As calls to defund the police reverberate across America, today Thursday host Allen Ruff takes a look at the renewed controversy around police unions with labor and racial justice activist Bill Fletcher Jr. They talk about the nature of policing in a capitalist society, police accountability, the role of law enforcement in a democracy, and the response of the labor movement to police unions.

Bill Fletcher Jr. is a labor and racial justice activist and former president of TransAfrica Forum. He is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, an editorial board member of BlackCommentator.com, and author of “They’re Bankrupting Us!”: And 20 Other Myths About Unions (Beacon Press, 2012).

Cover photo by Bill Oxford on Unsplash