As calls to defund the police reverberate across America, today Thursday host Allen Ruff takes a look at the renewed controversy around police unions with labor and racial justice activist Bill Fletcher Jr. They talk about the nature of policing in a capitalist society, police accountability, the role of law enforcement in a democracy, and […]
Law enforcement, prison concerns, COVID-19
James Morgan, Peer Support Specialist at Madison Urban Ministries and member of Ex-PO interviews Latoya Greer about her experiences as a Black woman in the current system of law enforcement, incarceration, and the effects of the COVID-19 restrictions on the incarcerated individuals in the state.
A Police Officer Walks into a Facebook Hate Group
Earlier this month, the story broke that border patrol agents were participating in a secret Facebook group where they joked about the death of migrants, made racist comments about members of Congress, and posted vulgar and offensive images. But it turns out that this was only the tip of the iceberg. A team of reporters […]
Racism and Police Violence in Chicago with Flint Taylor
For today’s pledge drive edition, Allen is joined by Flint Taylor to discuss the history of police violence in Chicago and his new book, The Torture Machine. Flint Taylor is a founding partner of the People’s Law Office in Chicago, a longtime National Lawyers Guild member, and a founding editor of the Police Misconduct and Civil […]
Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago with Simon Balto
To understand issues like mass incarceration and racist policing, you have to go back in history—farther back than Reagan’s war on drugs or even Johnson’s proposed war on crime. That’s the argument of Simon Balto, our guest today and the author of Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power. He spends […]
“The End of Policing” And a New Way Forward
Professor Alex S. Vitale talks about the failures of our modern policing system, the reasons why modern policing doesn’t achieve what we think it achieves, and why there must be a radical, less punitive, change in the way we approach law enforcement. He is the author of “The End of Policing,” from Verso Press.
