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david-helps.bsky.social
david helps
@david-helps.bsky.social
historian & postdoc, USC • writing a people’s history of global LA • Great Lakes supremacist • he/they • https://www.david-helps.com/writing
January 18, 2026 at 8:33 PM
The lesson a lot of people took from Trump 2.0 is that he can do anything, which is a lot different from saying he’s a guy who managed to win two nonconsecutive elections because of the anti-majoritarian defects of the US political system.
January 18, 2026 at 4:13 PM
Body cameras have become near-universal in big city PDs since Ferguson. But the footage is just as often used to prosecute civilians as it is to hold cops accountable. sls.eff.org/technologies...
Body-Worn Cameras
Reformers often tout police use of body-worn cameras (BWCs) as a way to prevent law enforcement misconduct. But, far too often, this technology becomes one more tool in a toolbox already overflowing w...
sls.eff.org
January 13, 2026 at 6:29 AM
ICE has not been “hijacked” from some noble purpose any more than the Gestapo was. The agent who murdered Good has been with ICE since 2015. They are doing the job they were hired and trained to do.
January 11, 2026 at 8:48 PM
Police and the Empire City: Race and the Origins of Modern Policing in New York
www.dukeupress.edu
January 11, 2026 at 7:15 AM
Not the point (and it’s been said many times before) but boy is he just a terrible writer
January 11, 2026 at 6:37 AM
Reposted by david helps
Los Angeles, CA -

Bit of a false alarm; crowd isn’t marching yet though they are assembled in the street currently. Making speeches still.
January 10, 2026 at 11:06 PM
Reposted by david helps
They will expect that this escalated violence will restore their authority, because, in the moment, it makes them feel like Big Men to shout 'fucking bitch' at the woman they have murdered in her car, next to her child's stuffed toy.

Instead, it will erode the thin veneer of law that protects them.
January 10, 2026 at 1:47 AM
Reposted by david helps
anti-intellectualism is strange to me for many reasons, one of which is that it seems like the worst cases are almost always wealthy and well-educated elites. for example, bari weiss
January 2, 2026 at 9:44 PM
Congrats Austin, looking forward to reading!
January 2, 2026 at 9:46 PM