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GUEST: Raven Rakia, freelance journalist focused on policing and prisons.

Video footage of US police beating and killing ordinary unarmed people, particularly African Americans, is a shockingly common occurrence these days. But less visible, and almost as shocking, is how police are using the internet to entrap and arrest people based on their social media posts.

The well-earned public anger against police in response to the videos of brutality, have fueled online expressions and sometimes threats. After the fatal shootings of New York officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos late last year, many law enforcement agencies began treating online threats as evidence and probable cause for arrests and terrorism-related charges.

Black and brown Americans were predictably the most likely to be targeted. Most of the charges haven’t held up in court.

Click here to read Raven Rakia’s article in Alternet.