This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Saturday, September 19th, 2020.

I'm Caleb Brown.

This week the City of Louisville, Kentucky agreed to settle civil claims with the family of

Brianna Taylor, for among other things

$12 million. It's an outcome that should demand a shift in policing and maybe

just maybe prevent the kind of misconduct that would lead to such massive payouts.

Alessandra Biage is a Democratic state senator in New York,

her idea is to make police carry their own liability insurance the way so many other

professionals are legally required to do. What has stymied police reform in your

view? The strong power of police you need in your view.

The strong power of police unions and the lack of political courage to do the right thing

because of that power, to be honest, I think that this is not something that's just

happening in the state of New York I think it's happening across the entire

country but it's a it seems to be especially true in New York State and New York City where the heads of the police unions and the police unions generally have actually just amassed more and more power over the years and elected officials in power are afraid of them and really don't want to make them

angry or make them upset or do anything I believe that would take away the

support of the police union for that specific

elected official. Obviously the tides have shifted significantly, meaning that I think that

there's more space for anybody who would have maybe felt uncomfortable.

But here's the thing.

There's a lot of powerful interests in government and in politics and I think that the

moment we're in and the moment that we're leading into is one where doesn't matter how powerful the group of people or the

organization that you're fighting against is, it's about doing the right thing, the ethical

...