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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
@AOC
Rikers Island is in my district. Due to Census law, people incarcerated at Rikers are counted as my constituents (instead of at their home community). Changing policy is about changing how we treat people, & we have an obligation to hold our criminal justice system to account.
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Scott Hechinger
@ScottHech
Gutwrenching. Marvin spent 11 months on Rikers. For drug possession. Prosecutors withheld the most critical piece of evidence-the drug lab-from start to finish. NY law *allowed them* to do this. The pressure to plead got the better of him. Guess who doesn’t want law changed? DAs.
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
@AOC
Replying to
@AOC
All too often, our criminal justice system - from tickets to convictions - is treated as a game, where the one racks up the most “points” wins. Paired w/ foolish criminalization of marijuana, poverty,etc, it wrecks chaos on people’s lives + stagnates communities for generations.
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
@AOC
As a result, our system is “innocent until proven guilty” only for the rich &“guilty until proven innocent” for the poor. To borrow from
@ZephyrTeachout
, the RADICAL rule of law is the idea that in the same scenario, our courts would treat a billionaire the same as a Bronx teen.
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Tor Ekeland
@TorEkelandPLLC
Replying to
@AOC
Innocent until proven guilty only exists in theory. Prosecutors and Judges routinely ignore this supposedly fundamental aspect of our system. And lack of funding for that system, its inherent racism and classism, alongside the plea bargain grist mill, is eroding it further.
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