Scott and Matt Agorist discuss the recent protests against police brutality that have swept through cities across the nation. Both agree that America’s police are in serious need of reform, though see deficiencies in the proposed solutions of movements like Black Lives Matter. For example, trying to end the war on drugs would remove the excuse for most police interactions in the first place, particularly those with racial minorities and in poor neighborhoods. Simply trying to eliminate personal bias on the level of individual officers, on the other hand, may not be a very promising avenue for reform.

Discussed on the show:

“Beyond George Floyd: A Look at the 400 Americans Killed By Police in 2020” (The Libertarian Institute)

“The State’s Priority Is Protecting Itself, Not You” (The Libertarian Institute)

“Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender on the intent to defund and dismantle the city’s police department” (Twitter)

“Brazil (1985)” (IMDb)

Matt Agorist is an independent journalist and Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project. He is also a former marine and NSA intelligence operator. Follow him on Twitter @MattAgorist.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton

All right, y'all welcome it's Scott Horton Show. I am the director of the Libertarian Institute editorial director of antiwar.com, author of the book Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. And I've recorded more than 5000 interviews going back to 2003, all of which are available at ScottHorton.org. You can also sign up to the podcast feed full archive is also available at youtube.com/ScottHortonShow.

Matt Agorist

Good, man, thank you for having me on. And I'm glad we finally got to meet up. I know we've been trying to do this for a couple of days now.

Scott Horton

Yeah, I'm, I'm way behind on my cops and murders and protests and riots and soldiers interviews here. I've been waiting for you. Now I got so, so much is going on. I wanted to start with this article that you wrote for the freethought project that I poached and ran at the libertarian Institute as well about the 400 other people who were already killed by the cops in America this year, before they ever got around to murdering George Floyd. And what this really means for the American people and say, particularly for people who actually don't live that experience at all and might not even believe the number could be that high.

Matt Agorist

Yeah, I mean, that's, I wrote that pert that that Piece not to take away from the tragedy that was George Floyd's death. But to just you know, just just capitalize on that moment. There were people who were paying attention to police brutality. And just to show them the actual scope of what we're dealing with here. You know, these people they they're protesting the death of George Floyd out there right now, but they're also protesting the the hundreds of deaths that already took place this year at the hands of Americans. Peace Officers,

Scott Horton

do you have like a good ballpark estimate of what percentage of those are really unarmed and unwarranted versus people who hate you draw down on a cop? You? You know, that's what happens. Coming?

Matt Agorist

Yeah. I mean, well, one of the cases that I cited in that actual article was Michael Ramos, who was killed by Austin police on video. Yeah.