logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2020
1h 2m

American Police

NPR
About this episode
Black Americans being victimized and killed by the police is an epidemic. A truth many Americans are acknowledging since the murder of George Floyd, as protests have occurred in all fifty states calling for justice on his behalf. But this tension between African American communities and the police has existed for centuries. This week, the origins of American policing and how those origins put violent control of Black Americans at the heart of the system.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy
Up next
Jul 10
What Makes Us Free?
What's the role of government in society? What do we mean when we talk about individual responsibility? What makes us free? 'Neoliberalism' might feel like a squishy term that's hard to define and understand. But this ideology, founded by a group of men in the Swiss Alps, is a po ... Show More
49m 9s
Jul 3
Does America Need a Hero?
Captain America: an all-American superhero. Clad in red, white, and blue, he carries only a shield. And he fights only when he must. When it's right.But what happens when what's right isn't so clear? And how does a comic book hero designed to represent America's values survive in ... Show More
51m 5s
Jun 29
Iran and the U.S., Part Three: Soleimani's Iran
The Iran-Iraq war, 9/11, and the story of Iranian Revolutionary Guard general Qassem Soleimani, from his rise to power, to his assassination, by the U.S., to the power his legacy wields now.This episode originally ran as Soleimani's Iran. You can find more of Throughline's covera ... Show More
45m 33s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2021
476. What Are the Police for, Anyway?
The U.S. is an outlier when it comes to policing, as evidenced by more than 1,000 fatal shootings by police each year. But we’re an outlier in other ways too: a heavily-armed populace, a fragile mental-health system, and the fact that we spend so much time in our cars. Add in a h ... Show More
45m 58s
Jul 2015
Why do American police kill so many black men?
Recent high profile cases of unarmed black men dying at the hands of the US police have sparked outrage, protests and civil unrest in several American cities. The deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott and Freddie Gray are - some claim - evidence of long-standing prob ... Show More
27m 46s
Apr 2021
A Verdict
Three hundred and thirty-one days ago, Derek Chauvin put his knee on the neck of George Floyd for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. George Floyd took his last breath on his stomach, hands cuffed behind his back.His death, captured on cell phone video by 17-year-old Darnella Frazier, spar ... Show More
29m 20s
Jul 2020
Bonus: Beyond Minneapolis, #BlackLivesMatter shines a light on global racism and police brutality
Listen to the recorded live discussion on how the #BlackLivesMatter movement is shining a light on global racism and police brutality beyond American cities, from London to JerusalemThe murder of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man, by police in Minneapolis, USA propell ... Show More
1h 10m
Jul 2020
Reimagining the Police
As protests against police brutality continue across the country, there are calls to reform, defund, and even abolish the police. So, what does it all mean? Don talks to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka about the reforms he’s implementing in a city with a long history of tension between t ... Show More
32m 1s
Jun 2020
E80 Les Français sont-ils racistes ?
Le 25 mai 2020, à Minneapolis aux États-Unis, un homme, George Floyd, est mort asphyxié par un policier durant ce qui devait être une simple arrestation. Ce nouveau cas de violence policière contre un citoyen afro-américain a provoqué des réactions non seulement aux États-Unis, m ... Show More
50m 54s
Jun 2020
Behind the Police: How The Police Defeated Lynching Via Torture
Lynching was the sharpest blade in the arsenal of white supremacy for decades, until American police replaced it with the death penalty. In this episode, Prop and Robert trace the evolution of police torture, and how the legacy of 'the third degree' persists in law enforcement to ... Show More
1h 36m
Jun 2020
Revolution Evolution
We are at war right now. In this time period the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others have joined the list of unarmed black people who've been wrongfully killed at the hands of the police + white vigilantes. In a country that prides itself on offering ... Show More
18m 48s
Apr 2021
Ep 854 | The Greatest Epidemic in Black Communities? Violence and Homicide
It’s time to tell the truth about policing and crime. Today, I contrast the extremely rare case of unarmed black people being shot by police to the epidemic of homicides in black communities. Homicides are the single biggest cause of death for black people under 35. And it’s gett ... Show More
44m 37s