Colorado District Attorney George Brauchler, one of the more disgusting prosecutors of our time, interrupted his busy tweeting-during-court schedule on Friday to tell the world that mass incarceration doesn’t exist. No, really.
Here’s the Tweet:
When I responded in disbelief, Brauchler blocked me. He did the same to other journalists, as well. (Always great when our elected officials block members of the press!) He still hasn’t deleted his original comment.
It’s unfathomable that Brauchler, head prosecutor of Colorado’s 18th Judicial District, would proclaim publicly that mass incarceration is a myth. Truly, truly unfathomable. Never mind the fact that America has the highest incarceration rate on the planet; never mind the fact that our nation holds only 5 percent of the world’s population but almost 25 percent of the world’s prison population; never mind that the number of people incarcerated has increased 500 percent—yes, 500 percent!—in just 40 years; never mind that we still cycle 11 million people in and out of jail per year.
None of that matters to Brauchler. Because all of those are individuals, you see. And therefore there just can’t be any wide-scale dynamics at play. This man—an attorney, a law professor, and an elected official in charge of people’s lives day after day—would literally have you believe that small-scale incidents can’t possibly have large-scale impact.
It is unbelievable what people will tell themselves to justify their own misconceptions and misdeeds.
Brauchler’s tweet demonstrates a big difference between conservatives and conservative prosecutors. Even many Republicans are willing to admit that we probably overshot incarceration by a couple of million people. Even many Republicans won't deny the numbers.
Conservative prosecutors, on the other hand, tend to cling tightly to their tough-on-crime beliefs. For them, vapid ideology trumps data, evidence, and proven social phenomena any day.
What else didn’t happen, Brauchler?
Thankfully, many people that saw his tweet were appropriately outraged. Rob Smith of the Fair Punishment Project quickly started tagging the tweets #BrauchlerMyths. Sounds about right.
Here are some of the best responses:
These are all outrageous statements—and yet they all follow Brauchler’s logic.
Discuss below. And if you have any tips about Brauchler—or any other problematic prosecutor or judge— please email me at prosecutortips@gmail.com.