On this episode, Brian Burghart and I discuss his work to document every police related deaths in the U.S. since the year 2000. We talk about the lack of a comprehensive government run national database, why he came to create Fatal Encounters, what was required to create it, how it’s managed, and the future of the database.

From www.fatalencounters.org:

Hi, my name is D. Brian Burghart. I’m a lifelong, award-winning journalist. I’ve got two master’s degrees–one in English writing and one in journalism. I’m the former editor/publisher of the Reno News & Review and a former journalism instructor at the University of Nevada, Reno. These days, I’m founder and executive director of Fatal Encounters Dot Org and a part-time researcher for the University of Southern California.

I’m based in Reno, Nevada, but I’m currently traveling and seeing how far I can push Verizon’s Unlimited limits. I’ve created this page because I believe in a democracy, citizens should be able to figure out how many people are killed during interactions with law enforcement, why they were killed, and whether training and policies can be modified to decrease the number of officer-involved deaths.

Fatal Encounters intends to help create a database of all deaths through police interaction in the United States since Jan. 1, 2000. We are not a finished product. We’re just the first step toward creating an impartial, comprehensive and searchable national database of people killed during interactions with police. We expect other media organizations, law enforcement, universities, artists and activist groups will advance our work, and that’s why we let anyone use the data for any reason for free.

This site will remain as impartial and data-driven as possible, directed by the theory that Americans should be able to answer some simple questions about the use of deadly force by police: How many people are killed in interactions with law enforcement in the United States of America? Are they increasing? What do those people look like? Can policies and training be modified to have fewer officer-involved shootings and improve outcomes and safety for both officers and citizens?

Tom Baker has been a PhD student in UMSL's Criminology and Criminal Justice program since 2017. Tom received his BA in Political Science from Arizona State University and worked as a police officer for approximately nine years. His research interests include police culture, use of force, and qualitative research methods. 

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In this episode, Ashley N. Jackson from Washington University-St. Louis and I discuss the psychological impacts of police violence on adolescent Black boys. We talk about the history of race in the U.S., how it intersects police violence, "the talk", and Jackson's research.

About Ashley N. Jackson:
https://sites.wustl.edu/ajackson/

In 2009, I earned a BS in Administration of Justice from George Mason University and an AM (MSW) from the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration in 2011. During the 2017-2018 cycle, I earned a Fulbright Research grant to conduct research in Cali, Colombia where I explored how local NGOs support vulnerable communities impacted by armed conflict and violence.
Prior to moving to Colombia, I worked at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) in New York in program development, advocacy and research on a variety of criminal justice issues. Specifically, I provided support to communities across the country addressing public safety issues. I also conducted mixed-methods research on youth experiences while incarcerated and during their transition back into the community and the impact of police contact on  youth and families in New York City.

I currently study historical and contemporary patterns of police violence, its effects on psychological well-being and racial socialization among communities of color.

I love cats, traveling (when we could!), and baking.

Tom Baker has been a PhD student in UMSL's Criminology and Criminal Justice program since 2017. Tom received his BA in Political Science from Arizona State University and worked as a police officer for approximately nine years. His research interests include police culture, use of force, and qualitative research methods.

Article Discussed:
Jackson, A. N., Butler-Barnes, S. T., Stafford, J. D., Robinson, H., & Allen, P. C. (2020). “Can I Live”: Black American Adolescent Boys’ Reports of Police Abuse and the Role of Religiosity on Mental Health. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(12), 4330.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/12/4330?type=check_update&version=1&fbclid=IwAR1jFFVTBy07sy6RIR0vB2-zxL9SDr-etLt8rkF15B4qeihXO3y0h_l3Tik

Abstract:
"State sanctioned violence aimed at Black individuals and communities is an issue that has pervaded American history and society since before the establishment of the United States. For Black males, anticipating and preparing for involuntary police contact, unfortunately, is an inevitable part of life. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of reports of police abuse on mental health and perceived racial out-group perceptions and the protective role of religiosity among a nationally representative sample of Black American adolescent boys (Mage = 14.98). Linear multiple regression was used to determine the interactive effects of subjective religiosity and reported police abuse on Black American adolescent boys. Higher reports of subjective religiosity were associated with lower depressive symptomatology. Reports of police abuse were associated with lower public regard beliefs (belief that society views Black Americans less favorably). Results highlight the impact experiencing police abuse has on Black adolescent boys and we conclude with implications, areas for future research and intervention points." 

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In this episode, Professor Alex Vitale from Brooklyn College and I discuss his book The End of Policing. We talk about the current crisis and how the use of policing as a form of social control can be reduced in the U.S. We talk about the drug war, the mental health crisis, deindustrialization, and automated driving technology. 

http://www.alex-vitale.info/

Alex S. Vitale is Professor of Sociology and Coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College and a Visiting Professor at London Southbank University. He has spent the last 30 years writing about policing and consults both police departments and human rights organizations internationally. Prof. Vitale is the author of City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics and The End of Policing. His academic writings on policing have appeared in Policing and Society, Police Practice and Research, Mobilization, and Contemporary Sociology. He is also a frequent essayist, whose writings have been published in The NY Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, The Nation, Vice News, Fortune, and USA Today. He has also appeared on CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, NPR, PBS, Democracy Now, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

Book discussed:

The End of Policing. New York and London: Verso. 2017. 

Tom Baker has been a PhD student in UMSL's Criminology and Criminal Justice program since 2017. Tom received his BA in Political Science from Arizona State University and worked as a police officer for approximately nine years. His research interests include police culture, use of force, and qualitative research methods. 

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On this episode, Green Beret, Tillman Scholar, and Harvard Law graduate Logan Leslie and I discuss the fuzzy line between domestic law enforcement and the military. We talk about the veteran experience and how the Global War on Terrorism influences U.S. policing. We also discuss how to control police use of force and also touch on his recent experience working the protests in Atlanta with his National Guard unit. 

Per the Tillman Foundation:

Logan Leslie is an honors graduate of Harvard College and has served for over 12 years in the United States Army as a scout and as a Special Forces Combat Diver. Enlisting on his 17th birthday, Logan has over 26 months of combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Currently, a JD/MBA student at Harvard, Logan is a Tillman Scholar, an InSITE entrepreneurship fellow, and the founder and co-president of the Free Enterprise Club at the Harvard Business School. While a student, Logan spent summers at the private equity firm Crestview Partners, Hedge Fund Solutions at the Blackstone Group, and at the Boston Consulting Group. He continues to serve as a Special Forces team member in the Army National Guard.

Passionate about veterans’ education issues, Logan has volunteered extensively to help enlisted veterans achieve academic excellence in order to continue to serve their communities after leaving the military. Logan currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his alluring wife, two enchanting daughters, and one unruly puppy.

He also created a venture capital firm dedicated to empowering veterans:

https://www.nrockusa.com/

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On this episode, Professor Rebecca Earle and I discuss early forms of social control in the Americas. Professor Earle studies the history of food and focuses on the Spanish conquest. She describes what “policing” might have looked like in 1492 and how the diets of European and Native populations were used as a tool of statecraft. We also discuss the creation of race during the early conquest and how we are living with those consequences today.   

Get the book discussed:

https://www.amazon.com/Body-Conquistador-Experience-1492-1700-Perspectives-ebook/dp/B0089NUPV4

Description from Amazon:

“This fascinating history explores the dynamic relationship between overseas colonisation and the bodily experience of eating. It reveals the importance of food to the colonial project in Spanish America and reconceptualises the role of European colonial expansion in shaping the emergence of ideas of race during the Age of Discovery. Rebecca Earle shows that anxieties about food were fundamental to Spanish understandings of the new environment they inhabited and their interactions with the native populations of the New World. Settlers wondered whether Europeans could eat New World food, whether Indians could eat European food and what would happen to each if they did. By taking seriously their ideas about food we gain a richer understanding of how settlers understood the physical experience of colonialism and of how they thought about one of the central features of the colonial project. The result is simultaneously a history of food, colonialism and race.”

From Professor Earle’s Faculty Page:

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/people/staff_index/earle/

“I am a historian of food, and of the cultural history of Spanish America and early modern Europe. I am interested in how ordinary, every-day cultural practices such as eating or dressing, or even using postage stamps, shape how we think about the world. My early work was rooted in a very specific part of the world (southern Colombia). These days I tend to study the movement of ideas and practices across larger geographies.

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Check out https://www.schumachercg.com/ for information regarding Rick’s consultant work. 

On this episode, former psychological operations soldier Rick Schumacher and I discuss his path into the military, the recent deployment of federal officers to U.S. cities, as well as the use of PSYOPS and propaganda during the recent national uprisings. We also discuss the rules of engagement followed by soldiers in war zones and how those rules compare to the procedures followed by domestic police. We finish by discussing police training, the future of the BLM movement, and the importance of civil institutions such as the Tillman Foundation.

Per the Tillman Foundation Website:

“Rick enlisted in the US Army while still in high school, with a need to take control of his own future. As a Psychological Operations Specialist, he learned quickly the importance of being a servant-leader. Over 11 years of service as a cross-cultural communicator, he saw parts of the world ravaged by war, poverty, and disaster. These experiences instilled in him the need to do more to protect and serve the neediest among us, domestically as well as internationally. 

Working as a criminal investigator since leaving the military in 2004, a degree in Criminal Justice seemed like a natural progression for Rick. During his degree program, and is his subsequent graduate education, Rick has studied the interrelation between poverty, social vulnerability, criminality, and disaster risk.    

As a Tillman Scholar, Rick continues to work on projects that reduce social vulnerability in struggling populations. Currently serving as a compliance officer in a multi-national corporation, Rick hopes to look after the rights of under-served manufacturing workers in Africa, South America, the Middle East, Asia, and India.”

Tom Baker has been a PhD student in UMSL's Criminology and Criminal Justice program since 2017. Tom received his BA in Political Science from Arizona State University and worked as a police officer for approximately nine years. His research interests include police culture, use of force, and qualitative research methods. 

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Check out coffeeordie.com to see Ethan’s recent work.

On this episode, Coffee or Die senior editor Ethan Rocke and I discuss his recent trip to the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in Seattle. We also talk about his experiences as a Marine combat correspondent, the social division currently facing the U.S., his recent conversation with General James Mattis, and how we can move forward as a country.

Bio: Ethan E. Rocke is a senior editor for Coffee or Die. Born in Los Angeles and raised in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills, he is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning photographer and filmmaker in Portland, Oregon. He served as an infantryman with the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, deploying once to Kosovo for peacekeeping operations. After leaving the Army, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps as a “storyteller of Marines,” serving in Okinawa and the Asia-Pacific region with III Marine Expeditionary Force and at the Marine Corps Motion Picture and Television Liaison Office in Los Angeles, where he served as a consultant on dozens of television shows and documentaries and several feature films. His work has been published in Maxim Magazine, American Legion Magazine and many others. He is co-author of “The Last Punisher: A SEAL Team THREE Sniper’s True Account of the Battle of Ramadi.”

 Reach Ethan:

Twitter @EthanRocke

Facebook @eerocke

Website: https://ethanrockemedia.com/

 Ethan’s Piece on CHAZ:

https://coffeeordie.com/chop-autonomous-zone-essay/

 Ethan’s video footage of the sheriff mentioned:

https://coffeeordie.com/sheriff-swanson-flint-michigan/?fbclid=IwAR0g6e0JczVnRd_cvClkmlr0cvGhZVJuT_qYQdF0rMNiQ91ROjYnSURHPrs

 Ethan’s article “Commitment Issues”:

https://www.legion.org/magazine/230217/commitment-issues?fbclid=IwAR28157FRjFdUPessezuxv-ff-7pi50hcx4iYg8EMiMb1KUJQANPrk0xiUY

Tom Baker has been a PhD student in UMSL's Criminology and Criminal Justice program since 2017. Tom received his BA in Political Science from Arizona State University and worked as a police officer for approximately nine years. His research interests include police culture, use of force, and qualitative research methods. 

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On this episode, Guy Hamilton-Smith and I discuss sex crimes, his experience as a victim and an offender, the origins of the #metoo movement, how the U.S. manages sex related offenses, obstacles to achieving justice for victims of sex crimes, and how to improve the system. 

Bio: Hamilton-Smith advocates for better mechanisms of accountability in our society. Victims are often and easily forgotten and neglected by our justice system. To compensate, the state offers more punishment as opposed to holding more wrongdoers to account. Such a bargain has not seen more accountability for those who cause harm, nor more equity for victims, but only a relatively unchecked expansion of state authority which has been purchased with a disregard for constitutional principles and human rights. While perhaps most would be fine with such a sacrifice if it meant we built safer communities, evidence indicates that this is not the case.

Reach Guy:
Twitter @G_Padraic

Website: https://guyhamiltonsmith.com/

Article Discussed:

Hamilton-Smith, G. (2020). The Agony & the Ecstasy of# MeToo: The Hidden Costs of Reliance on Carceral Politics. Sw. L. Rev., 49, 93.

Abstract:

Many have considered the conversation sparked by #MeToo as a necessary and overdue interrogation of not only the spectre of common sexual harms in American society, but also the inadequacy of traditional mechanisms of accountability. Against this backdrop, smaller-scale flashpoints have erupted over perceived inadequacy of punishment, such as the successful campaign to recall California judge Aaron Persky from the bench over what many saw as leniency in the widely-publicized case of People v. Turner. This paper analyzes the complex relationship between #MeToo and the carceral state. In arguably the most punitive nation on the planet— particularly when considering the breadth and scope of public post- conviction registries—I argue that seeking to address broad and systemic failures of accountability by advocating for more severe punishment paradoxically undermines the larger goals of #MetToo to the extent that those goals are concerned with effectively challenging systems that perpetuate sexual harms. An approach that harmonizes efforts to prevent sexual harms and bring those who cause harm to account without endorsement of carceral politics is explored.

Link to article: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338194844_The_Agony_The_Ecstasy_Of_Metoo_The_Hidden_Costs_Of_Reliance_On_Carceral_Politics

Tom Baker has been a PhD student in UMSL's Criminology and Criminal Justice program since 2017. Tom received his BA in Political Science from Arizona State University and worked as a police officer for approximately nine years. His research interests include police culture, use of force, and qualitative research methods. 

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FROM THE BATTLEFIELD TO THE BOOKSHELF – EXPLORING POLICE FICTION – Terry Weaver Jr. Ep. 20

On this episode, Terry Weaver and I discuss his book A Dark Day in Texas. We talk about the Pat Tillman Foundation, his time as a Navy Corpsman, and the role those experiences have played in shaping the police fiction he creates. 

Terry grew up in the Mountain View Trailerpark in San Bernardino California, a suburb of Los Angeles. His childhood was tough, so at 16 years old he left home.

At 17, Terry graduated In 1999 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a Corpsman. He was deployed as a combat medic with the U.S. Marines and served a tour of duty in Kuwait and Iraq from 2002 to 2003. After five years of active duty, Terry received an honorable discharge.

He attended Mays Business School at Texas A&M and received the Pat Tillman Foundation Scholarship established in the namesake of Army Ranger and NFL star player Pat Tillman
 who was killed in action. Terry earned a Bachelor of Business Administration and then spent ten years in various sales and marketing roles.

In 2014, Terry founded VEL INSTITUTE, a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit with a mission to “Connect and Develop Veterans, Entrepreneurs, and Leaders through collaborative learning.” In 2017, Terry moved into a full-time role as the executive director of VEL INSTITUTE.

In 2019, Terry was selected as a lead actor in the forthcoming TV series, Breaking Strongholds, being filmed in Montgomery, Texas.

Reach Terry:
https://www.facebook.com/terryweaverofficial/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/terryweaverjr/

https://terryweaverbooks.com/

https://www.velinstitute.org/

Books Discussed:

A Dark Day in Texas by Terry Weaver

https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Day-Texas-Terry-Weaver/dp/1733090223/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=a+dark+day+in+texas&qid=1593649848&sr=8-1

The Evolution of a Leader by Terry Weaver

https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Leader-Terry-Weaver/dp/1733090207/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=evolution+of+a+leader+terry+weaver&qid=1593649731&sr=8-1

The Television Series Discussed:

https://www.breakingstrongholds.com/

Tom Baker has been a PhD student in UMSL's Criminology and Criminal Justice program since 2017. Tom received his BA in Political Science from Arizona State University and worked as a police officer for approximately nine years. His research interests include police culture, use of force, and qualitative research methods. https://www.umsl.edu/ccj/Graduate%20Students/baker.html

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On this episode, Professor Valcore and I discuss the history of policing in the transgender community, the current state of affairs, what impact has training on addressing the problem, and steps we can take to create an institution that provides all communities with fair and equitable police services.  

Jace L. Valcore, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Houston Downtown. His educational background includes degrees in Sociology, Criminal Justice, and Public Affairs.  This multidisciplinary training fuels research interests in public policy, criminal law, social justice, and the criminal legal system with a specifically queer lens focused on the experiences, needs, and elevation of the LGBTQ community.  He is currently completing projects on the experiences of LGBTQ police officers, media analysis of the 2016 mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, FL, hate speech in political campaigns, and more.  He provides queer competency workshops, including Trans 101 in-service police training, and serves on UHD’s Criminal Justice Training Center Advisory Board and the Houston Independent Police Oversight Board.  https://www.uhd.edu/academics/public-service/criminal-justice/Pages/valcore.aspx

Map of Gender Diverse Cultures from PBS Independent Lens: https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/content/two-spirits_map-html/

DOJ Community Relations Service Roll Call Training Video: https://www.justice.gov/crs/video/law-enforcement-and-transgender-community-crs-roll-call-training-video

Tom Baker has been a PhD student in UMSL's Criminology and Criminal Justice program since 2017. Tom received his BA in Political Science from Arizona State University and worked as a police officer for approximately nine years. His research interests include police culture, use of force, and qualitative research methods. https://www.umsl.edu/ccj/Graduate%20Students/baker.html

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