alec karakatsanis
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
- DHS is tracking people who protest using biometrics and entering them into databases; hunting people who send emails on behalf of asylum seekers; tracking neighbors who help immigrants w/ facial recognition and license plate readers, and Hakeem Jeffries wants more surveillance tech for every agent.
- More info: bsky.app/profile/equa...
- Background on this shameful chapter in Democratic Party politics here. A huge stain on the integrity of all the non-profits who pushed for this as well to give the Democrats cover. bsky.app/profile/equa...
- A important but taboo subject is how some “civil rights” organizations launder Democratic Party complicity in fascism. Prominent nonprofit organizations are providing cover to Dems by calling for more body cameras as DHS celebrates that very idea and builds unprecedented surveillance databases.
- Sometimes the propaganda is simple but consequential. The basic decision of the news media to refer to a chemical weapon that is banned as a war crime from being used in armed conflict as "tear gas" has helped normalize its use across the U.S. This is just aggravated assault.
- On Tear-Gassing Children The Federal Assault on the ICE Out! Labor March in Portland crimethinc.com/PortlandTear... On January 31, ICE agents attacked a demonstration in Portland, blanketing a whole neighborhood in tear gas and injuring a number of small children. An account from eyewitnesses.
- Congrats to Hakeem Jeffries. He’s worked so hard for this victory.
- Background on this shameful chapter in Democratic Party politics here. A huge stain on the integrity of all the non-profits who pushed for this as well to give the Democrats cover. bsky.app/profile/equa...
- What we are seeing right now with leading Democrats is a defining moment of liberal propaganda. As you try to understand the situation, please read this article I wrote on Democrats, police, and body cameras. campuspress.yale.edu/yjll/volume-...
- More background here: bsky.app/profile/civr...
- Somehow managed to co-opt a moment of mass consciousness and political leverage into a massive funding grab for ICE and the police surveillance industry. Aided and abetted by a number of “progressive” groups along a spectrum from ignorant to nefarious.
- One thing some Democrats I’ve talked to miss is that when they call for all the ICE agents in Minneapolis to have body cameras record everyone they interact with it undermines the demand that the agents leave.
- What we are seeing right now with leading Democrats is a defining moment of liberal propaganda. As you try to understand the situation, please read this article I wrote on Democrats, police, and body cameras. campuspress.yale.edu/yjll/volume-...
- THREAD. ICE is in the news, and rightly so, but a lot of the commentary fails to see how the underlying surveillance tech, militarization, infrastructure, policies/practices/training, and corporate profiteers are shared by other domestic agencies and repressive bureaucracies in other countries.
- The only coherent positions are (1) to reduce the size and power of these institutions--used by ruling class elites across the world to protect inequalities of many kinds--and (2) to enforce robust mechanisms for accountable vindication of basic human rights.
- The current state of the Democratic Party is failing miserably at the former, and our legal system has shown itself to lack the rigor, capacity, and integrity to ensure the latter.
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View full threadOtherwise, the centralization of wealth and authoritarian control will continue to plague all of the world's unequal societies, and the hope for a flourishing future for all the humans, plants, and animals on the planet will dwindle.
- THREAD. There's one proposal that would make a difference and that is popular across the population: if ICE or any other federal employee violates your constitutional rights, you should be able to sue them for damages without any immunity or other procedural technicalities that now make it harder.
- This would be extremely easy. It would mean inserting a few words into existing federal law. It's astonishing that you don't see this talking point or policy proposal gaining huge traction among Democrats and pundits.
- Relatedly, Democrats should be insisting on clearing paths to liability for private corporations and individuals who assist any federal employee in any constitutional violation, like a tech company (just to pick a random, totally irrelevant example.)
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View full threadOf course there are many other things to be done, including some that are more important, like taking on the budget, size, and power of ICE and other repressive bureaucracies. But this is a really easy one.
- Notice that Democratic Party leaders are not only not proposing meaningful measures to stop this, but they are actively proposing to *keep giving ICE money to do it.*
- Incredibly, the Democrats aren’t even united on supporting a simple law to let people sue ICE agents for any constitutional violations they commit by removing various procedural technicalities that now exist.
- I always recommend people spend less time consuming news and more time with long form journalism. Well, this is one of the best things you'll read. It's a hopeful story that has long been inspiring to me, and it's told beautifully here: www.gq.com/story/walpol...
- THREAD. Yesterday we won a landmark injunction striking down the cash bail system in Riverside, California.
- A couple weeks ago we won a case striking down the cash bail system in Tulsa, Oklahoma. No human being should be caged solely because their loved ones lack sufficient cash to pay for their freedom.
- The fight against the everyday brutality and lawlessness in the punishment bureaucracy is ongoing. Every victory where the courts affirm that the government cannot put a human being in a cage without extremely good reasons is vital.
- Even in very dark moments, it is inspiring to work alongside so many amazing people who are devoting their lives to reminding our society about its commitments to liberty, human connection, and justice. And to enforcing them.
