NEW: The Trump administration’s deployment of thousands of federal immigration agents to Minnesota led to widespread human rights violations. In a new report, HRW documents how the US government’s “Operation Metro Surge” caused a human rights crisis in Minnesota. Learn more: https://bit.ly/44dMOht

🎁Opinion by Will Bunch Gift Article Link in Replies/Comments The ‘Minneapolis 15’ ICE-protester indictments are meant to shut you up An outrageous federal conspiracy case against 15 anti-ICE protesters in Minnesota really seeks to silence all dissent. @willbunch.bsky.social

Now in #paperback, The Minneapolis Reckoning by @michellesphelps.bsky.social is an urgent account of why it’s so difficult to reform the police. Read a free preview & save 30% with code PUP30: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb... #Sociology

Honoring the man convicted of murdering George Floyd the week of the anniversary is frankly shocking. Chauvin was convicted by a jury of his peers and was affirmed through every appeal. It shows cruelty to the Floyd family and disrespect to our courts and all Minnesotans. No one is above the law.

Meanwhile, in Minneapolis...

Check out @taylordahlin.com for coverage of the Rise and Remember Festival at George Floyd Square.

Six years. Reflecting again today on learning the right lessons from summer 2020.

Now in #paperback, The Minneapolis Reckoning by @michellesphelps.bsky.social is an urgent account of why it’s so difficult to reform the police. Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

NEW FREE HELL! @michellesphelps.bsky.social on "The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence, and the Politics of Policing in America" (@princetonupress.bsky.social). "If you don't change culture, no policy reform, training or even accountability is going to fix it." www.patreon.com/posts/new-fr...

I understand the frustration that charges for the killers of Renee Good and Alex Pretti haven't been filed yet, but good work takes time and that's even when the Feds aren't doing everything they can to obstruct the process. Hopefully the case for the people who shot Julio Sosa-Celis is instructive

Tues.: @ineteconomics.bsky.social' Arjun Jayadev on “Against Money," (@uchicagopress.bsky.social). Weds.: @michellesphelps.bsky.social, author of, "The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence, and the Politics of Policing in America" (@princetonupress.bsky.social). www.patreon.com/posts/this-w...

Spoke recently to a friend of mine who runs a lab. This administration is profoundly, maybe irreversibly, undermining the foundations of scientific research in the US. We won't feel the effects right away but they're coming

Every year, the remembrance around George Floyd's murder grows quieter and right-wing attempts to retcon the meaning and significance of those massive protests grows louder. Apparently we've now reached the racist joke stage of that process. It's v grim.

My two fave typos from today's grading -- "pirate universities" [PRIVATE universities) and "killing as they wait" [killing TIME as they wait]. Just a delight. (At least it's not the other "public")

Back in the day physicists used to write spoof papers to prank social science journals. Now they just need to throw in some chatbot prompts. Progress!

Few organizations I've worked alongside for as long as, and respect as much as #Minnesota Justice Research Center (MNJRC). And few states have been at the center of this work the way Minnesota has been—for years. Check out this incredible conversation from the MNJRC about the future of their work.

Yessss!! Academia would be better if the incentives were such that people read more and published less.

Linked In's no doubt AI-fueled jobs tab just suggested I apply to work as Adjunct Instructor at the university where I'm a full professor. 😂 So the good news is I don't think the robots are *quite* ready for their takeover.

Happy May Day! I fucking love it here

As @mcopelov.bsky.social reminds me, I'm going to have to update my voting rights timeline...

Re the Voting Rights Act: I've used this graph a lot to illustrate how the VRA largely ended the historic pattern of blocking and burdening Black voters in the south. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

We must understand that the Voting Rights Act was not merely about ensuring Black Americans rights, it was about democratizing America. This ruling is not just a decimation of Black rights and Black Americans’ ability to have representation, it is a fatal blow to multiracial democracy.

Small point but today illustrates pretty clearly why they were so obsessed with banning critical race theory. Derrick Bell’s work predicts this type of regression on rights.

NEW from @pewresearch.org: Gun suicides in the US reached their highest level ever in 2024, according to recently published CDC data. Gun homicides declined sharply, pushing the total number of gun deaths down for the third consecutive year. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

I'm going to be hooding my first solo doctoral advisee at commencement next week (🎊) and the happy occasion prompted me to recall that I haven't actually attended a graduation since my own high school ceremony. 😳 looking forward to breaking the streak, lol

The number of AI emails I get from "marketers" using my own book description to pitch me on my work is wild. A whole new kinda spam.

Today, the Hennepin County Attorney made history by announcing the first-ever criminal charge against an ICE agent for their actions during Operation Metro Surge.

By our count, 1 in 61 people nationwide are under some form of correctional control. In fact, if the number of people on probation & parole alone were its own state, it would be roughly the size of Connecticut. ...So much for the land of the free.

yes *and* there are more people in prison today who were on probation/parole at the time of arrest than the entire prison pop in 1974. The problem is not only technical violations but how easy it is to get a new charge while on supervision. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/....

I am once again reminding you that more people are on probation than in prison. Check out this excellent new report from (you guessed it) the Prison Policy Initiative. 😂

It's another artifact the US press's normalization of Trump, where his deranged posture during this war, the whipsawing between murdering his counterparties and leaking news of "productive talks," is all sidelined in favor of serious-business furrowed-brow reporting about diplomatic breakthroughs

If a student asked how we got here and what's the way out, I think that's where I end up. I don't always think leaders, or Trump, change the course of history. But here, we are at the mercy of Trump and his team of yespeople in a war that may harm millions globally. That's why I'm scared. 13/

This & the cancellation of Title VI/FLAS funding for foreign language & area studies pose existential threats to the social sciences at every R1 university in the country. And it's been ~total 🦗🦗 from our university presidents/chancellors & a total lack of public collective action.

New paper alert! Together with PhD candidate Hannah Schwendeman (UMN), we show the consequences of a "graying" probation population. The paper finds unique pains of supervision among older adults, especially related to chronic health conditions. doi.org/10.1177/1462...

There it is -- "The ICE data show, however, that less than one-quarter of those arrested during the operation had been convicted of a “crime” — the agency’s definition of a crime includes misdemeanors, such as unauthorized entry into the country or traffic violations." Appalling.

Really enjoyed this conversation on policing/punishment & democracy, focused on lessons from Minneapolis + filmed during the ICE Surge.

After 17 years (!) together, my academic spouse and I are finally doing the one thing we promised never to do: collaborate on a research project together. Pls keep us in your thoughts & prayers. 😂

I interrupt your doom scrolling with flowers courtesy of Philly. 💜

Congrats to @michellesphelps.bsky.social, whose book The Minneapolis Reckoning won the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Outstanding Book Award. This urgent work describes how Minneapolis arrived at the brink of police abolition and why reform is so difficult. Get your copy: hubs.ly/Q0453BKz0

This morning, more arrests of activists were made as the federal government unsealed the full superseding indictment from a grand jury that charges 39 people who were allegedly involved in a January protest at Cities Church in St. Paul where an ICE field director is also a pastor.

Throughout the Twin Cities, residents are carrying on the state’s long-standing tradition of solidarity. You can read my latest piece on mutual aid and 'Minnesota nice' in The Conversation. theconversation.com/minneapolis-...

in 2020, voters for the winner (Biden) outnumbered eligible people who didn't vote for the first time in about a century. In 2024, even though Trump got a *slight* majority of those who voted, people whose decision was "nah, not going to do this" outnumbered people who voted for Trump.

This has nothing to do with fraud. The agents Trump allegedly sent to investigate fraud are shooting protesters and arresting children. His DOJ is gutting the U.S. Attorney’s Office and crippling their ability to prosecute fraud. And every week Trump pardons another fraudster.

We sued for I213 forms, records the govt uses to prove that a person is in the country illegally. The forms detail a person's criminal history. We got 8 months of records and only 23% of people had a criminal conviction

Really appreciate this data reporting from the @startribune.com, which comes with the appropriate cautions about the crowd-sourced data. Looks like the ICE/DHS surge in MN is down significantly, but (a) was HUGE compared to other cities, (b) impacted the suburbs A LOT, and (c) is still happening.

An anonymous government is no government at all. It cannot be held accountable. ...A regime of secret policing has no place in our society. Here, the Government’s power is derived by the People, and the People must be able to identify the Government when it acts to infringe on their liberty.

At the stage of exhaustion where my husband had to convince me we should order pizza instead of having cereal for family dinner. That's partnership. 😂

New study from @curaumn.bsky.social: "We estimate that 30–50% of immigrant renters may be at least one month behind on rent by February 2026." Researchers estimate that excess statewide rent debt linked to ICE's occupation reached between $27.4 million to $51.3 million by February 2026.