From the slave patrols of the 1700s and the first publicly funded police departments of the 1800s to the uprisings of the 1960s and 2020s, the scope and scale of American law enforcement has expanded over time. Once a tool of the powerful to maintain social order, the police have now become a power unto themselves.

The Netflix documentary film Power offers a visceral and immersive journey to demonstrate how we’ve arrived at this moment in history. It examines urgent questions about a growing and largely unchecked authority: who is policed, who is protected, who gets to decide, and why.

In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews director Yance Ford.

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Power yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on. 

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