Peter Moskos is a criminologist and sociologist who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He is also a former Baltimore City Cop, which was the subject of his award-winning 2008 book, Cop In The Hood. Peter was one of the very first guests on The Unspeakable, back in August of 2020, when he talked about the unrest following the death of George Floyd and the mainstreaming of police abolition messaging. A lot has happened since then and Meghan invited him back to reflect on the last two and a half years and talk about what progress, if any, has been made when it comes to police conduct, media coverage of policing, and, most of all, public perceptions of police brutality and the number of Americans killed by cops every year. 

 

Peter stayed overtime for some still-very-serious but also fun conversation about how he feels about his life these days, what he does and does not miss about the 1980s and 90s, and his relatively new hobby playing the autoharp. Most of all, he talked about the book he’s been writing on the history of policing in New York City from the 1970s onward. To hear that portion, become a paying subscriber at meghdaum.substack.com.