesting about a white Bostonian. But determine that someone is young, male, & Salvadoran.... and here we are:

Becoming a sworn member of MS-13 is no small thing. You have to do some pretty bad stuff, & prove you're down for much more. But from how BPD "confirms" membership you'd think it was an easy frat initiation.

It would all be kind of funny if it didn't deport teenagers to death

Rather than using informants, eyewitnesses, or any other traditional policework, BPD has rigged up an absurd "point" system which doesn't require them to leave the fusion center.

17 points. Confirmed.

Rank BS, but just enough to sound official when the cases get to court.

Where do these "points" come from? It's... so much worse than you think.

You'd hope that the combined mental might of BPD, state police, DHS, & FBI might come up with something better than browsing Facebook. But, no. It's mostly Facebook.

Here's the point breakdown from a typical "gang packet" introduced by DHS to justify holding a 17-year-old in high-security #ICE detention without bond.

Gang signs. Paraphernalia. Court documents. Gang associations. Pretty damning... until you look at the attached evidence.

Here, taken from Facebook, is the "gang sign" that earned my client 4 points.

My dudes.

It's called throwing the horns. There's an emoji for it 🤘

Did y'all miss the late 1900's entirely or

(Oh, and he's *not even the one in the photo doing it*)

The "MS-13 apparel" is a Bulls cap. The "graphics" on his phone are some silly Salvadoran memes (including one about how many guns you have to take on vacation to El Salvador). The "associations" are FB friends. I could go on, but I haven't gotten to the worst part.

The worst part is that they assigned 9 points (enough to put him over from "suspected" to "verified") based on an #ICE report. And what is the ICE report (which I also have) based on?

The same gang database.

It's one big old ouroborous of stupid.

I was already concerned by how casually the Obama administration was labeling kids gang members. I had quite a lot to say about it (with a lengthy personal account of another case) in @thebaffler (below).

I'm straight terrified by the Trump approach.

thebaffler.com/outbursts/stra…

How many white kids in the US right now are listening to gangsta rap, wearing street clothes, & taking silly selfies w/hand signs they've seen on YouTube?

Is anyone seriously suggesting they are sworn gang members?

Less here, & my client is about to be deported for life for it

DHS has full latitude to call anyone it wants gang members. Judges rarely push back, no matter how weak the evidence.

*This* is why I was so upset when the White House decided that it was perfectly acceptable to call Latino gang members "animals."

whitehouse.gov/articles/need-…

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I can't believe I actually have to say this, but: I hate MS-13. Absolutely despise them. I live and work in #EastBoston, and have personally met hundreds of lovely people whose lives have been disrupted, traumatized, and destroyed by criminal gangs.

There is a wide universe of difference between kids who are ready to ride or die for an international criminal street gang and kids who are sharing memes and making dumb jokes on Facebook. Any reasonable person of conscience should be able to see the difference.

But not BPD/ICE

But here's the thing: This isn't about public safety. It's about feeding the deportation machine.

BPD and ICE know the difference. They just sincerely do not care.

Do you?

#AbolishICE

BONUS: Quoting the lyrics to this Migos song on Facebook earned another client detention in a high-security #ICE detention center without bond. Non-white readers, click through at your own risk--who knows how many points it'll earn you?

#AbolishICE