Minority of One

In this episode, I interview Dr. Candace McCoy, a prominent criminologist, about her late husband, Dr. James J. Fyfe. After working as an NYPD cop during the 1960s and 1970s, Fyfe earned a PhD in criminal justice and became an outspoken advocate of police reform, testifying in many police misconduct lawsuits on behalf of the plaintiffs. Among his top concerns were excessive force and racism within law enforcement. In this capacity, he was instrumental both in ending the longstanding policy in most police departments of allowing officers to shoot fleeing, unarmed suspects as standard protocol and exposing the New Jersey State Police for racially profiling nonwhite drivers.

0:00-1:10: Intro

1:11-9:40: Candace's background, how she and James met, and why he was a true "gentle giant"

9:41-25:55: James's childhood, family, how James strove to prioritize nondiscrimination and protection of human life as a patrolman, what he called "separate trigger finger," and elective vs. non-elective shootings, my own "72 hour rule," and when lethal force can be necessary for police to use

25:56-38:37: How James helped end the "fleeing felon rule" and his relationship with Chief Patrick Murphy

38:38-51:22: Why James didn't testify in suits against the NYPD and broke with many fellow progressives on the shooting of Amadou Diallo and the problems with Broken Windows policing

51:23-57:25: The need for better police training and the use of force continuum and why it's important for both teachers and cops not to escalate unnecessarily

57:26-1:07: Why James believed root causes of crime were important, Candace's take on "defund the police" and the drug war and how she thinks James might have viewed these issues.

1:07-1:24: How James helped bust the New Jersey State Troops For Racial Profiling; closing remarks

In the conclusion to my "death penalty in fantasy literature" trilogy, I analyze how capital punishment is dealt with in the Harry Potter series, as well as the wizarding world more broadly. After briefly discussing how both capital punishment and segregation laws are used as examples of wizarding America's backwardness in the Fantastic Beasts films, I turn to the book series. Find out why I think the Dementor's Kiss is probably meant to parallel capital punishment and why I think Sirius and Buckbeak are both used to illustrate the perils of State executions. Learn why I think the Harry Potter series leans anti-death penalty but is less firm in its stance than Lord of the Rings. Learn why the Dursleys are probably right-wing. And find out my take on how the climax of the series tries to split the difference of killing off Voldemort without endorsing capital punishment.

In Part 2 of my trilogy of podcast episodes examining how 3 fantasy series address capital punishment, I analyze Lord of the Rings. I make the case that, in stark contrast to Narnia, LOTR takes a very strong anti-death penalty stance that comes up multiple times in each book of the trilogy. I examine a J.R.R. Tolkien quote that has sometimes been construed as pro-death penalty and give my take on why this is a misinterpretation. I discuss how Tolkien's view of the "just deserts" theory of punishment, expressed through Gandalf, was the opposite of C.S. Lewis's view. I discuss how heroic characters in LOTR continually pass up opportunities to kill villains except on the field of battle, long after many Narnian heroes would have resorted to hanging. And I make the case for which American politicians various LOTR characters parallel on criminal justice: why Gandalf is like Bernie Sanders, why Galadriel is a bit of an elven Elizabeth Warren, why Aragorn might be called the Gavin Newsom of Gondor, and why Treebeard was the first ever prison abolitionist.

This is the 1st part in a trilogy of podcast episodes in which I look at how the issue of capital punishment is addressed in 3 fantasy series: Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter. In this episode, I focus on Narnia. I'll be making the case that of the three series, Chronicles of Narnia takes the most positive view of capital punishment, leaning pro-death penalty. Learn what C.S. Lewis wrote about capital punishment outside of his fiction. And get my thoughts on why I think the Narnia series leans toward endorsing the death penalty as an appropriate punishment for the State to impose.

This episode critiques obscenity laws, argues for their full abolition, and makes the case that premise behind them conflicts with one of the basic purposes of free speech. You'll get to hear the thoughts of both the late SCOTUS Judge Hugo Black and Grandpa Munster about obscenity laws, as well as getting to hear me do my best Jerry Nadler impression.

In this episode, I discuss what ranked choice voting is, how Democrats' failure to push it helped lead to them losing in 2000 and 2016 and the demise of Roe v. Wade, why we need to demand they do better on this issue, and what Rosario Dawson and I have in common.

This episode marks the final part of my trilogy on the history, current status, and possible future of racial profiling. I'll be examining what Obama did and didn't do to tackle the problem; the way in which racial profiling helped cause the Philando Castile murder; the dumbest thing CNN's Jonah Goldberg ever said about racial profiling back when he worked for National Review; discussions of the issue of racial profiling in the 2016 and 2020 Elections; how Donald Trump's presidency was a gift to racial profiling practitioners and proponents; recent developments on racial profiling at the local, state, and federal level; the unsuccessful attempts to pass a federal ban on racial profiling through a broader police reform bill; the way in which Biden's presidency represents noteworthy but limited progress on racial profiling; some of the best possible solutions for finally curbing racial profiling.

This episode is the 2nd part of my series on the history, current status, and possible future of racial profiling. It covers the history of racial profiling from the mid 1990s to the late 2000s. In this episode, you'll learn: how local and state police departments, U.S. Customs, taxi services, and TSA were all engulfed in various controversies over the issue, with the New Jersey State Police ending up in the eye of the storm of a time; how the drug war and civil asset forfeiture made the problem harder to address; discussions over racial profiling in the 2000 Presidential Election; the surprising reason a Weekly Standard columnist criticized Rudy Giuliani on race issues; how the End Racial Profiling Act gained and then lost momentum right before and after 9/11; and attempts to address the issue in a post-9/11 world. You'll learn about dogged foes of racial profiling such as John Lewis, Amo Houghton, Jeffrey Goldberg, Randall Kennedy, Danny Glover, Larry King, Robert Francis, Frank Lautenberg, Jon Corzine, Russ Feingold, Laura Murphy, and then-state legislator Barack Obama. You'll learn about the villains of the conflict such as Christine Todd Whitman, Strom Thurmond, Alan Keyes, George F. Will, Heather MacDonald, National Review, and the Weekly Standard's William Tucker. And you'll learn about the people like George W. Bush and former NYPD and U.S. Customs Commissioner Ray Kelly whose views and legacy on racial profiling are tough to suss out. You'll learn about cops who defended racial profiling, such as Steve Young, Gary McLhinney, and Bernard Parks. And you'll learn about cops who stood against racial profiling, such as James Fyfe, Aaron Campbell, and (despite his flaws) Eric Adams.

This represents the first of a trilogy of episodes covering the history of racial profiling, what the current status of the problem is, and where the issue may be headed. This episode focuses mainly on examining when and how racial profiling started, including the fact that the practice existed for centuries before the term actually, the history of controversy surrounding it, and a number of court cases dealing directly and indirectly with it from the 1960s through the 1990s.

In this episode, I delve into Angela Merkel's record on gay rights as Germany's chancellor. I argue that while her gay rights record is to the left of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, she's actually less gay-friendly even than British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.