476. What Are the Police for, Anyway?

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4.6 • 32K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2021

⏱️ 46 minutes

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Summary

The U.S. is an outlier when it comes to policing, as evidenced by more than 1,000 fatal shootings by police each year. But we’re an outlier in other ways too: a heavily-armed populace, a fragile mental-health system, and the fact that we spend so much time in our cars. Add in a history of racism and it’s no surprise that barely half of all Americans have a lot of confidence in the police. So what if we start to think about policing as … philanthropy?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Edwin Raymond is a police lieutenant in New York City.
0:09.2	One day about 10 years ago, he was just finishing up his shift.
0:13.6	I was walking back to the station house when someone in a bodega ran out and flagged me
0:20.1	down and said, oh, so we're being robbed.
0:22.8	They said, what do you mean, man?
0:24.5	I thought he was joking.
0:25.5	I'm like, what really at the end of my shift?
0:27.8	I said, there's a guy have a gun.
0:29.5	He said, yeah, so I put over to the stress call for backup.
0:33.2	I said, what is he, you know, white Latino black?
0:36.3	He says, he's black.
0:37.6	So I pull out my gun and I'm waiting for the backup.
0:41.6	Raymond is also black.
0:42.9	He grew up in Brooklyn.
0:44.2	His parents report immigrants from Haiti.
0:46.8	That's when I see a black guy walk out, hoodie over his head, he had a plastic bag.
0:53.6	And I say, get on the ground.
0:56.0	And he's arguing with me.
0:57.0	And it's weird because like, bro, I have a gun pointed at you.
1:00.0	Can you please follow my directions?
1:03.8	When Raymond was a teenager, he was always getting hassled by the police in his neighborhood.
1:09.3	He had been confused by this.
	...

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