billybinion.bsky.social
Journalist. Criminal justice & government accountability. Yes, this is my real name.
355 posts
9,545 followers
137 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
The drug war created a system where lies become raids—and raids sometimes end in body bags.
Tomorrow night in DC, I’ll be debating for @reason.com why this failed war must end. Join us. /end reason.org/event/reason...
comment in response to
post
In 2019, cops broke down their door & immediately shot the couple's dog.
Tuttle—who was reportedly asleep—reacted to the chaos by grabbing a gun & shooting at the intruders.
Cops responded with 40+ bullets, killing Tuttle & Nicholas, who was unarmed.
But the worst part? /4
comment in response to
post
The worst part is this was preventable—because Goines had a long history of lying. Yet no one intervened.
One example: Otis Mallet insisted Goines lied when he said he'd bought crack from him. Mallet went to prison.
Years later, a court declared him "actually innocent." /5
comment in response to
post
Officer Gerald Goines targeted Tuttle & Nicholas based on 911 calls from a neighbor, Patricia Garcia, who said they were dangerous drug dealers who'd sold her daughter heroin.
Garcia—who didn't even have a daughter—later admitted she made the whole thing up. /2
comment in response to
post
To get a no-knock warrant, Goines said an informant bought heroin from the home where Tuttle & Nicholas lived. Goines later confessed that never happened.
Then he claimed he'd personally bought heroin at the home the night before the raid.
That also turned out to be a lie. /3
comment in response to
post
The drug war created a system where lies become raids—and raids sometimes end in body bags.
Tomorrow night in DC, I’ll be debating for @reason.com why this failed war must end. Join us. /end reason.org/event/reason...
comment in response to
post
Goines was ultimately sentenced to 60 years in prison. That's *highly* unusual.
Police dishonesty, however, is *not* unusual. There have been similar scandals in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia & San Francisco.
The list goes on. /7 reason.com/2024/10/02/a...
comment in response to
post
These were just 2 of many cases involving Goines. Over 30 convictions have been overturned.
An informant Goines worked with for years testified that initially she'd buy drugs from suspects. But eventually he started paying her to sign forms attesting to fictional purchases. /6
comment in response to
post
The worst part is this was preventable—because Goines had a long history of lying. Yet no one intervened.
One example: Otis Mallet insisted Goines lied when he said he'd bought crack from him. Mallet went to prison.
Years later, a court declared him "actually innocent." /5
comment in response to
post
In 2019, cops broke down their door & immediately shot the couple's dog.
Tuttle—who was reportedly asleep—reacted to the chaos by grabbing a gun & shooting at the intruders.
Cops responded with 40+ bullets, killing Tuttle & Nicholas, who was unarmed.
But the worst part? /4
comment in response to
post
To get a no-knock warrant, Goines said an informant bought heroin from the home where Tuttle & Nicholas lived. Goines later confessed that never happened.
Then he claimed he'd personally bought heroin at the home the night before the raid.
That also turned out to be a lie. /3
comment in response to
post
Officer Gerald Goines targeted Tuttle & Nicholas based on 911 calls from a neighbor, Patricia Garcia, who said they were dangerous drug dealers who'd sold her daughter heroin.
Garcia—who didn't even have a daughter—later admitted she made the whole thing up. /2
comment in response to
post
I'm open to making an exception
comment in response to
post
I have a piece on it coming out tomorrow morning
comment in response to
post
Mike Lee is a great example of why I'm a skeptic of government power. He has massive influence & makes a six-figure, taxpayer-funded salary, which he mostly uses these days to shitpost & chase attention. Many such cases. It's pitiful, and he should be embarrassed.
comment in response to
post
Thanks for your kind words!
comment in response to
post
The irony is that many on the right built their careers by bashing the mainstream media—just like with this Terry Moran post. But they’re not underdogs anymore. You can’t demand others meet a standard you refuse to meet yourself.
comment in response to
post
Just one example: Megyn Kelly—now demanding Terry Moran be fired for saying Stephen Miller is driven by hate—said Kamala Harris “slept her way to the top,” and called her “weak and stupid,” among many other insults. Please spare us the lecture about civility & objectivity.
comment in response to
post
“But some of those are opinion journalists!” That shouldn’t matter. All media has bias—humans are biased. And those networks have plenty of so-called “news” shows where hosts say overtly right-wing things all of the time. And yet the White House doesn’t come calling.
comment in response to
post
A big part of the problem is that Congress avoids voting on individual bills. So when a “must-pass” funding bill comes up, lawmakers cram in totally unrelated provisions and give everyone 24 hours to read 1,000+ pages. It’s bonkers. We need single-issue bills.
comment in response to
post
It’s not just Marjorie Taylor Greene—she’s just being honest about it. Lawmakers in both parties routinely vote to pass 1,000-page bills without knowing what’s in them. I know many people are desensitized to it, but it's insane.
comment in response to
post
Philly has logged 93 homicides so far in 2025—the lowest ever on its yearly crime tracker. On this day in 2021, it had recorded 221. Not a typo. Incredible progress. Crime stats rarely make headlines unless they’re bad, but this is the kind of good news we should be shouting.
comment in response to
post
I published a piece looking at the data last week. Some examples: As of early May, murders were down 32% in Baltimore, 35% in St. Louis, 37% in Cleveland, 63% in Denver, 31% in New Orleans, 27% in New York, and 24% in Chicago.
Incredible: reason.com/2025/05/27/c...
comment in response to
post
I obviously can’t say whether this man’s asylum claim is legit. That’s why we have courts—where a judge found he was likely to be in danger if deported.
The Trump admin chose to ignore that. I’ll never understand how so many “law & order” people look the other way on this stuff.
comment in response to
post
Many defenders of Trump’s immigration policies fall back on: “They’re here illegally!” That’s often not even true. And it helps explain why the government keeps trying to sidestep due process—because they know they’ll lose in court. You can’t uphold the law by breaking it.