"Above the Law" from episode #104 "Serve and Protect?"

BackStory

History, Education

4.7 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 21 August 2019

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo was fired for his involvement in the 2014 death of Eric Garner. The incident helped to stimulate the Black Lives Matter movement, and sparked public debate about the limits of and accountability for law enforcement.

With these debates once again at the fore, BackStory revisits a segment originally published in 2016. In it, producer Nina Earnest explores how the professionalization of the Los Angeles Police Department ended up putting the department above the law they were supposed to enforce.

BackStory is funded in part by our listeners. You can help keep the episodes coming by supporting the show: https://www.backstoryradio.org/support

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Terribly sorry to interrupt, but there is something rather important that's dropped.
0:04.0	The Duchess of York, along with her close friend Sarah Thompson, has launched a podcast
0:08.4	called T-Talks with the Duchess and Sarah.
0:10.8	This is going to be a fabulously sexy saucy sassy and rather wonderful podcast.
0:14.6	Two, inspirational and sophisticated women.
0:19.3	Sorry, excuse me. We always end on a high.
0:22.4	Bring you a weekly podcast to brighten up your day's no end.
0:26.0	Build the tea. What's the tea?
0:27.7	Subscribe to T-Talks with the Duchess and Sarah that Apple podcasts Spotify,
0:32.8	or wherever you're listening to this.
0:34.3	I can't believe you asked me that on the first podcast.
0:40.7	This episode was originally broadcast in 2014.
0:44.2	Major funding for Backstories provided by an anonymous donor,
0:47.8	the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.
0:53.0	From Virginia Humanities, this is Backstories.
1:05.2	In the early decades of the 20th century, the Los Angeles Police Department was known as one of
1:10.4	the most corrupt in the nation. Cops there operated at the behest of underworld mobsters,
1:17.1	a political bosses, and a chamber of commerce, who used the force to break up unions and other
1:22.8	so-called subversive organizations. The city really did look like something out of a noir film.
1:29.6	In the four years between 1919 and 1923, eight police chiefs came and went,
1:36.6	all taken down by scandals. It was a pattern that continued into the 1940s.
1:42.7	But in 1950, a new police chief came to power, and he was determined to clean the place up.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BackStory, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BackStory and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.