Recall This Book

117* Laurence Ralph Reckons With Police Violence (EF, JP)

Listen Later

In the third episode of our Global Policing series, Elizabeth and John spoke back in 2020 with anthropologist Laurence Ralph about The Torture Letters: Reckoning with Police Violence (U Chicago Press, 2020). The book relates the decades-long history in which hundreds of people (mostly Black men) were tortured by the Chicago Police. Fascinatingly, it is framed as a series of open letters that explore the layers of silence and complicity that enabled torture and the activist movements that have helped to uncover this history and implement forms of collective redress and repair. Elizabeth and John ask Laurence about that genre choice, and he unpacks his thinking about responsibility, witnessing, trauma and channels of activism. Arendt’s “banality of evil” briefly surfaces.

Mentioned in this episode:

  • Laurence Ralph, Renegade Dreams: Living through Injury in Gangland Chicago (U Chicago Press, 2014)
  • James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
  • Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
  • Mahomedou Ould Slahi, Guantánamo Diary
  • Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa)
  • Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963, “banality of evil”; not optimism but hopefulness)


    • Recallable …..Stuff

    • Frederick Douglas, A Speech given at the Unveiling……
    • Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” (here introduced by Angela Davis)


      • Read Here:

      45 Global Policing 3 Laurence Ralph: Reckoning with Police Violence

      Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

      ...more
      View all episodesView all episodes
      Download on the App Store
      Recall This BookBy Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
      • 4.7
      • 4.7
      • 4.7
      • 4.7
      • 4.7

      4.7

      29 ratings

      More shows like Recall This Book

      View all
      This American Life by This American Life

      This American Life

      91,069 Listeners

      Radiolab by WNYC Studios

      Radiolab

      43,969 Listeners

      Fresh Air by NPR

      Fresh Air

      38,526 Listeners

      The New Yorker Radio Hour by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

      The New Yorker Radio Hour

      6,740 Listeners

      99% Invisible by Roman Mars

      99% Invisible

      26,212 Listeners

      The Book Review by The New York Times

      The Book Review

      3,874 Listeners

      The LRB Podcast by The London Review of Books

      The LRB Podcast

      292 Listeners

      Political Gabfest by Slate Podcasts

      Political Gabfest

      8,473 Listeners

      Backlisted by Backlisted

      Backlisted

      597 Listeners

      London Review Bookshop Podcast by London Review Bookshop

      London Review Bookshop Podcast

      128 Listeners

      The TLS Podcast by The TLS

      The TLS Podcast

      185 Listeners

      Why Theory by Why Theory

      Why Theory

      587 Listeners

      Conspirituality by Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker

      Conspirituality

      2,039 Listeners

      The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

      The Ezra Klein Show

      16,051 Listeners

      Past Present Future by David Runciman

      Past Present Future

      325 Listeners