(2014/03/04) Unequal justice under the law (The (in)justice system)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 5 March 2014
⏱️ 75 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Edition #805
Unequal justice under the law
Today we look at the stick of justice in America and who's getting the short end of it.
Ch. 1: Intro - Theme: A Fond Farewell, Elliott Smith
Ch. 2: Act 1: Chris Hayes: I was nearly arrested for weed - @allinwithchris Hayes - Air Date: 01-03-14
Ch. 3: Song 1: (I've Got a) Golden Ticket - Leslie Bricusse
Ch. 4: Act 2: A Marijuana Arrest - BuzzFeed Central Presents - Air Date: 12-8-13
Ch. 5: Song 2: Particles of the Universe (Heartbeats) - Dan Romer & Benh Zeitlin
Ch. 6: Act 3: Wishful Thinking and White House Fakery: Obama as Prison Reformer - @blkagendareport - Air Date: 2-5-14
Ch. 7: Song 3: Life in prison - Mitchell
Ch. 8: Act 4: What are the odds that you're going to prison? - @bravenewfilms - Air Date: 2-13-14
Ch. 9: Song 4: Julie-O - Kevin "KO" Olusola
Ch. 10: Act 5: Unequal justice under law - @allinwithchris Hayes - Air Date: 02-05-14
Ch. 11: Song 5: Crime to Be Broke in America - Spearhead
Ch. 12: Act 6: #JordanDavis #DunnTrial - @WEEKinBLACKNESS Presents: BLACKNESS.TV - Air Date: 2-18-14
Ch. 13: Song 6: Enter the Blackness (This Week in Blackness Theme) [feat. Willie Evans Jr., Elon James White & Aaron Rand Freeman] - Jasiri X
Ch. 14: Act 7: You're A Terrible Human Being If You Think Michael Dunn Is Right - @theyoungturks - Air Date: 02-19-14
Ch. 15: Song 7: Terrible - Harley Poe
Ch. 16: Act 8: The failure of the prosecution and how murdering black kids is kind of okay - @WEEKinBLACKNESS - Air Date: 2-18-14
Ch. 17: Song 8: Running scared - Roy Orbison
Ch. 18: Act 9: Stand Against ‘Shoot First’ Laws - Best of the Left Activism
Ch. 19: Song 9: Activism - Shihan
Ch. 20: Act 10: (WARNING) Insanely Racist Audio Busts Michael Dunn Defender - @theyoungturks - Air Date: 02-21-14
Voicemails:
Ch. 21: Touching on all the aspects of racism - Prof. Rambo from Georgia
Ch. 22: Tricia Rose segment was great for those who don't understand white privilege - Mara from Pittsburgh
Ch. 23: Appreciating the color analogy to gender - Zach from San Francisco
Leave a message at 202-999-3991
Voicemail Music:
Loud Pipes - Ratatat
Ch. 24: Final comments on how I ironically stole from a woman of color during the last racism episode
Closing Music:
Here We Are - Patrick Park
ACTIVISM:
”Stand Against ‘Shoot First’ Laws” petition from ColorOfChange.org
Additional Activism:
Drop the Charges Against Darrin Manning
Shopping While Black is Not a Crime
Sources/further reading:
"Jordan Davis and the Refrain of Black Death” by Mychal Denzel Smith
"Black Boy Interrupted: On the unfinished life of Jordan Davis” (and everything else) by Ta-Nehisi Coates
"Angela Corey Aims to Increase Marissa Alexander Sentence to 60 Years” via Free Marissa Now Campaign
"Unarmed and dangerous? The National Rifle Association and ALEC were major backers of Florida's 'stand your ground' law” by Cliff Schecter
Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich
Produced by:
Jay! Tomlinson
Thanks for listening!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This program is made possible by the members and donors to the show for details that |
| 0:06.4 | visit the membership tab at BestOfTheLifetime.com and welcome to the award-winning BestOfTheLifetime |
| 0:10.8 | podcast with Coops today from All In With Chris Hayes, Buzzfeed Central Presents, The Black |
| 0:15.0 | Agenda Report, Brave New Films, This Week in Blackness, The Young Turks, and A Segment |
| 0:19.6 | of Best Of The Left Activism, and stay tuned in to the end of the episode to hear the |
| 0:23.4 | surprising story of how I accidentally stole from a woman of color and then hear me |
| 0:27.7 | correct the record. It turns out that one of the New York Times' most famous and widely |
| 0:33.0 | red colonists has a confession to make. It means shocking expose, conservative David Brooks |
| 0:38.3 | cops to having smoke weed with high school buddies before aging out of the drug. For a little |
| 0:44.0 | while in my teenage years, my friends and I smoked marijuana, he writes, it was fun. I have |
| 0:48.5 | some fond memories of us all being silly together. I think those moments of uninhibited |
| 0:52.7 | frolic deepened our friendships. But then Brooks writes, he and his friends moved away from |
| 0:57.1 | it because well, to hear Brooks tell it, smoking pot made you a loser. And instead, he and his |
| 1:02.8 | homies, quote, graduated to more satisfying pleasures like love and literature. Brooks concludes |
| 1:08.5 | that in legalizing marijuana, the citizens of Colorado, are nurturing amoral ecology, |
| 1:14.5 | in which it is a bit harder to be the sort of person most of us want to be. |
| 1:19.4 | Well, the one kind of person most people don't want to be is a person caught |
| 1:23.7 | in the criminal justice system. And while I'm aware that other people's drug stories are generally |
| 1:29.1 | about as interesting as hearing them recount the minutia of their dreams, the Brooks column has |
| 1:33.8 | occasioned a fruitful round of discussion of the obvious fact that lots and lots and lots of |
| 1:39.2 | people have and do smoke pot who are not people we consider criminals. So let me add my own story |
| 1:45.6 | to the mix, which I think is illustrative. In the summer of 2000, as a 21-year-old college student, |
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