Michael Leo Owens
A pluviophile, melomaniac, gardener, karaoke fiend, & academic, punching above his weight in any ring and on any street. Atlantan by labor; New Yorker by birth. Coauthor of Deadly Force: Police Shootings in Urban America (Princeton University Press, 2025).
- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensSo about TrumpRx: We crunched the numbers today and about half of the drugs on there have cheaper generics available already. www.statnews.com/2026/02/06/t...
- Ahhhhhhh, Albany. I’m ready to fellowship with folks at UAlbany for the rest of the day.
- I'm overjoyed to head back to UAlbany-SUNY to the Poli Sci Dept of the @rockefellercollege.bsky.social & Policy! 1st time ever for me as an alumnus to speak on my research. Alas, the weather forecast doesn't call for snow during my visit. Rats. Still, it's gonna be a good time!
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- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensNo joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition. Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
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- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensRoving bands of fucking sociopaths.
- “A DHS spokesperson told local NBC affiliate 9News that ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility will “conduct a thorough investigation and will take appropriate and swift action.” ICE’s Denver Field Office did not respond to questions…” 🤬
- "Non-Hispanic white Americans havea median household wealth of $250,400, comparedto $24,520 for Black households and $48,720 for Hispanic households. Some key factors...include unequal access to higher education and employment for minorities, as well as residential segregation that still persists."
- Reposted by Michael Leo Owens"When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick." – Matthew 14:14 What would Jesus do? Not cancel USAID
- I'm overjoyed to head back to UAlbany-SUNY to the Poli Sci Dept of the @rockefellercollege.bsky.social & Policy! 1st time ever for me as an alumnus to speak on my research. Alas, the weather forecast doesn't call for snow during my visit. Rats. Still, it's gonna be a good time!
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- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensNormal people are out there doing extraordinary things. My mom's health aide emailed me: ICE took 2 of her neighbors; when she told them they weren't welcome, she was met w/a rifle. Now she's driving a neighbor to work hidden in the back of her car & escorting the neighbor's kids to the bus stop.
- “If I am killed doing this, throw my body at the White House, martyr the shit out of me & raise hell. Do not be sad. Do not think I would do anything differently. I would do it over & over again — this is too important to sit down & shut up and not do anything.” www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...
- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensReally nuts how many men were like "Me Too went too far, and I need to email Jeffrey Epstein about it."
- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensIf Jeff Bezos could afford to spend $75 million on the Melania movie & $500 million for a yacht to sail off to his $55 million wedding to give his wife a $5 million ring, please don't tell me he needed to fire one-third of the Washington Post staff. Democracy dies in oligarchy.
- Reposted by Michael Leo Owensin real terms, #7 would give states leverage to put an end to surges, #8 would give states the ability to outright stop construction of new detention facilities, #1 and #6 would slow the rate at which DHS could train and deploy officers, #2 and #10 would likely shrink the pool of recruits
- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensFor those of you in Atlanta
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- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensThe ICE killings in Minneapolis evoke Selma but the day-to-day tactics in Minneapolis remind me of the Birmingham Bus Boycott: a grinding, continuous, citywide and logistically demanding effort of non-cooperation over months to break an unjust status quo.
- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensI understand why I find body cameras, training, and partnering with the police an inadequate response to ICE, but I don’t understand how you support these solutions with policing and then reject them with ICE, and I imagine that’s the frame these legislators are working from.
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- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensFormer Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who defended Congress on Jan. 6, enters Democratic primary for the Maryland U.S. House seat that Rep. Steny Hoyer is giving up after more than four decades. Dunn in 2024 lost an expensive primary for a neighboring House seat to now-Rep. Sarah Elfreth.
- “All city-level statistics are based on metropolitan statistical areas (MSA), and are geographically larger than a city’s official limits.” Um… Then they’re not city-level statistics! And that needs be stated from jump in news stories and on websites, not buried in a footnote or at end of stories.
- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensMarimar Martinez talks about being shot by CBP: “My arms, legs, and chest were all wrapped in bandages. I had 7 bullet holes in my body. I remember the agents rushing the nurses to finish up so they could take me with them.”
- Reposted by Michael Leo Owensholy shit
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- "Dataverse is currently unavailable, we are working to restore service." Oof.
- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensNew — I spoke to eight people who were present at the ICE protest on Saturday in Portland, Oregon when federal agents deployed tear gas and rubber bullets into a crowd of families, children, elderly and disabled people, and their pets. These are their stories:
- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensThis article is a very good example of why "more training" and "more vetting" isn't the answer. Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez joined Border Patrol in 2018 and 2014 respectively. These aren't new agents. www.propublica.org/article/alex...
- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensTrump, our lawbreaker-in-chief, is defiant like a bad guy in an old gangster movie. #Trump #TrumpIsUnfitForOffice #ImpeachTrumpNow #TrumpisaNationalDisgrace #TrumpCorruption
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- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensTrump paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 and now wants $10 billion because a leaker pointed that out www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...
- TIL: “The construction industry has one of the highest suicide rates of any major industry in the country, second only to mining… Add in drug overdoses, where construction workers die at a greater rate than workers in any other industry, and a bleak picture emerges of a population in crisis.” 😐
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- Soooooooo much snow and ice on the grounds of Lil Rudyshire. I truly understand now the anxiety of the last few days over the weather forecast for this weekend. Oof. I doubt I’ll make it to campus tomorrow. Too much to dig out. I’ll just cancel my classes now. 🤭
- Reposted by Michael Leo Owensthere has been no de-escalation.
- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensWhat a hero. A mom who lost her pension to do what’s right. 1 bajillion times more courageous and heroic than so many leaders in politics, law, universities, corporations, media, and journalism
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- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensHe’s just describing The American Dream but you’re supposed to hate it for some reason
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- “Like Ray in the [Best Animated Short Film] movie, I had such big plans. First on my list was mastering German. Now I’ll have to settle with what I already know. This includes the phrase “I am old and have many ghosts,” which, honestly, might be all I’ll need at age ninety-two.” 😂 Watch the film!
- “It’s particularly ironic that these men who are incredibly brave – and frankly, scholars – and have learned the law and have been leaders and always observe nonviolent means of protest, are always met with violence by authorities.”
- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensTwo things can be true: we’re a competitive authoritarian state with all sorts of efforts to put a thumb on the scale of who has power AND we have sufficiently free and sufficiently fair elections that every month we see the party in power lose.
- “Boxer Jarrell Miller brought new meaning to “getting your wig pushed back” during a Saturday night bout at Madison Square Garden.” 😵💫
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- A fantastic and fascinating choice for an extremely challenging municipal position, perhaps one of the most challenging positions in any city in the USA.
- Mayor Mamdani names criminal justice reformer Stanley Richards as NYC’s new Department of Correction commissioner Richards is the first formerly incarcerated person to lead the city’s jails system @gothamist.com @wnyc.org gothamist.com/news/mamdani...
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- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensAgain, these are the kinds of lies that the South African apartheid-era police told journalists and judges when they murdered activists like Steve Biko.
- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensYou know who really ought to pay attention the result in TX Sen 9? Democratic leadership in Congress.
- Reposted by Michael Leo Owensyou can’t focus group this. you can’t means test it. just make it fucking stop.
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- The Smashing Machine is not a good film.
- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensThe president of the United States had his DOJ raid the Fulton County election office and seized ballots. This is clearly a dry run for 2026. Yet, this is treated by too many in legacy media as normal. I founded Democracy Docket in 2020 because you deserve better. Subscribe now. hubs.ly/Q03M8rql0
- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensICE will respond by requiring all non-citizens to wear special badges, perhaps in a unique shape and color so everyone can recognize who's who in the streets.
- In Minneapolis, they are starting to *wear their passports at all times* www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/u...
- Reposted by Michael Leo Owens"It's believed to be the first time a local police department in Minnesota intervened in a federal law enforcement action since the surge in immigration enforcement began two months ago."
- "MPR News has learned that the police chief in the small southern Minnesota city of St. Peter intervened Thursday afternoon to prevent federal immigration agents from arresting a local resident" who had been observing federal agents. www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...
- “When asked what the record meant to her, she thought for a moment and said, ‘It’s never too late to begin to make yourself stronger.’” ✊🏾
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- Reposted by Michael Leo Owens"It may take time to prove you're right, but you have to stick to it." - Fred Korematsu Jailed for refusing to abide by FDR's Exec Order 9066, he took his case against internment all the way to the Supreme Court - and lost. Remember him on Korematsu Day, January 30th. 1/
- Reposted by Michael Leo OwensAll I am saying is if I had inflicted a plague of bigoted grifters onto my country and had gotten filthy rich doing it, I would be at a fucking minimum out there calling them out and helping take them down.
- Parenthetically, fuck Oprah Winfrey. www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/d...
