Can law enforcement be reformed from the inside?

KCRW's Left, Right & Center

KCRW

352865, News

4.2 • 4.8K Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2022

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Despite protests and promises of change, violent acts from police officers and scandals in law enforcement agencies seem to continuously dot the headlines. That’s according to Christy E. Lopez, columnist at the Washington Post, in her recent LA Times column, “A dismissal at Customs and Border Protection shows how hard law enforcement reform can be.”

She joins as this week’s special guest to discuss U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus’ departure from his position last month after just a year on the job. Known as a reformer, the Biden administration hired Magnus to help address the corruption, racism, and violence among border patrol agents.

But more than a dozen House Republicans wrote to the White House, asking for Magnus to go. Though he said he was leaving due to differences with leadership at Homeland Security.

With Magnus gone, an agency that has faced criticism from both Democrats and Republicans needs new direction. What are the broader implications of his exit? And does his absence reveal the difficulties of reforming a law enforcement agency from the inside?

Plus, antisemitic comments and hate crimes are rising in the United States. Even political leaders, like Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, and public figures, like the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, are making hateful statements. Why is antisemitism rearing its’ head again and how can we stop its’ spread?

Host David Greene discusses with Mo Elleithee, executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service, on the left; and Sarah Isgur, staff writer at The Dispatch, on the right.

And the World Cup is in full swing with exciting matches on the pitch and political drama behind the scenes. Should athletes focus on their sport or do they carry a responsibility to speak for or against their government? And how does a worldwide competition affect geopolitical relationships?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody, this is David Green. I'm the co-founder of Fearless Media and I'm your host
0:06.0	here on Left, Right, and Center. This is the show where we take on all the political
0:10.2	issues, even the complicated ones that might be dividing your own family these days.
0:16.1	The next time you see a video of a horrific, violent act by a police officer or read of
0:22.6	a shocking scandal in law enforcement, you may find yourself asking how this keeps happening
0:28.7	despite repeated cycles of protest and promises of change. So how does abuse by law enforcement
0:34.8	keep happening in our country? Well, our first guest today has an opinion about that.
0:38.9	Christy Lopez wrote the words I read there at the top in a recent column for the LA Times.
0:44.2	She's a law professor at Georgetown University also served in the Justice Department under
0:48.2	President Obama leading civil rights investigations of police departments. In her column, Professor
0:53.4	Lopez wrote that we have a lot to learn from a recent departure in the Biden administration.
0:59.0	A few weeks ago, US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus stepped down after
1:04.2	just a year on the job. Magnus was known as a reformer and had been brought in by the
1:09.2	Biden administration to address corruption, racism, violence amongst Border Patrol agents.
1:15.3	More than a dozen House Republicans wrote the White House asking for Magnus to go and
1:19.9	he stepped down citing differences with leadership at Homeland Security.
1:24.2	Christy Lopez, thanks for being here. Thanks for the column and I'm looking forward to chatting.
1:28.5	Glad to be here, David. So what are the broader implications of this single departure at CPB?
1:35.7	Why did you focus an entire column on this? Yeah, I think there are broader implications for
1:42.4	CBP and Border Patrol in particular, but I wrote the column really because of how illustrative
1:48.0	this dynamic, this firing was for why police reform doesn't take hold in lots of types of
1:55.4	law enforcement agencies, whether city or state. So I think that the what I saw happen at Border
	...

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