Walter
banner
walterkatz.bsky.social
Walter
@walterkatz.bsky.social
Policy and politics at the intersection of race, tech, and safe & just communities.

MuckRack: https://muckrack.com/walter-katz/articles
I will say it again, the lack of a private setting in the
@bsky.app means it is not suitable for this environment:

www.wired.com/story/inside...
September 18, 2025 at 3:28 PM
After 2020, especially, the right moved to private messaging, such as Telegram and Discord. Since last week, people’s public social media posts are being used to attack them and their livelihoods. In this environment, that a private setting is *impossible* renders @bsky.app fundamentally flawed.
September 14, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Vintage Armani 2-button cashmere jacket worn today at Moynihan Train Hall. RIP Giorgio.
September 8, 2025 at 9:38 PM
This chart in the 2024 WICHE annual report on college enrollment projections on state by state high school graduation projections, should put to bed any delusions about saving House seats in Blue states. NY, CA and IL won’t save Democrats. This also explains the purpose of stifling immigration
September 7, 2025 at 11:56 AM
The full text of Gov Prtizker’s remarks yesterday are a must-read. Not enough has been said until now on the glaring hypocrisy behind the false claims that the military is needed www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...
August 26, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Currently reading -
Hallucination, Perception, and the Limits of Knowledge: “Whether in neuronal circuits or neural networks, the feeling of plausibility is unreliable, always vulnerable to error or bias.”
August 26, 2025 at 2:38 AM
The data from Chicago is astounding. I obsessed over a version of this chart when I was in the Mayor’s Office from 2017-19. My rough calculation is that the city may end this year with fewer than 500 murders. Still too many, but relatively, it is a hard-earned miracle.
August 15, 2025 at 6:41 PM
I spoke to Time Magazine’s @andrewchow.bsky.social about the lack of safeguards and validation in the use of AI in the criminal legal system:
August 5, 2025 at 3:17 AM
The f’ing irony that when I clicked on this article, this bullshit popped up:
August 3, 2025 at 1:50 AM
On July 17 when Maurene Comey was fired, I said that a pardon of Maxwell is the next move with a claim that the case was fabricated. And here we are.
July 28, 2025 at 11:51 PM
This claim is not accurate. Jeff Asher does excellent analysis of all sorts of crime data, including clearances. Serious crimes include larceny (15.3%) all the way to homicide (60.9%) - but rates vary widely across jurisdictions. open.substack.com/pub/jasher/p...
July 28, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Too many law enforcement agencies are good at assembling cool tactical gear and and creating a daunting command post (📷👇🏽) and have little idea how to save lives. Get rid of the Call of Duty s*** and learn basic tactics.
July 27, 2025 at 2:23 AM
Can we go easy on the nostalgia here? English anatomy was largely built with the bodies of the executed and the impoverished. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
July 26, 2025 at 7:39 PM
The grift will cost dearly.
Social Security recipients are projected to face a 24% reduction in benefits starting in 2032 because of looming insolvency accelerated by the mega bill:
July 26, 2025 at 4:29 AM
Wasn’t this immediately obvious?

bsky.app/profile/atru...
July 25, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Here is Phil Cook: “In 1962, the FBI reported a national homicide clearance rate of 93%. That rate dropped 29 points by 1994… Our preferred explanation includes an upward trend in the standard for arrest” 👇🏽 scholars.duke.edu/publication/...
July 24, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Reddit AI Guy has an idea:
July 21, 2025 at 11:34 AM
This is the exact agentic AI privacy disaster that Meredith Whitaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social described at SXSW:
July 19, 2025 at 12:18 PM
How tariffs actually work:
July 11, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Relentless attacks on Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom after the LA fires, but somehow not a peep on what is an obvious and deadly pattern of repeated failures to prepare elsewhere:
Hill Country flash floods
Winter ice storm
Uvalde
Hurricane Harvey
July 6, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Here’s another underreported fun fact: the massive increase to the deficit will trigger automatic cuts to Medicare: www.kff.org/quick-take/h...
July 4, 2025 at 1:20 AM
From the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: “15 Major Problems with the Senate Reconciliation Bill.” It is is really bad: www.crfb.org/blogs/15-maj...
July 4, 2025 at 1:05 AM
The latest gymnastics by the Times to not see what is glaringly obvious is something else. As if these two developments are completely unrelated to each other 🙄

To say it plainly, the clamor for “the principle of neutrality” is the Trojan horse for extremism.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/u...
June 28, 2025 at 11:27 AM
A big deal is being made about Tesla “robotaxis” debuting in Austin. Caveats include that they are geofenced, by invite only, and have a human safety monitor on board. All things Waymo didn’t need during my ride in Austin this April.
June 23, 2025 at 1:12 AM
I pay for #feedly because of the integration with #pocket which I also paid for. This was part of my essential news tracking workflow. This is maddening.
May 22, 2025 at 10:51 PM