#LastCall – The deadline for applications to the KWI International & Thyssen@KWI Fellowship Programme is on February 28! #Researchers in the #humanities, #culturalstudies or #socialstudies looking for a 6-month #fellowship, feel free to apply! INFO: www.kulturwissenschaften.de/calls-fellow...

Here we go! Legal Plunder, my book w/ @joesoss.bsky.social, will hit bookstores in early summer.

Driven Into Debt Parking, traffic camera and vehicle tickets generate millions of dollars in desperately needed cash each year for the City of Chicago. But for the working poor, and particularly for African Americans,...

27/ Much love to Elliott Ramos and @melissa-sanchez.bsky.social for walking me through the city’s towing + ticketing data early on. No way I would have known how to navigate these records without them and all their reporting on the issue. www.propublica.org/series/drive...

26/ The hearing officer gave me a best-case scenario: He wipes away the debt, Chicago keeps the car. I took it. Later, I located myself in the data. My 94 Jeep Cherokee was sold for $213 to United Road Towing. Don’t let me oversell my car’s value. It needed an oil change. But damn.

25/ Full disclosure: You’re reading a revenge study. My car was stolen in 2013. I reported it to evade subsequent tickets. A month letter, Streets & San informed me my car was at the pound. If I wanted it back, I had to pay some $600 in fines and fees. I appealed.

The predatory dimensions of criminal justice

24/ Lastly, our thesis riffs on the predation framework by Joshua Page & @joesoss.bsky.social. We extend it to public-private “partnerships.” Privatization grafts a profit motive onto city services while towing debt becomes a wedge for dispossession. doi.org/10.1126/scie...

23/ An interactive version of the diagram is available here: public.tableau.com/views/URTCam...

22/ One finding stood out in some 30 yrs of campaign contributions. Chicago’s City Clerk, Anna Valencia, is the only person we identified that refused funds from URT. Her PAC returned a $1k contribution on 3/1/2019.

21/ On the right of the diagram, you’re seeing the beneficiaries of these contributions. Again, we’ve named names. They include a few who’ve have been implicated in recent federal corruption cases (e.g., Ed Burke, Michael Madigan).

20/ In the middle of the diagram, you’re seeing the affiliated political office for these contributions. These offices are far from random. They include IL House Speaker, Mayor, and City Council + key committee positions that define the legislative agenda.

19/ URT & its Board made more than 300 contributions totaling nearly $300k to over 100 political actors throughout Illinois. On the left of the diagram, you’re seeing who made the donation on behalf of URT. We named names so you can see the top donors.

18/ Now URT is among the largest dispatchers in the world. It’s a politically connected company too. We looked at campaign contributions the firm and its Board of Directors made b/t 1994-2022. The list of recipients amounts to a “who’s who” of Illinois-based politicians.

17/ Who buys these cars? The same company that towed most of them: United Road Towing. Less than 2 months into his 1st term, Rich M Daley offloaded the city’s tow services to this company. It was created 9 days prior to landing the prized contract. URT has monopolized it ever since.

16/ The pattern of dispossession, here, is worth emphasis. Whereas theories of punishment often discuss the punished like they’re “surplus” populations or “urban outcasts,” the implication is that they stand outside the economy. We highlight how racial precarity is leveraged for profitability.

15/ You don’t have to take my word for it. 🌈 Play with the data yourself: public.tableau.com/views/Snow-r...

14/ Over 2-in-3 dispossessions were parked in majority Black/Latinx communities. John Bigg’s neighborhood, Austin, had the most dispossessions. It’s the same disinvested space where past mayor & current ambassador to Japan, @rahmemanuel.bsky.social, shuttered 4 of 50 schools in 2013.

Chicago’s Towing Program Is Broken Chicago tows tens of thousand of vehicles each year, selling off one in four of them. It pays a contractor with residents’ cars, yet, the city barely makes money. Someone should look at this.

13/ After Chicago dispossess your towed car, it auctions them at scrap value. We’re talking $100-200 regardless of the make/model/condition. Elliott Ramos did a deep dive on this practice, estimating that most sell for 1/5 their value. interactive.wbez.org/brokentowing/

12/ Twenty years after getting a ticket outside Second City, one of Chicago’s debt collectors went after Rachel Dratch for an unpaid debt … her and many others. x.com/TheRealDratc...

11/ There is no statute of limitations on ticket-related debt in Chicago. It follows the common law doctrine of nullum tempus occurrit regi, which translates as “no time runs against the king.” Rachel Dratch knows what I’m talking about.

10/ You go from owing $230 to $1,562 in 31 days. public.tableau.com/views/TheDeb...

9/ Within 10 days of impoundment, Chicago’s Streets & San lets you know via certified mail they have your car. Three weeks after the confirmation of receipt, the city considers your car “involuntarily surrendered.” The city then has legal ground to dispossess your car.

8/ When Chicago adds a 22% collections fee, most the $ goes to debt collectors like A & O Recovery Services, Arnold Scott Harris, Linebarger Attorneys, and Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson. These firms make about $15M each year recovering all kinds of debts for the city.

7/ When drivers don’t pay their parking tickets in 14 days (or setup an appeal in 21), Chicago’s Finance Dept imposes a late penalty. The fine doubles from $60 to $120, and a 22% collections fee can be added to what you owe. The debt now stands at $878.

6/ Should you not make good on your debt, which means full payment or a payment plan, your car stays at the pound racking up storage fees with each passing day. On day 6, storage fees jump from $20 to $35 per day. It’s been less than a week. You owe the city $345.

5/ Towing-related debt inconveniences some. It devastates others. Let me walk you how fast this debt spirals out of control. Snow-related tows can be subject to a $60 parking fine, a $150 towing fine, and a $20 daily storage fee for impoundment. Your initial debt is $230.

4/ The thing is there’s not just one John Biggs in Chicago. There are many. More than 9k cars are towed every year for snow-related restrictions. Less than 1-in-4 occur on days of actual accumulation. About 1% of these tows are never reclaimed.

3/ There were no signs on the block that said parking was prohibited. Even the closest one a block away was no help. The words were unreadable, faded from the elements. It’s a common thing in Chicago. Here’s one I saw recently near @pilsencommbooks.bsky.social.

City tows 242 drivers on first night of winter parking ban. ‘This is horrible, horrible,’ driver says The yearly tradition seems to always catch people off guard. Many of them complained the ban was unfair, the signs were inadequate and the penalties too steep.

2/ Meet John Biggs. On 12/1/2022, he awoke to his car towed on the 1st day of the winter ban. The restriction’s supposed to keep snow off the roads. There was no accumulation. chicago.suntimes.com/news/2022/12...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

1/ Tis the season for snow-related tows in Chicago. Diego Taboada + I wrote about it in Race & Class. Keep an eye out for him, he’ll be looking for a faculty gig next year. Here’s a 🧵 on our findings. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...