The Power of Police Unions

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, David, Books, Arts, Storytelling, Wnyc, New, Remnick, News Commentary, Yorker, Politics

4.2 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 4 January 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The repeal of Section 50-A of the New York State Civil Rights Law was no technical change. Passed in the wake of the George Floyd protests, it was a big victory for police-reform activists. 50-A shielded the disciplinary records of police officers, meaning that, in an officer-involved killing, for example, neither lawyers, journalists, nor the victim’s family could determine if the officer had a history of disciplinary incidents. Laws like 50-A—and there are similar laws in many states—have played a big role in blocking police accountability. Because of the powerful influence of police unions, changing them is not easy, even for left-leaning politicians who champion reform. The New Yorker staff writer William Finnegan examines how the fight against 50-A was won. At the center of the story are the fraught relationships among politicians, protesters, and law enforcement.

This segment originally aired July 31, 2020.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNWC Studios and the New Yorker.
0:11.1	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, I'm David Remnick.
0:14.1	We always associate the holidays with certain ideas about going home, going home to visit
0:19.4	the family or seeing childhood friends.
0:22.4	A Syrian artist named Muhammad Hafez has been living in the United States and he's
0:27.1	mourning the loss of his home in Damascus to the destruction of the Syrian war.
0:32.8	For several years he has created lifelike miniatures of buildings in Syria, tiny, intricate
0:39.1	tabloes of the homeland he cannot return to.
0:42.6	And they're incredible to see.
0:43.8	His work is the subject of a broken house, a documentary short presented by New Yorker
0:49.6	Studios.
0:50.6	It's hard to pin down when exactly the war started.
1:01.0	My parents hesitated to leave home.
1:06.0	It's not until the clashes broke off 100 meters away and shook our whole house.
1:14.0	They realized okay, the conflict is now on our doorstep and we need to leave.
1:22.2	They came and lived in my small apartment.
1:25.6	I was a very young designer pitching 200, 300, 400 million dollar buildings.
1:38.9	I had to keep a straight face at work and still perform.
1:46.4	But I was very troubled.
1:48.2	Extremely troubled.
1:55.6	I had a monitor load early on news channels 10 hours a day.
2:01.6	I'm working and I'm seeing the air world blow up.
	...

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