The Texas Observer and Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting have found that armed vigilantes have forged relationships with local and federal law enforcement—ties that appear to elevate risks of violence in already volatile #border regions. From Francesca D'Annunzio and Avery Schmitz: https://www.texasobserver.org/border-vigilantes-law-enforcement-texas-arizona/
"More people were killed by U.S. law enforcement in 2023 than any other year in the past decade, outpacing population growth eightfold. But despite a focus on urban areas, fatal police violence is increasingly happening in small town America at the hands of sheriffs, the top law enforcement officials in counties nationwide." #policehttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/county-sheriffs-deaths-accountability/
What is it going to take to get through to elected officials and progressive transportation planners, that they're working with a machine that's been designed to build freeways through poor neighborhoods and coerce anyone who could afford it into cars? A machine made of #trafficEngineers and #police which then accreted a century of CYA, cultural, legal, and bureaucratic armor against change? Giving the DOT more money for safety won't ever get us out of #carSupremacy. It's designed to not.