November 24 – The Firing of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel; Anticipating the Verdict in the Police Shooting of Michael Brown;The History of Police Shootings of African Americans

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the resignation or firing of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and speak with a former Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb, the author of “A New National Security Strategy in an Age of Terrorists, Tyrants, and Weapons of Mass Destruction”. We discuss how one of the most qualified Secretaries of Defense in decades fell out of favor with the increasingly insular and amateurish national security team in the White House and whether Hagel was thrown under the bus because of the White House’s strategic incoherence in Middle East policy as the U.S. military gets more involved in the wars in Syria and Iraq.

Part 2

Then we try to anticipate the local reaction in St. Louis, Missouri to the verdict expected in the shooting death of the unarmed teenager Michael Brown who was shot six times by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Garrett Duncan, a Professor of Education and African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri joins us to discuss the likely decision by the grand jury of nine whites and three blacks not to indict Officer Wilson and the mood in the racially divided city and suburbs of St. Louis after months of often-violent demonstrations against the largely white police force in the predominately black community of Ferguson which has a history of police brutality and harassment of African-Americans.

Part 3

Then we get an analysis of the possible verdicts against Officer Wilson and whether there is an appearance of justice or whether justice is being served in the shooting death of Michael Brown. Kenneth Nunn, a Professor of Law and the Assistant Director of the Criminal Justice Center at the University of Florida joins us to discuss the anticipated verdict in the context of the history of police shooting of African Americans and the verdict in the killing of the unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin that exonerated a vigilante in the state of Florida that has a "stand your ground" law.