logo
episode-header-image
May 2021
30m 26s

When police watchdogs lack teeth

THE WASHINGTON POST
About this episode
How civilian oversight is undermined by politicians and police. And how economic inequality has worsened the pandemic in Venezuela.

Read more:

Civilian oversight agencies are touted as ways that ordinary citizens can hold police accountable. But an investigation into these agencies by reporter Nicole Dungca shows that they often fail at doing so — in part because they are undermined by law enforcement itself.

Severe economic equality is worsening the coronavirus outbreak in South American countries. Anthony Faiola reports on the pandemic in Venezuela, where only the wealthy can afford care for sick loved ones.
Up next
Yesterday
Shutdown cracks, Jay Jones’s texts, Trump’s Gaza deal
The Senate remains far apart on resolving the ongoing government shutdown. But the battle for public opinion on who’s to blame has shifted. Republicans appear split on whether to negotiate on health-care costs, as Democrats are demanding. And polling shows voters blame the GOP ju ... Show More
26m 16s
Oct 9
Bad Bunny, the Super Bowl and a MAGA meltdown
Puerto Rican music superstar Bad Bunny is having a phenomenal year. His seventh album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” came out in January and spent weeks at the top of the charts. He sold out a musical residency in Puerto Rico. And now, he’s set to headline one of the biggest stages for ... Show More
19m 21s
Oct 8
The National Guard arrives in Chicago
Tensions have been escalating in Chicago since the Trump administration began a widespread immigration enforcement operation across the city in early September. Officers have ransacked homes and detained children during raids. Local and state officials have loudly denounced the m ... Show More
26m 47s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2025
S2 Ep1005: Michael Lewis: Government Workers Aren't the Corrupt Ones
Trump loves to complain about the deep state while Elon claims he's rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse with all his mass firings. But DOGE should be looking higher up the food chain to target the graft: for example, the South African immigrant whose car company would not have go ... Show More
1 h
Jan 2022
Pandemic in the Time of Capitalism
Maria is joined by Abdullah Shihipar, public health researcher at the People, Place & Health Collective at Brown University, and Jessica Malaty Rivera, infectious disease epidemiologist and a senior adviser at the Pandemic Prevention Institute. They break down the latest on the C ... Show More
40m 29s
Jun 2025
How can avoidable deaths be prevented?
The phrase “State related deaths” might mean little to the average person, but it's an umbrella term referring to a death in custody or a mental health setting. It also applies to situations when people have taken their own lives while in the armed forces or even to disasters lik ... Show More
27m 49s
Jun 2025
Why are politicians weaponising grooming gang survivors?
Louise Casey's report on grooming gangs is incredibly tough reading. She details, over 200 pages, the repeated failings of local authorities, police forces, government departments and indeed the legal system, which treats the victims of the most horrific abuse as somehow culpable ... Show More
35m 28s
Mar 2021
Who Is Police Unions?
One of the defining characteristics of the modern nation state is that the state has a monopoly on the use of force. In the United States, police officers are a manifestation of this agreement, to which we are all parties--whether we like it or not--and that is perhaps one reason ... Show More
55m 27s
Aug 2024
Hour 1: 96 Days Of Misery
Spending the next 3 months obsessing over one election. Demoralizing enough people in a society. We can’t conserve anything, we must be the counter culture revolutionaries. What we can’t afford to happen. The 9/11 terrorists dodge the death penalty and if Americans are lucky they ... Show More
39m 1s
Feb 2023
Human Trafficking – Our Country, Every Country
Who can become a sex or labor trafficking victim? Anyone. We all need food and shelter; we all need to provide for our children, just to name a few. Traffickers are expert at exploiting our needs. Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, Director of the ASU Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention ... Show More
39m 6s
Sep 2020
Why US activists say police reform fails
By some estimates, 2020 has seen the largest protest movement in US history, with demonstrations all over the country condemning the killings of Black people by police and demanding change. At the center of it all are the many cases that had gone largely unnoticed. Al Jazeera's a ... Show More
24m 43s