March 30
GUEST: Joanna Schwartz, Professor of Law at UCLA and one of the country's leading experts on police misconduct litigation, whose writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post, talks about the difficulty of holding police accountable. Her new book is Shielded, How the Police Became Untouchable.
Police are 'shielded' from repercussions of their abuse
Joanna Schwartz's book is a fascinating look at how the police and the criminal justice systems have stacked the deck when it comes to accountability. It has taken decades to achieve this level of lawlessness, but the results were worth it for the human rights violators and abusers who now petrol our streets.
Was no one pushing back? Since most of the beatings and killings were done to Black people, the white majority tended to look the other way. And the national media played its part, showing video after video of Blacks stealing cars, breaking into stores, and committing other crimes. Cop shows became even more effective than right wing hate groups in churning racist hatreds.
To be fair, our politicians are equally as good at engendering racism. As a result of this constant drumbeat, white people have been trained to fear Blacks. In a society built on racism, from slavery through Jim Crow, there will always be official violence based on race. Just look at one of the most egregious of apartheid societies, the nation of Israel. Jewish settlers, police, and soldiers all reinforce the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank. That is what full spectrum oppression looks like, and the US supports this racist assault every step of the way.
That would be my suggestion, that there be a chapter in Ms. Schwartz's book on how human rights abusers are "shielded" in other countries. It is the same process, and our tax dollars support Israel to the tune of four billion dollars a year.
