David Thacher
LightNews LightNews
banner
dtha15.bsky.social
David Thacher
@dtha15.bsky.social
700 followers 200 following 620 posts
Professor studying police history, police reform, policy responses to serious mental illness, ethics. Richard Olney & John Dewey stan. Dad to a danseur and a goalie; married to a historic preservationist
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dthacher/index.html
Posts Replies Media Videos
dtha15.bsky.social
my oldest is RFK's brain worm for halloween
teenager in a brain worm costume, eating a brain, wearing a red "make brainworms great again" cap
November 1, 2025 at 1:35 AM
dtha15.bsky.social
This is what Vance's office and Darrell Issa (R who represents nearby district) said yesterday, before shrapnel rained down on a CHP car during the artillery fire apnews.com/article/cali...
quote from AP story: "In a statement to The New York Times, a spokesperson for Vance, William Martin, said Newsom misled the public about the safety risk. “If Gavin Newsom wants to oppose the training exercises that ensure our Armed Forces are the deadliest and most lethal fighting force in the world, then he can go right ahead,” Martin said." " Quote from AP story: "Republicans castigated the highway shutdown. U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, who represents a district east of the base, called it “a spiteful publicity stunt” by Newsom."
October 20, 2025 at 3:44 AM
dtha15.bsky.social
this report is a few years old so maybe things have changed, but fwiw (1) they did find that CCRB cases were slower, but (2) even DAO cases took ~a year on average. Partly because the office was understaffed. Accountable policing costs money.
September 26, 2025 at 2:22 PM
dtha15.bsky.social
Some planners were debating a zoning code question on their group chat, and I suggested that they should have an LLM turn it into a rap battle. I am happy to report that I have finally found a good use for LLMs.
Yo, this R4C lot’s too small, that’s the fact, Got a duplex on deck, but can’t bring it back. Wanna demo and rebuild? Better check the math, 'Cause 5.32.1 gonna block your path. Seventy percent of the cost to replace, If you pass that line, you’re outta the race. No square feet, no walls, just a budget line, Building Official’s call—yeah, that’s the sign. You tear the roof? You tear the soul. No four walls? Then you lost control. You want a duplex? Better keep it tight, Or it’s single-family zoning by the end of the night. Hold up, hold up, let me drop some truth, This ain’t a use issue, it’s a structure dispute. Duplex is housing, still residential, So it’s nonconforming structure, not existential. Section 5.32.2, that’s the play, Not about use, it’s the building that’s in the way. You say “intensity,” I say “same units,” Two doors, same score, no gimmicks. Setbacks better? Less encroach? That’s a win, not a reason to poach. You say “prolonging life,” I say “renovation,” Let’s not confuse that with zoning damnation.
September 24, 2025 at 2:04 PM
dtha15.bsky.social
Latour is PISSED today
today's NYT Spelling Bee, shows me trying to enter the word "Actant" and the game responds, "Not in word list"
September 2, 2025 at 2:35 AM
dtha15.bsky.social
re: the connection between housing first and ACT, Tsemberis again:

Paul Brodwin's ethnography of ACT does a good job showing how blurry the idea of "coercion" is in these contexts
HF consumers have access to treatment and comprehensive support services. These are usually provided through a multidisciplinary approach, such as Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) or an intensive casemanagement team. The teams are located off-site but are available on-call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and provide most services in a consumer’s natural environment, such as an apartment, workplace,
August 19, 2025 at 2:15 PM
dtha15.bsky.social
I appreciate what they're doing here to save HUD-VASH ("Lovett said HUD-VASH 'is not Housing First' because participants are required to work with a case manager") and I hope it's a wedge for others to preserve their own programs. But this was always how HF worked; here is Tsemberis:
Quotation from Sam Tsemberis's overview of the Housing First model he pioneered: "All consumers are required to meet with the program staff at least once each week. A typical home visit consists of a conversation about such issues as how things are going, next steps to take, current unmet needs, as well as an informal assessment of the consumer’s living environment and general well-being. It is essential to keep the channels of communication between the consumer and program staff open. Staff members offer assistance with any domain the consumer wishes to address, from fixing a leaky faucet to mending broken ties with family members."
August 19, 2025 at 2:03 PM
dtha15.bsky.social
I was wondering why there were so few starfish when I went tidepooling in San Diego last month!

But, I saw AN OCTOPUS!
August 4, 2025 at 10:45 PM
dtha15.bsky.social
As Aftab suggests, the structure of liability and risk perception in this area is perverse and harmful.
July 23, 2025 at 2:11 PM
dtha15.bsky.social
or as bittner put it
July 16, 2025 at 12:27 AM
dtha15.bsky.social
Kudwa was elected in the fall, running as a Republican against the incumbent Dem. He doesn't seem to want to own the policy choice he's making here. There's zero reason for road patrol to contact immigration in a case like this. He's making his own community less safe, for a bullshit deportation.
June 21, 2025 at 2:46 PM
dtha15.bsky.social
Interesting factoid in this 2019 interview with Herman Goldstein: Patrick Murphy, then NYPD commish, came to Madison for a seminar about controlling police discretion in 1972, shortly before NYPD adopted its influential firearms policy & review system. repository.law.wisc.edu/s/uwlaw/medi...
June 19, 2025 at 5:23 PM
dtha15.bsky.social
Mexico and the Southwest are deeply interconnected, and as Blakely says if anything it's the Anglos who are the interlopers (Santa Fe has the oldest public building in the US, built by Spanish colonists in 1610). This rabid effort to unravel those connections is unhistorical & sad, as well as cruel.
Catholic readers may be interested that the vast majority of both the legal and illegal immigrants in L.A. help make up the largest Roman Catholic archdiocese in the country. They have called the area home far longer than have the Anglo Protestants who came first in the late 19th century and in much larger waves in the middle of the 20th, as white Midwesterners filled the suburbs rising in all directions. Indeed, I am almost tempted to use verbs in an unfamiliar way and insist that it was the Anglo Midwesterners who “immigrated” here in a huge deluge one generation ago, while the Hispanic population has been here for two centuries. The point is not to exclude anyone from making a home in Los Angeles. The point is that thick local and multicultural ties that bind across languages and, yes, borders have existed here far longer than current myths of ethnic nationalism.
June 14, 2025 at 3:22 AM
dtha15.bsky.social
I grew up East of San Diego, and we went to Tijuana all the time (ok, mostly to drink...). A Greek friend would get up early most Saturdays and his grandma would drive him to Baja to fish. Lots of radio stations broadcast from Tijuana ("50,000 watts out of Mexico / Listening to the border radio")
Spatially, the city has never been disconnected from a wider cultural network that includes Mexico either. Angelenos who are here legally often have relatives across the border everywhere from Baja California to Mexico City. Crossing the border can even form a regular commute into Southern California (I know a dentist who lives on the Westside but who visits her family every weekend in their home city of Tijuana). Community businesses, schools, churches and more embrace individuals that challenge the simplistic ethnic ideology of MAGA.
June 14, 2025 at 3:22 AM
dtha15.bsky.social
Albino deer!
Albino deer between two trees on the grass
May 30, 2025 at 2:35 PM
dtha15.bsky.social
Thanks, very informative.

Two thoughts:
1. Re: the below, shootings increased in both PDs and Sheriffs, but it looks like the increase was greater in the latter. Both types of agencies include some that are "less accountable and responsive to reform pressures" than others, but that's more common...
May 24, 2025 at 7:43 PM
dtha15.bsky.social
A key problem with involuntary treatment in a nutshell--it's a lazy way to avoid facing the flaws in the services that actually exist.

If you can't give people what they actually want, force them to take what you're willing to give them.

www.publicsource.org/aot-patient-...
Joseph, 56, is a graphic designer and artist in Buffalo, N.Y. PublicSource is withholding his full name to protect his privacy. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia in his 20s, which caused periods of psychosis and involuntary hospitalizations. He tried various medications voluntarily, but most didn’t work or caused debilitating side effects. After he declined to keep taking one of those medications because he couldn’t bear the side effects, his psychiatrist successfully petitioned for AOT in 2006. The order was lifted three years later, but he was placed under another one in 2023. He lives in supportive housing and is happy he has a home health aide because “it gives me someone to talk to.” He receives assertive community treatment [ACT] in his home — a model for delivering services in the community through an interdisciplinary team, and one of the options listed in Pennsylvania’s AOT statute. A nurse on his ACT team shows up every two weeks to inject him with an antipsychotic. It mostly keeps his symptoms at bay, but he’d like to try a newer drug that he hopes will be more effective. He’s on Medicaid and his doctor said the drug is too expensive. He desperately wants therapy, but said his team hasn’t connected him with a therapist. “I would just like to get … medication from an independent doctor [and see a] therapist. That’s it,” he said. “I don’t want to be under AOT.”
May 15, 2025 at 2:40 AM
dtha15.bsky.social
As always, Aftab simultaneously shows an impressive command of the relevant specifics (here, about antidepressants) and offers an illuminating vision of much more general issues that they implicate.
The public deserves advice about psychiatric medications that does not oscillate between stupor and alarmism. Antidepressants, like all medical interventions, come with benefits and trade-offs. If psychiatry refuses to engage seriously with patients’ concerns, if the mantra of “safe and effective” is all it is willing to publicly say, it will lose credibility. We cannot disregard those whose lives have been derailed by psychiatric medications. This political era has revealed that the aggrieved would rather burn the system to the ground than put up with an establishment that does not speak to their everyday realities. The question is whether the medical establishment will meet that demand with humility and scientific transparency — or leave the conversation to those willing to exploit the suffering of vulnerable individuals for their personal and political gain.
May 5, 2025 at 2:13 AM
dtha15.bsky.social
Also can you believe this woke DEI stuff that previous presidents were pushing smdh
All Americans are entitled to live with the confidence that the law enforcement officers and agencies in their communities will live up to our Nation's founding ideals and will protect the rights of all persons. Particularly in African-American communities, we must redouble our efforts as a Nation to swiftly address instances of misconduct.
April 29, 2025 at 3:14 AM
dtha15.bsky.social
feeling nostalgic for the first Trump administration and EO 13929 rn
) The Attorney General shall certify independent credentialing bodies that meet standards to be set by the Attorney General. Reputable, independent credentialing bodies, eligible for certification by the Attorney General, should address certain topics in their reviews, such as policies and training regarding use-of-force and de-escalation techniques; performance management tools, such as early warning systems that help to identify officers who may require intervention; and best practices regarding community engagement. the State or local law enforcement agency's use-of-force policies prohibit the use of chokeholds—a physical maneuver that restricts an individual's ability to breathe for the purposes of incapacitation—except in those situations where the use of deadly force is allowed by law. b) The database described in subsection (a) of this section shall include a mechanism to track, as permissible, terminations or de-certifications of law enforcement officers, criminal convictions of law enforcement officers for on-duty conduct, and civil judgments against law enforcement officers for improper use of force. The database described in subsection (a) of this section shall account for instances where a law enforcement officer resigns or retires while under active investigation related to the use of force. It is the policy of the United States to promote the use of appropriate social services as the primary response to individuals who suffer from impaired mental health, homelessness, and addiction, recognizing that, because law enforcement officers often encounter such individuals suffering from these conditions in the course of their duties, all officers should be properly trained for such encounters. (b) The Attorney General shall, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services as appropriate, identify and develop opportunities to train law enforcement officers with respect to encounters with individuals suffering from impaired mental health, homelessness, and addiction; to increase the capacity of social workers working directly with law enforcement agencies; and to provide guidance regarding the development and implementation of co-responder program
April 29, 2025 at 3:14 AM
dtha15.bsky.social
Across every domain of fuckuppery (USAID, universities, disability rights, crime victim agencies, etc), this is the gratuitous piece that I just can't fathom. Half this shit would just fly under the radar if they kept existing promises and just implemented new priorities going forward.
April 24, 2025 at 12:29 PM
dtha15.bsky.social
The report starts with concerns about declining trust in police among people of color & sensibly notes that that's probably because they're disproportionately affected by arrest & imprisonment. But then it immediately pivots to the PJ-inspired idea that people care more about process than outcomes.
This decline [in trust in police among people of color] is in addition to the fact that nonWhites have always had less confidence in law enforcement than Whites, likely because “the poor and people of color have felt the greatest impact of mass incarceration,” such that for “too many poor citizens and people of color, arrest and imprisonment have become an inevitable and seemingly unavoidable part of the American experience.” the public confers legitimacy only on those they believe are acting in procedurally just ways. Procedurally just behavior is based on four central principles: 1. Treating people with dignity and respect 2. Giving individuals “voice” during encounters 3. Being neutral and transparent in decision making 4. Conveying trustworthy motives8
April 16, 2025 at 12:05 AM
dtha15.bsky.social
I'm re-reading the Obama Task Force on 21st century policing and had forgotten that it explicitly called for separation between local policing and federal immigration enforcement. The Obama admin was obv no dove on immigration enforcement, but it did limit the local police role in significant ways.
1.9 recOmmendatiOn: Law enforcement agencies should build relationships based on trust with immigrant communities. This is central to overall public safety. Immigrants often fear approaching police officers when they are victims of and witnesses to crimes and when local police are entangled with federal immigration enforcement. At all levels of government, it is important that laws, policies, and practices not hinder the ability of local law enforcement to build the strong relationships necessary to public safety and community well-being. It is the view of this task force that whenever possible, state and local law enforcement should not be involved in immigration enforcement. 1.9.1 actiOn item: Decouple federal immigration enforcement from routine local policing for civil enforcement and nonserious crime. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security should terminate the use of the state and local criminal justice system, including through detention, notification, and transfer requests, to enforce civil immigration laws against civil and nonserious criminal offenders. In 2011, the Major Cities Chiefs Association recommended nine points to Congress and the President on this issue, noting that “immigration is a federal policy issue between the U.S. government and other countries, not local or state entities and other countries. Any immigration enforcement laws or practices should be nationally based, consistent, and federally funded.”27 1.9.2 Action Item: Law enforcement agencies should ensure reasonable and equitable language access for all persons who have encounters with police or who enter the criminal justice system.28 1.9.3 Action Item: The U.S. Department of Justice should not include civil immigration information in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database.29 The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database is an electronic clearinghouse that law enforcement officers can access in the field. It contains data submitted by agencies across the country aimed at helping officers identify people, property, and criminal histories. At one time, NCIC also included civil immigration detainers (nonmandatory temporary hold requests issued by a federal immigration officer), although the FBI has indicated that the practice of accepting this information was discontinued and that the information does not currently exist in the database. The U.S. Department of Justice should ensure that this remains the case.
April 16, 2025 at 12:05 AM
dtha15.bsky.social
This is marginally better than the earlier announcements suggested: Each quality of life team is assigned to one precinct (though all teams are still under direction of a central office I hear); and it's good that she stresses "it's not about using minor issues as a pretext." We'll see!
tweets from jessica tisch announcing NYPD quality of life initiative tweets from jessica tisch announcing NYPD quality of life initiative
April 15, 2025 at 5:41 PM
dtha15.bsky.social
First show was amazing, i laughed, I cried—SO GOOD! One more tomorrow, don’t miss it!

(snuck a pic of lucas on stage)
April 13, 2025 at 1:42 AM