6/19/20 Jacob Sullum on the Inescapable Reality of Racially Skewed Policing

Scott talks to Jacob Sullum about the many ways policing in America disproportionately targets black and hispanic communities, both by means of explicitly racist policies, and also those that have racially skewed impacts without necessarily having been conceived that way in the first place. Sullum cites many examples of the disparate treatment of black and brown people that are difficult to dismiss with explanations based on differential crime rates or heavier police presences in certain neighborhoods. He also reviews some of the history of the war on drugs, a policy that has, perhaps above...

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6/19/20 Mike Maharrey: End Qualified Immunity for Cops

Mike Maharrey untangles the complex web of legal history that has given America the system known as qualified immunity, which in practice shields police officers from just about any civil lawsuit. The doctrine, which has emerged out of the precedents set by repeated federal court rulings, makes it almost impossible to sue state agents for constitutional violations or other damages suffered during the performance of their jobs. This is mainly because the courts have decided that unless there is specific precedent for the situation the officer finds himself in, discretion must be left up to...

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6/19/20 Jeff Abramson on America’s Bloody Arms Industry

Scott interviews Jeff Abramson about America’s convoluted process for selling weapons to foreign governments. The arms trade is a multi-billion dollar industry for private firms like Raytheon—but it’s also a process that is highly controlled by the U.S. government, muddying the incentives and leading to a public-private partnership with very little accountability and unfailingly terrible results. Abramson describes the circular way in which weapons companies and various branches of government push both their own selfish interests and what they believe to be in the country’s...

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6/19/20 Patrick Cockburn on the Heinous Mistreatment of Julian Assange

Patrick Cockburn joins the show for an update on Julian Assange, who continues to languish in jail as he awaits the results of his possible extradition from Britain to the U.S. on charges under the Espionage Act. Scott and Cockburn revisit the important role Assange has played in exposing government malfeasance over the last decade, including, notably, by enabling the heroic leaks by Chelsea Manning, which provided the source material for tens of thousands of news stories that the public needed to hear. Many in the mainstream media have been quick to vilify Assange, even though the supposed...

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6/19/20 Dave DeCamp on the Killing of David McAtee

Dave DeCamp shares the tragic story of David McAtee, the owner of a barbecue restaurant in Louisville who was killed by National Guard troops during a recent night of protests. McAtee was cooking for a group of friends and customers several miles away from the nearest crowds of protesters, but the police showed up to enforce the city’s new curfew nonetheless. A small crowd began to rush toward McAtee’s restaurant, and thinking that it may have been looters, McAtee retrieved the gun he legally owned, possibly firing into the air as a warning. Some National Guard troops...

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