Living In A Police State

Overcrowding in a California prison. Courtesy Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP

Paul Butler was an ambitious federal prosecutor, a Harvard Law grad who gave up his corporate law salary to fight the good fight, until one day he was arrested on the street and charged with a crime he didn’t commit. Paul talked about how ordinary citizens interact with the justice system, and examined the system’s overall strengths and weaknesses.
Paul's analysis is grounded in the radical notion that the government should respect people's right to be secure in their persons and property, a right formerly enshrined in the Fourth Amendment. Even more fundamentally, he argues that we should re-embrace freedom in this country in ways that range from not incarcerating nonviolent offenders to decriminalizing drugs. Our prisons have made our lives more dangerous by serving to indoctrinate nonviolent offenders in the ways of violent crime. Not only are we squandering lives that might otherwise be productive, but we are also creating a contempt for law not seen since Prohibition and extending police power in a manner not consistent with a free society. Paul is interviewed by Peter Slen of C-Span.
Source: C-Span: Ordinary Citizens and the Justice System

Eliminating the racial disparities inherent to our nation’s criminal-justice policies and practices must be at the heart of a renewed, refocused, and reenergized movement for racial justice in America. SOURCE: AP/ California Department of Corrections

Ebiowei, 48, carries an empty oil container on his head to a place where it would be filled with refined fuel at an illegal refinery site near river Nun in Nigeria's oil state of Bayelsa November 27, 2012. Locals in the industry say workers can earn $50 to $60 a day. Thousands of people in Nigeria engage in a practice known locally as 'oil bunkering' - hacking into pipelines to steal crude then refining it or selling it abroad. The practice, which leaves oil spewing from pipelines for miles around, managed to lift around a fifth of Nigeria's two million barrel a day production last year according to the finance ministry. Picture taken November 27, 2012. REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye

How To Steal A Million Barrels Of Oil

In Nigeria, it is normal for millions of gallons of oil to be stolen. The thieves sell their giant tankers full of oil on the Nigerian version of Craigslist. Reported by Julia Simon and Robert Smith.
Source: planet money: Episode 578: How To Steal A Million Barrels Of Oil
Download or Play Police State Part 1
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Music includes Gil Scott-Heron - Did You Hear What They Said, Rise Against - Hero Of War, The Gladiators - Streets of Freedom, Capitol Steps - 401K, Geoff Scott - Change the story, Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Capitol Steps - On The Metro, Symphony of Science - Our Biggest Challenge, Red Shadow - Gone Gone Gone, John Cremona - I Know A Place, Terry Gangstad - Chest hair Club, Dave Puls - We Won't Be Here Forever, Roy Zimmerman - Vote Republican 2.0, David Rovics - Beyond The Mall, Judy Collins - Both Sides Now, Jeff Foxworthy - Protect the House, Odetta - No Expectations, Usa For Africa - We Are The World, Anti-Flag - Turncoat, Blur - Out Of Time, Morales / Noro Orchestra - Mambo Coco