CourtWatchMA
@courtwatchma.bsky.social
1.6K followers 60 following 160 posts
Community volunteers supporting neighbors + shifting power dynamics in #MApoli courts by exposing decisions of judges & prosecutors. @justicehealing @massbailfund
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rygraham.bsky.social
Liars. She was arrested because she was a journalist doing her job.
cjciaramella.bsky.social
UPDATE: In emailed statement to me / @reason.com, DHS alleges that WGN-TV producer Debbie Brockman "threw objects at Border Patrol’s car and she was placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer."
Screencap of email from DHS public affairs: Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin:

 

“U.S. Border Patrol was conducting immigration enforcement operations and when several violent agitators used their vehicles to block in agents in an effort to impede and assault federal officers. In fear of public safety and of law enforcement, officers used their service vehicle to strike a suspect’s vehicle and create an opening. As agents were driving, Deborah Brockman, a U.S. citizen, threw objects at Border Patrol’s car and she was placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer. 

 

“This incident is not isolated and reflects a growing and dangerous trend of illegal aliens violently resisting arrest and agitators and criminals ramming cars into our law enforcement officers. These attacks highlight the dangers our law enforcement officers face daily—all while receiving no pay thanks to the Democrats’ government shutdown.”
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prisonculture.bsky.social
This very very very bad. I cannot stress this enough. I said that they crossed the Rubicon with arresting Ras Baraka several months ago. This is very bad and portends more bad things for regular people.
royalpratt.bsky.social
The President of the United States is calling for the mayor of Chicago and governor of Illinois to be jailed.
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andrewqmr.bsky.social
NEW: Edward “Eddie” Wright spent 41 years in prison after he was convicted of murdering his friend, a crime he said he had nothing to do with.

But on Wednesday, he joined his lawyers and other advocates outside the #Massachusetts State House to call for an end to wrongful convictions.

#mapoli
Mr. Wright Goes to Boston
After spending 41 years in prison for a murder he said he did not commit, Edward Wright joined advocates in Boston to call for an end to wrongful convictions
andrewqmr.substack.com
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mdoukmas.bsky.social
My colleague @danhinkel.bsky.social found that not a single person has been exonerated with the help of the "conviction integrity unit" under the new Cook County State's Attorney
injusticewatch.org
Eileen O'Neill Burke made it harder for people to have their innocence claims investigated by the Cook County Conviction Integrity Unit — one of several ways her office is weakening review of wrongful convictions. Read the latest from us and @boltsmag.org:
Cook County’s new prosecutor has weakened an already broken system for freeing the innocent
State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s Conviction Integrity Unit hasn’t exonerated anyone in her 10 months on the job, and she has done little to confront more than a dozen coercion allegations…
buff.ly
courtwatchma.bsky.social
We are no doubt about to see this same trajectory in Boston with Locke at the helm of the SCDAO IRB...

#mapoli #bospoli
injusticewatch.org
Eileen O'Neill Burke made it harder for people to have their innocence claims investigated by the Cook County Conviction Integrity Unit — one of several ways her office is weakening review of wrongful convictions. Read the latest from us and @boltsmag.org:
Cook County’s new prosecutor has weakened an already broken system for freeing the innocent
State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s Conviction Integrity Unit hasn’t exonerated anyone in her 10 months on the job, and she has done little to confront more than a dozen coercion allegations…
buff.ly
Reposted by CourtWatchMA
Reposted by CourtWatchMA
newenglandinnocence.org
Today is International #WrongfulConvictionDay. We have a chance this legislative session to change the compensation law in Massachusetts to better support wrongfully convicted people after all they’ve suffered. If you live in MA, please ask your legislators to support S1132/H1965. #mapoli
Advocates rally for reform on Wrongful Conviction Day in Massachusetts
Edward Wright spent 41 years in prison for a 1984 murder in Springfield that he did not commit, but the most he could collect from the state is $1 million.
www.wcvb.com
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Reposted by CourtWatchMA
haymarketbooks.org
Organized repression and violence have been used by the ruling class for as long as there have been class divisions, but modern policing is a very specific kind of repressive institution with a number of historically unique features.
Policing Has Always Been a Tool to Repress the Working Class
Modern policing was born out of a series of transatlantic ruling class experiments to repress radical rebellion.
truthout.org
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senatorledwards.bsky.social
The next Judiciary Hearing on Criminal Justice Administration will be Tuesday, September 9th at 1pm.

To see the full list of bills to be proposed, visit shorturl.at/OXZBw or scan the QR code.

#mapoli #bospoli
courtwatchma.bsky.social
Judge Locke, for example, REJECTED an agreed-to sentence reduction APPROVED by IRB prosecutors under DA Rollins in an outrageous wrongful conviction case.

The man was home on a sentence stay and, because Locke refused the agreement, had to go back to prison just to see the Parole Board. #mapoli
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mskellymhayes.bsky.social
This week, I talk to @dreanyc123.bsky.social about the role of criminalization in authoritarianism and fascism—and why we need more outlaws, and less confusion about what the law protects and who it targets.
The Trap of Law and Order Under Fascism
“There’s no rule of law that’s going to get us out of where we are,” says Andrea Ritchie.
truthout.org
courtwatchma.bsky.social
Oh? "Lock-em-up Locke"?!

What a farce. Already it was hanging on by a thread, but now it sounds like there is no more integrity review bureau at the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office. #mapoli #bospoli

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/04/m...
Former Mass. Trial Court chief justice to head Suffolk district attorney’s conviction review panel - The Boston Globe
Jeffrey Locke led the Massachusetts Trial Court between January 2022 and December 2023.
www.bostonglobe.com
courtwatchma.bsky.social
This article is an excellent exposé on the Suffolk County Sheriff's recurring political patronage, disinterest in the job, and violence, brutality & misconduct by COs.

The only glaring omission? The distressing number of jail deaths on Tompkins's watch. #mapoli
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/04/m...
At Suffolk sheriff’s office, employees say a troubled history is repeating itself - The Boston Globe
In 2002, the sheriff resigned amid allegations of patronage and mismanagement, leading to cries for reform. Some say those problems have returned under Sheriff Steven Tompkins.
www.bostonglobe.com
courtwatchma.bsky.social
Increasing civil commitments has at least one predictable policy outcome: more death.

"[A] report issued last year by the state Department of Public Health, showed a higher risk of overdose and death after involuntary — versus voluntary — treatment." #mapoli @maapmass.bsky.social
wbur.org
WBUR @wbur.org · Sep 3
The practice of forcing people into treatment has gained national prominence in recent weeks after President Trump issued an executive order embracing the approach. In Boston's South End, fed up residents have called for similar moves.
Desperate for solutions to addiction crisis, some in Boston call for more involuntary commitments
The practice of forcing people into treatment has gained national prominence in recent weeks after President Trump issued an executive order embracing the approach. In Boston's South End, fed up resid...
www.wbur.org
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dseitz.bsky.social
It doesn't work, sets people up to be abused, why would we do this?
wbur.org
WBUR @wbur.org · Sep 3
The practice of forcing people into treatment has gained national prominence in recent weeks after President Trump issued an executive order embracing the approach. In Boston's South End, fed up residents have called for similar moves.
Desperate for solutions to addiction crisis, some in Boston call for more involuntary commitments
The practice of forcing people into treatment has gained national prominence in recent weeks after President Trump issued an executive order embracing the approach. In Boston's South End, fed up resid...
www.wbur.org
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jonlink.bsky.social
There’s a preponderance of evidence that involuntary commitment does more harm than good.

These calls are less about helping and more about punishing and/or removing people.

Even if the intent is to help, the evidence shows this is *not* how to help.
wbur.org
WBUR @wbur.org · Sep 3
The practice of forcing people into treatment has gained national prominence in recent weeks after President Trump issued an executive order embracing the approach. In Boston's South End, fed up residents have called for similar moves.
Desperate for solutions to addiction crisis, some in Boston call for more involuntary commitments
The practice of forcing people into treatment has gained national prominence in recent weeks after President Trump issued an executive order embracing the approach. In Boston's South End, fed up resid...
www.wbur.org
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andrewqmr.bsky.social
The police department said it wasn't disciplining the cop who beat the teen because there wasn't enough evidence.

Except he admitted to hitting the teen on another cop's body camera!

The cop who hit the teen wasn't using his own camera in violation of policy but wasn't punished for that either!
Conley was not wearing his body camera that day, police records show, meaning the melee wasn’t directly captured on video; another officer’s camera caught Conley’s remarks in the aftermath.

In the end, Boston police investigators sided with Conley, saying the department could “not prove or disprove the allegation.”

Conley was issued only a written reprimand — for violating the department’s body camera policy.
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andrewqmr.bsky.social
In one case, gang cops chased down some random teenagers and threatened to kill them. One cop pistol whipped one of the teens.

The civilian review board recommended that he be fired. Instead, the police commissioner promoted him.
The sun had already set as three teenage boys wrapped up a basketball game at the Harbor Point apartments, a housing complex that juts out into Dorchester Bay.

As they walked home on that cold night in February of 2022, they noticed an unmarked black Ford Explorer following them. They got nervous, the group told investigators, and ducked into the basement of a nearby building.

When they exited from the other side, three more black cars “cornered them,” according to an investigation by the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency (OPAT), Boston’s police oversight body. Police jumped out with guns drawn, the report says, yelling “do not move or we will f---ing shoot you.” One of the teenagers said an officer then tackled him to the ground and handcuffed him. When he sat up he had a large cut across his right eyebrow. In transcripts of body camera footage included in official reports, the detaining officer, Matthew Conley, said, “I literally had the gun in my hand, so I punched him in the face with it.”

The oversight agency recommended that Conley be terminated. But Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox refused to fire him.

City records show Conley was promoted to detective in December 2023, nearly two years after the Harbor Point incident. In 2022, Conley was the lead investigator on a Youth Violence Strike Force unit looking into gang activity around Columbia Point in Dorchester. He had reported watching a known gang associate on Snapchat in the area of the basketball courts, wearing a powder blue Nike sweatshirt, and called in officers to search the area.

The officers closed in on a group of teens leaving the basketball courts. Conley tackled one of them with his gun drawn and struck him in the face, according to the police accountability office’s investigation and the transcript from a body camera worn by another officer that night.

When the dust cleared, Conley saw the bleeding teenager on the ground in front of him was wearing a Polo sweatsuit that was navy blue, according to the OPAT investigation. And when other officers asked, Conley “confirmed they had detained the wrong individuals.”
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wbur.org
WBUR @wbur.org · Aug 28
The Boston Office of Police Accountability and Transparency has so far sustained 18 citizen complaints and has proposed varying levels of discipline. But public records show Police Commissioner Michael Cox has routinely flouted even modest disciplinary recommendations.
Boston police chief routinely rejects disciplinary recommendations by oversight board
The Boston Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, launched in response to protests following the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, has so far sustained 18 citizen complaints and...
www.wbur.org
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universalhub.com
City council raps BPD knuckles for doing social-media monitoring then not letting it know for months
www.universalhub.com/2025/city-co...
#Boston
Weber makes a point
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hubhistory.com
For anyone who doesn't see an issue with this, I BEG YOU to read the ACLU's reporting on BPD's decades-long civil rights abuses targeting liberal political organizations and our Black and brown neighbors under the aegis of the Boston Regional Intelligence Center. www.aclum.org/en/policing-...