Alec Karakatsanis

founder, @CivRightsCorps
civil rights lawyer
author of usual cruelty (2019) and
copaganda (2025)

views here are my own, not civil rights corps

[Alec Karakatsanis @equalityAlec]

Watch this video featuring our work @CivRightsCorps to learn about how our case will free almost 20,000 people from jail every year in Houston, Texas.

[NowThis Impact @nowthisimpact]

A judge doubled this woman’s bail because she said ‘yeah’ instead of ‘yes’

[Alec Karakatsanis @equalityAlec]

@thirdintl @micahuetricht It’s funny that even a non debate discussion to understand and clarify his views and vague/superficial public statements would be useful. Embarrassing to avoid any kind of rigorous discussion.

[Alec Karakatsanis @equalityAlec]

This is one consequence of the left not being clear about reducing budgets for state repression. Every Democratic Party politician going on about “training” and “body cams” and every Jacobin author vaguely saying the left should not talk about repressive budgets leads to this:

[Edward Ongweso Jr @bigblackjacobin]

Amen.

[Alec Karakatsanis @equalityAlec]

@ChrisCWright1 Anyway, appreciate the discussion. Much more to come.

[Alec Karakatsanis @equalityAlec]

@ChrisCWright1 Some of the issues you raise are serious and we may not be far apart in practice. But the comments of these affiliated folks (esp about role of police) don’t take place in vacuum. It’s right as AOC and Bernie and Mamdani and liberals are wholesale rejecting shrinking system.

[Alec Karakatsanis @equalityAlec]

@ChrisCWright1 Chris, I'm curious if, on reflection, you are willing to withdraw your comment about mischaracterizing Jacobin. I take such things pretty seriously, and it sounded like you weren't really aware of the facts of the situation. I'd love to hear what you come to after reflecting.

[Alec Karakatsanis @equalityAlec]

@ChrisCWright1 Again all this could be cleared up if these people would have a public convo about it instead of writing sloppy, wrong stuff and then burying their heads in the sand. “Sensible leftists” of course are serious about actually winning. Thats not the issue.

[Alec Karakatsanis @equalityAlec]

Here he is promoting a deceptive interview that on surface says some fine things about the left appealing to broader coalition but obfuscates about actual details of an anti-repression agenda and promotes Israeli propaganda on arms for genocide. I’ll say more later about it all.

[Alec Karakatsanis @equalityAlec]

I cannot express how dangerous it is for the left to embrace surveillance, cops, and prisons. Jacobin's editor doing so repeatedly should alarm anyone who cares about a more just world. His refusal of private/public invitations to discuss it openly reflects poorly on Jacobin.

[Alec Karakatsanis @equalityAlec]

@micahuetricht Micah: would you be willing to host a debate about this incoherent article? It’s important to discuss where it is making fine points and where it goes entirely off the rails. I think a good faith discussion would be illuminating for the left.

[whit strub @whitstrub]

Shouldn't this be a bit more of a scandal? The American Historical Association has covertly employed a consulting firm to help shut down member democracy on Gaza, & the firm represents developers of illegal West Bank settlements & has utterly deranged advice like...

[Adam Johnson @adamjohnsonCHI]

This is what drives cynicism—the extent to which our nominally liberal party speaks in urgent moral tones about condemning critics of Israel but on the planet boiling, deaths from lack of healthcare or children slaughtered in Gaza it’s either support, limp handwringing or silence

[Alec Karakatsanis @equalityAlec]

@ChrisCWright1 To the extent you are affiliated, I urge you to try to facilitate such discussion.

[Alec Karakatsanis @equalityAlec]

@ChrisCWright1 Of course, these little "mischaracterizations" would be a lot easier to clear up if Jacobin had responded to numerous invitations privately, through intermediaries, and publicly to merely discuss what it's position is and why. It's not responsible for you to waive this all away.

[Alec Karakatsanis @equalityAlec]

@BradNumbers0451 It's less to do with what I think, or how I would characterize them, and more to do with how they are seen by a lot of people. And the various ways well meaning people get propagandized by people they see as aligned in other ways.

[Alec Karakatsanis @equalityAlec]

@Ergoat Is this written up anywhere?