August 19 – Regulating the Unique Life and Death Power of Police Who Have a License to Kill; The Author of “Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of an American City; Turf Battles Among Police on the Tenth Day of Protest in Ferguson

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an historical perspective on race riots in America going back to the 1960’s where invariably the spark that ignites the protests was the killing of a black man by a white policeman. James Meyerson, who served as an Assistant General Counsel of the NAACP and who now maintains a civil rights trial and appellate practice with a longstanding focus on law enforcement misconduct, joins us. We will discuss his article in The Huffington Post “What Is the Kerner Commission and Why It Should be Revisited in Light of Ferguson” and the need for a similar high-level inquiry like the 1968 Kerner Commission today to curtail the life and death power of local police and hold them accountable for the abuse of the unique power they have with a license to kill.

Part 2

Then we look into the changing demographics of St. Louis with Colin Gordon, a Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Iowa and author of “Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of an American City” which is also an interactive digital mapping project on the web at Mapping Decline. He joins us to discuss his research that shows racial and economic stress building for years is the tinder fueling the anger and frustration that has exploded in Ferguson.

Part 3

Then finally, we will speak with Garrett Duncan, a Professor of African American Studies at the University of Washington in St. Louis about the extent to which outside troublemakers from as far as New York and California are fanning the flames in Ferguson and the turf battles amongst the various Federal, State and local police who have been unable to quell ten days of protests and looting, as well as the need for adult supervision to take charge of the situation and conduct a swift and credible inquiry that results in accountability and justice.