S2 E23 The Long Road Toward Justness

Episode discussion topics

• Defund the Police is on the docket. We explore its driving mission and the value of taking action to better serve our communities.
• The name Defund the Police only states the beginning of the process and does nothing to shed light on what the end looks like. That's the beauty, a plethora of opportunities, and the curse of being ambiguous to its true meaning.
• In this episode, we make the case for focusing on the opportunities which require all of us to think more creatively and openly about real alternatives to posting armed troops at stations on our streets. In the meantime, we need to de-militarize the relationship between police forces and local communities and stop asking them to be the solution to all problems.
• It is still early to know what neat package of community-based services provide the best bang for your buck, but ultimately each community is unique and needs the voices of its people to be present in identifying and selecting solutions to target specific problems.
  

Your hosts: Michael V. Piscitelli and Raymond Wong Jr.

More info

• If you're interested in a broader perspective on the roots of the Prison Industrial Complex and law enforcement economy, including the bail bond racket, check out the Netflix documentary 13th.
• Our search for alternatives to policing hasn't turned up a whole lot as of late and we'll keep looking. The Defund campaigns site has great statistics on the current state of policing and makes general cases for alternates. Vox suggests, "4 ideas to replace traditional police officers." Rolling Stone weighs in with a brief piece, "Six Ideas for a Cop-Free World." As you can see, there's no one size fits all set of replacement solutions and we look forward to more updates on this topic.
• Please feel free to share your thoughts through our Contact Us page or on Facebook.

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Special thanks

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• Our sponsor CitizenDoGood.com.
  
• Graphic design by SergeShop.com.
  
• Intro music sampled from “Okay Class” by Ozzy Jock under creative commons license through freemusicarchive.org.
  
• Other music provided royalty-free through Fesliyan Studios Inc.