You know who the best advocates for Virginians are? People who have led with their progressive values and committed their carers to their communities. State and local governments are better when these individuals are given a chance to serve.

Some call Dems the “wait in line” party b/c of how hard it is to win primaries if you haven’t spent years climbing the party ladder. The one great thing about quick firehouse primaries is they allow great people like Chris—who’ve been progressive leaders OUTSIDE of the party machine—a real chance.

Defense attorney Chris Leibig is third candidate to enter primary for Bennett-Parker’s seat | ALXnow www.alxnow.com/2026/01/17/d...

Thank you, @hopeforvirginia.bsky.social and @donscott757.bsky.social for your kind words on this, @justicefwdva.bsky.social’s 9th Annual Lobby Day—and for you & your colleagues’ continued commitment to making Virginia’s criminal legal system more sensible, equitable, and humane. We had a great day!

I look forward to a Virginia Attorney General who, like AGs of old (even Republicans), CONCEDES ERROR once in a goddamn while.

Arlington spends gobs of $/yr on fascism-enabling Flock cameras, at a time when ArlCo has no long term subst abuse treatment & an 8 wk wait for emergency shelter ACPD/Flock told the County Board chair the technology is totally risk-free & that was good enough for him arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

I talked with this Axios reporter multiple times, emailed him the black letter law on this topic, he learned a federal warrant request was denied TWICE, yet he STILL managed to feed the world a bunch of bootlicking horseshit. Good job, Marc Caputo! www.axios.com/2025/11/07/d...

Celebratory throwback to when Burt first started licking Jake’s face (on demand, I might add). Not all dogs are blue dogs, but if they had the franchise, I suspect all dogs would vote blue.

We can also treat this an an ad hoc celebration of the end of the tenure of AG Jason Miyares—the meanest, least forgiving, most brazen and despicable liar to hold statewide office in Virginia in decades. Good riddance.

We’re rallying support for criminal justice reform. Join us for a FREE TACO BAR & MARGARITAS Wednesday, November 5th from 6-8PM in Falls Church, VA. We’re honored to have special guests @parisaforjustice.bsky.social and Del. @HopeforVirginia.bsky.social! justiceforwardva.com/blog/2025/10... #valeg

While Trump and his buds let their friends who endager public safety off the hook, the level of gvt overreach and overcharging happening against his opponents, w/ the help of VA AG Miyares, is incredible. Thanks to @bradleyrhaywood.bsky.social for his advocacy. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/u...

Gov. Youngkin, Jason Miyares and former Comm. Att’y Theo Stamos have been working with the Feds to suppress political dissent & free speech in Arlington, including through a criminal investigation of my client, as this article from The NY Times explains. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/u... 1/2

Little known fact: until ‘22 @justicefwdva.bsky.social was mostly volunteer led & operated (I was never paid a dime as ED) You know what else, though? Relying on self-flagellating SJWs isn’t a sustainable business model! And fundraising is really hard! Come for the free tacos & support CJ reform!

D’Angelo’s passing hits hard. Really hard. Rest in peace. You were a true gift to this world.

I amused myself with this one. Since Bluesky doesn’t do polls, feel free to treat it like one in the comments.

Indigent defense is saying to yourself “I’ve just got to get through the next few months” for 10 years straight.

Sentencing guidelines called for 1 day to 6 months of incarceration, yet Shebri Dillon was sentenced to 30 yrs in a Virginia prison! We’ve filed an amicus brief highlighting how old mandatory jury sentencing laws support Shebri’s ineffective counsel claims. 1/4 justiceforwardva.com/blog/2025/9/...

SIKE

If you vote for a guy who unironically demands to be called “The People’s Protector,” you have no one to blame but yourself.

This person is now the top prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia. Holy hell.

This is what people like me wanted to say, if we could have found the words.

Imagine if Dems pledged to defend reproductive rights during a primary, but later in the general bragged about cutting planned parenthood funding, in order to court “centrists” who will never under any circumstances vote for them Now you know what it’s like to be a criminal justice reform advocate

All people—even fundamentally horrible people—have intrinsic human dignity. The fact that it’s not enough to ground my feelings about tragedy in a person’s inherent worth—that I must also celebrate his work & can be punished if I dont—suggests these beliefs about dignity are a 1-way street. 1/2

Top *eight* articles on NYT devoted to Charlie Kirk, top one asks if he will be remembered like MLK. This is a man who only a tiny percent of Americans had even heard of before his death, whose views are too nasty for NYT to detail. But they are trying so hard to turn into martyr.

I am advocating for you to be killed but I am using my inside voice you must debate me this is called democracy

Has Nick Freitas called off the civil war yet?

Show of hands from those who remember when shameless, preening psychopath Nick Freitas pretended to be a principled libertarian?

I just learned that the Arlington Co. Code includes an anti-obscenity chapter (Ch 56). It was enacted in 1976 & it’s pretty wild! As written, anyone in ArlCo w/a naughty OnlyFans is committing a crime & could theoretically go to jail for a year (but for the 1st Amd—until repealed by SCOTUS that is)

It is absolutely bonkers how rapidly the Post went from casting light on threats to democracy to being Donald Trump’s designated bootlickers.

Real hard-hitting news here from Nick Minock, err, I mean Scott Mccaffrey.

I can get behind this. Easiest path to a blowout for Dems in Nov: Trump in every city and county in the Commonwealth. Make it happen, GOP! We dare you!

Sending soldiers into cities under the guise of fighting crime is an unprecedented abuse of power. And it’s illegal. bit.ly/4m6TG77

Can you imagine what we could do in this country if we actually started caring about each other?

Finally, the WaPo ed board publishes a decent opinion piece! BUT … it’s about Taylor Swift’s engagement. Sigh. Really well written, though! I am likewise happy for her and Travis.

Yup. Additionally, the police, about 88% of whom support Trump—and by extension, support crime alarmism—are the ones who collect and report crime data. It’s amazing how the numbers change when they have a vested interest in an election….

And here we find the newspaper of record, WaPo, casually and implicitly endorsing proto-fascism because their own irresponsible, alarmist crime reporting has made people feel unsafe, and more likely to click on hogwash like this than learn the actual truth.

This week in indigent defense: a prosecutor who asserted that growing up in a war-torn country (also: bottom 10% of the UN development index) is an aggravating fact as to a 21 yr old defendant, because “he was given a chance for a better life in the US and squandered it”

Congress is dominated by extremists, ideologues & nihilists on one side and octogenarian fundraisers, neolibs & those who suck up to them on the other. This explains their apathy as the pillars of democracy crumble: how do you protect something you don’t understand, let alone pledge allegiance to?

Something that is completely fucking obvious to me but I think most people don't consider is when democrats politicians promise to fund the police, they are promising to prop up an armed, lawyered up, reactionary political bloc who are ultimately virulently opposed to those very politicians.

I don’t want to meet Rahm Emanuel. Even more, I don’t want a party that claims to support labor, the working class/middle class, and progressive values generally, to be inviting people to meet Rahm Emanuel.

A court appointed client for whom I earned a dismissal made me bread and homemade apple butter! Fighting hard for someone who really needs someone on their side is the best part of this job, by far. It’s even better when you know they felt valued and cared for.

What we’re learning from the Trump era has been known by defenders & impacted people for decades: the Bill of Rights is discretionary, comprised of aspirational ideas which are only as meaningful as those in power wish them to be—and entirely meaningless if the public doesnt value or understand them

It’s cool to “own Trump,” but it’s a lot cooler when it isn’t preceded by failed attempts to court Trump voters by kissing the asses of Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk.

Outside of electoral politics, legislative advocacy, and grassroots activism, what can ordinary citizens do about unjust laws? Thanks for supporting our t-shirt fundraiser! @joshuaerlich.bsky.social www.bonfire.com/google-34jur...

1. Spanberger is a former cop who’s demonstrated great fidelity to cops even as they aid Trump in his terror campaign against immigrants. 2. They know it’s gonna be a blowout & want to curry favor w/Spanberger so she’ll use her veto pen to kill bills that limit their power or hold them accountable

This is priceless. The lead authors of the study Miyares cited are (a) the Deputy Chief of the Salt Lake City Police Dept., (b) the former Exec. Director of the Utah Fraternal Order of Police, and; (c) a former DEA agent who’s published 4-5 papers about how racial profiling is good, actually. 1/2

It’s a bit weird—but not surprising—how Jay’s public safety plan is being reported. I take issue with the language in the “violent crime” section,” but the rest isn’t bad. For example, regarding drug interdiction, there’s no call for harsher penalties & the focus is on large-scale trafficking. 1/2

Some Dems validated every ounce of fearmongering bullshit Miyares has peddled over the past 2 yrs, in an attempt to “out-cop the cops” & swing the mythical voter who’d be Blue if only Dems were more mindlessly sociopathic about crime That this dope is still taken seriously is entirely their fault

DID YOU KNOW that when Arlington cops wish to summon a cruiser to transport a human being they just arrested, they often say “we need a cage,” as if they’re quarantining a rabid dog? Probably not just an Arlington thing, but still remarkably offensive.