The Power of Police Unions

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K 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 WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:10.6	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. We always associate the holidays with certain ideas about going home, going home to visit 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 mourning
0:27.5	the loss of his home in Damascus to the destruction of the Syrian war. For several years, he has
0:34.0	created lifelike miniatures of buildings in Syria, tiny, intricate tableos of the homeland
0:40.3	he cannot return to. And they're incredible to see. His work is the subject of a broken house,
0:47.2	a documentary short presented by New Yorker Studios.
0:52.8	It's hard to pin down when exactly the war started.
0:57.0	My parents hesitated to leave home.
1:01.0	It's not until the clashes
1:08.0	broke off 100 meters away and shook our whole house.
1:13.6	They realized, okay, the conflict is now on our doorstep, and we need to leave.
1:21.6	They came and lived in my small apartment.
1:26.6	I was a my small apartment.
1:31.3	I was a very young designer pitching 200, 300, 400 million dollars buildings.
1:39.3	I had to keep a straight face at work and still perform.
1:46.0	But I was very troubled.
1:50.0	Extremely troubled.
1:55.0	I had a monitor literally on news channels 10 hours a day.
2:02.1	I'm working and I'm seeing the Arab world blow up.
2:10.6	Mohamed Hafez in a broken house.
2:13.7	The film was directed by Jimmy Goldblum
	...

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