The Danger Imperative was selected as a Finalist for the Hamilton Book Awards at UT Austin! Humbled to be selected alongside other finalists and the grand prize winner that explored vital topics cutting across free speech, politics, academic freedom, climate change, and more. Onward 🚀

When folks lie for fame & fortune- it hurts them & everyone who wants to believe in them &/or what they stand for. He was impressive & legit, but lied anyway- it's a character flaw, IMHO. I saw it over a decade ago when it mattered but he did not care to speak up www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

My latest in Texas Monthly: Tim Kennedy is a Green Beret, former UFC fighter, and manosphere influencer. He runs his own school in Cedar Park and, lately, has been spotted in the White House. But lawsuits and accusations of stolen valor threaten to bring it all crashing down. Gift link:

Excellent profile of Tim Kennedy by @michaelsierraa.bsky.social taking apart the various falsehoods he peddles. One of the mothers of his children on why he enlisted: “I do think it was a flare of patriotic nobility. But also, it was a very convenient stage left from two young mothers and babies.”

I spent the day with @michaelsierraa.bsky.social’s powerful book on police culture. Can’t wait to discuss it at @lawandsociety.bsky.social!!

👉 happy to see another thematic book review out on the slate of new books on policing (inc The Minneapolis Reckoning), this time focused on the failures of police reform by Daniel Krasnicki in SRE. cc @tonykcheng.bsky.social, @michaelsierraa.bsky.social: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

“The Justice Department has abruptly rescinded job offers made to dozens of recent law school graduates who were to be placed in entry-level positions in its antitrust, criminal, civil rights, immigration and national security divisions, and at the F.B.I.”

Grant reviews frozen. Medical trial recruitment frozen. Meetings with patient groups frozen. Hiring frozen. Jobs rescinded. All comms and travel frozen. You don't have to abolish an institution or fire everyone to cripple it.

TASERs nor any other tech can end police brutality. Tech does not change the violent / coercive nature of policing. All tech can and will be misused and abused. I wrote about this a while back. Nothing has changed. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Need a new grip of sociology on policing? I worked on these 2024 bangers: ↪️ @michellesphelps.bsky.social "The Minneapolis Reckoning" tinyurl.com/MSPMPLS ↪️ @tonykcheng.bsky.social "The Policing Machine" tinyurl.com/TCMachine ↪️ @michaelsierraa.bsky.social "The Danger Imperative" tinyurl.com/MSADanger

“Claremont—alongside other anti-immigration groups, such as FAIR, whose new ‘law enforcement advisor’ is Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, a Homan collaborator—has turned its focus to recruiting and training sheriffs to help execute its agenda.”

“You’ll be visited by three spirits.” The three spirits:

Added more gun researchers to this starter pack who joined BlueSky. Please share and lmk if you’d like to be added! @daniel-semenza.bsky.social @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social @meganranney.bsky.social @sonalirajan.bsky.social @thetrace.org @giffords.org @everytown.bsky.social go.bsky.app/G9zEmHs

This is an incredible opporunity all. I did this in 2009 (ancient times) and met tons of my current colleagues. And friends. And launched my sociology theory career.

The level of anxiety needed to make armed rideshare anything but a bad punchline is truly staggering. Armed ride-hailing app will soon be coming to these Texas cities. Here's what to know www.statesman.com/story/busine...

APD fires officer Christopher Taylor following prison sentence for fatal 2019 shooting www.statesman.com/story/news/l...

Any recs for the/a few key texts on the ascendance of the “influencer”? Maybe how “influencing” shapes more than pop culture / brands, but also HOW politics is done, how movements (R or L) form/function?

It’s cold and windy in Philly today. Missing Austin and the homie Shiner AKA The Bubs AKA My lil Dirtbag.

Hello. I’m a criminologist working in a prosecutor’s office to increase the proportion of decisions that are informed by data and research, and evaluated. We support operations, policy/practice, transparency, research, and community. The #DATALab: information for decision-makers. Data.philadao.com

You don’t have to fire faculty to kill a department. As enrollments drop, it’s easier to justify mergers, downsizing, whatever admin speak you want to use. Don’t fool yourself into thinking this can’t happen on your campus, too. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/21/u...

"In Texas, one university is prioritizing open debate to reset the marketplace of ideas." This is a real sentenced in the snippet below. It's a complete abdication of journalistic responsibility to present the piece in the exact way the subject would want it to be presented rather than critically.

Latest addition to my “Fan Mail” scrapbook 📁 After some Googling, I think my man Domingo is an 80 y.o retiree outside Dallas. Friend reminded me: consider how full my life is and how empty theirs must be to spend time/energy like this. - Michael “Cara de Perro” Sierra-Arévalo, Ph.D.

How to request 'G-file' records — the once-secret Austin Police Department personnel files www.statesman.com/story/news/l...

What Starts Here Changes the World. Y’all best pay attention. www.austinchronicle.com/news/2024-11...

By August 2024, 40,000 self-proclaimed vigilante vote-fraud hunters had already challenged the rights of 852,381 voters — with a target of 2 million before the election. Did the voters decide the 2024 election, or voter suppression? Watch our movie and decide for yourself. youtu.be/P_XdtAQXnGE

$ to change culture is a bad bet. There are inexpensive, non-police intervention that can enhance community and officer safety simultaneously by reducing crime and violence. www.c-span.org/video/?c5142...

This is Shiner (full name: Shiner Bark) the schmedium schnauzer. He’s the sleepiest, beardiest, best research assistant of all time. Sound on 🔉for the 💤

This skeet is for the Sociology folks! Sociology has officially arrived. In an effort to re-live the early days of academic twixxer we now have a 3 volume starter pack(s) posted below. Feel free to add any areas of interest starter packs to this feed too and reqs to be added! Here We Go!

UK RCT shows video response by police to non-emergency calls reduced response times, increased prob. of arrests/charges, and enhanced perceptions of police. No adverse effects of not having officers physically present for non-emergency calls. Makes you think 🤔

A federal jury awarded $98,650,000 in damages to the family and estate of Botham Jean, who was killed by former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger in his apartment

Wonderful to share the stage with you, Ieva! Exit Wounds does such justice to Texas—my home—and the people on both sides of the border whose lives are torn apart by US guns and a drug trade fueled by US demand. It’s a triumph.

Our session at 2024 Texas Book Festival was broadcast on C-SPAN. @michaelsierraa.bsky.social book "The Danger Imperative: Violence, Death, and the Soul of Policing" is a must-read to understand police culture in the US and beyond. Watch him speak about it here: www.c-span.org/video/?53989...

Today marks 4 years since the publication of PRIVILEGE & PUNISHMENT, which shows how attorney-client relationships reproduce inequality—and how to transform public defense, courts, and broader society. Check out this comic summarizing the book … press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

Hello again, new followers! Wonderful to see you here. I write about policing, culture, and violence (📚 dangerimperative.com) If you’re in Austin, join me at the TX Book Festival w/ @ievajusionyte.bsky.social to talk about police and the long reach of gun violence. Would love to hang 🤗

Join me and @michaelsierraa.bsky.social this weekend at Texas Book Festival in Austin texasbookfestival.org/schedule/tri...

I started an academic criminologists/criminal justice scholars starter pack. This is an ongoing starter pack that I am still expanding, so please let me know if you'd like to be added (sorry for any omissions!), and please share if you find it useful. go.bsky.app/SL8dP7Z #ASC2024 #criminology

Conference ✅ Friends ✅ Books ✅ As always, thanks to the ever-growing list of people who lift me up and walk alongside me. On to Austin for the TX Book Festival this weekend!

OpenAI, Google, Anthropic admit they can’t scale up their chatbots any further pivot-to-ai.com/2024/11/14/o...

Hi everyone. The Onion, with the help of the Sandy Hook families, has purchased InfoWars. We are planning on making it a very funny, very stupid website. We have retained the services of some Onion and Clickhole Hall of Famers to pull this off. I can't wait to show you what we have cooked up.

Catch us today at 2pm ASC folks!

Big year for policing books at ASC! Lots of panels, including a quadruple-header book salon w/ @michellesphelps.bsky.social @tonykcheng.bsky.social Samantha Simon, and me. 📚 If you come say hi, I’ve got a very groovy sticker for you 💀🚔

👋 Hello, new followers! My name’s Michael and it’s good to see you here 🔵☁️ I’m a sociologist who studies police, culture, and violence. My new book: The Danger Imperative (dangerimperative.com) I’ll be at ASC W and Th, and doing a rad book event in Oakland 11/14. Come through! 📚

Square your shoulders. Fight the fight. Rage against the dying of the light.

Incredibly generous and insightful review of 3 new policing books by @tonykcheng.bsky.social @michellesphelps.bsky.social and me, out now in Law and Social Inquiry. Special thanks to Daanika Gordon for taking such care with her read and write-up of our work. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Been a minute 🔵☁️! Honored to receive the Distinguished Book Award from @SocLawSection at ASA for The Danger Imperative! Thanks, as always, to the long, long list of people who supported me and the work 🙏🏽 @columbiaup.bsky.social