Michael Sierra-Arévalo

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

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

👉 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“The Justice Department has abruptly rescinded job offers made to dozens of recent law school graduates who were to be placed in entry-level positions in its antitrust, criminal, civil rights, immigration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.”

Trump hits NIH with ‘devastating’ freezes on meetings, travel, communications, and hiring Researchers facing “a lot of uncertainty, fear, and panic”

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 Jobs rescinded.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.

Mississippi Police Use Tasers Freely, and Injuries Follow A lack of state standards leaves Mississippi police and sheriff’s departments on their own to decide when to use stun guns, and many give officers a free hand.

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.”

Quote beyond my wildest hopes 🙏🏽

“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

Nikki Giovanni
(1943-2024)

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.

I’ve trained BJJ 5 yrs. But anyone who’s trained for a month knows that you don’t crank a rear naked choke for SIX MINUTES unless you’re trying to kill someone. After more than 20-30 seconds (very generously), you’re just choking an unconscious person to death. Full stop.

Armed ride-hailing app will soon be coming to these Texas cities. Here's what to know Holsters and hospitality, that's the business model for the latest ride share app, BlackWolf, coming to Texas in 2025.

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 A judge on Tuesday sentenced Christopher Taylor to two years in prison for the 2019 fatal shooting of Mauris DeSilva.

APD fires officer Christopher Taylor following prison sentence for fatal 2019 shooting

www.statesman.com/story/news/l...

Ty!

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

+1. Actual MC option I had: “once or twice in a career” ???? And ~ stuff in consulting, tech reviews to rate and receive top marks. Any deviation from BEST = 🚩. Even MORE useless since you rate employees and peers and supervisors all in the same perverse incentive structure.

Republicans Target Social Sciences to Curb Ideas They Don’t Like Conservatives in Florida have moved from explosive politics to subtler tactics to uproot liberal “indoctrination” in higher education by removing subjects like sociology from core requirements.

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.

The cliffhanger is wild. What’re the OTHER reasons people get tattoos, Domingo?!

It’s decent work. But doesn’t overtake “Amerikka Hating Bitch” from a few years back after an op-ed on police/firearms.

Who would’ve thought BookTV would stoke such passion? Such prose!

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...