Just how far will the criminal justice system go to quash dissent? The case of popular police auditor Otto the Watchdog is a cautionary tale of how far prosecutors and cops will go to pursue charges against people who hold them accountable.

In this episode, PAR speaks with Otto the Watchdog about his three-year ordeal fighting charges for holding a sign police said was offensive, and why he made the decision not to plead guilty after prosecutors offered him a deal to avoid jail.

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Offensive Facebook posts led to the arrest of activist Joshua Martinez. But his treatment in court and $1 million bail reveal the often-overlooked role played by judges in the questionable and unequal implementation of the law—a role that judges often fill with little to no democratic accountability. Martinez is currently under a gag order, so in this episode of PAR we speak to auditor and cop watcher James Freeman about his case, and about the challenging task of reforming the judiciary.

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Citizen journalists continue to play a critical role in holding police accountable, which is why they face increasing pushback from the underlying system that bolsters bad cops. PAR speaks to cop watchers Laura Shark and Lackluster about the challenges they face when reporting on police, and how auditing law enforcement has become an increasingly dicey occupation.

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The nation's endless war on mind-altering substances has many casualties, some who refuse to be forgotten. That's why Catherine Freeman is coming forward after 47 years to describe how her family was set up by a drug informant. In this episode of PAR, we listen to her story about how the intersection of law enforcement and politics tore her family apart, and why the truth must finally be told.

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What would cause a former cop to cross the thin blue line and use his camera to monitor law enforcement and hold police accountable? For well-known police auditor James Madison, it was a fraught encounter with a police officer who threatened to falsely arrest him on his own property for filming him. In this week's PAR, we speak to Madison about his conversion from cop to cop watcher, and about the deep issues that plague law enforcement.

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Shortly after our story aired on how police put LA resident Daniel Alvarez in handcuffs for a bogus traffic violation, he was pulled over again for allegedly switching lanes without signaling. In this episode of PAR, we explore the continued use of questionable traffic stops to harass people like Daniel, and what these troubling tactics say about the state of American policing across the country.

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Michelle Lucas, a community activist and grandmother of four, was devastated when she was charged with two felonies for allegedly passing a counterfeit bill. Our investigation uncovered evidence that forced prosecutors to admit the police had made a mistake and had an unexpected impact on her case.

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A Los Angeles man says he was targeted by police after he was pulled over for crossing a line in front of a stop sign; but after placing him in handcuffs and arresting the passenger in his car, a recording cellphone caught the real reason cops pulled him over.

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The hosts of PAR explore how pushback against calls to defund the police seldom acknowledge chronically wasteful spending by police departments that absolutely should be cut.

Public debates about "Defund the Police" have seemingly devolved into an all-or-nothing rhetorical war with little room for nuance. But opponents of the slogan and the movement behind it routinely ignore the decades of profligate spending and wasteful use of taxpayer dollars that has become commonplace for many police departments. In this TRNN podcast, the hosts of the Police Accountability Report take a close look at the numbers and expose some of the most egregious police spending.

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As we continue our investigation into over-policing and mass incarceration in rural America, we return to Pocomoke City on Maryland's lower eastern shore to speak with Michelle Lucas. Lucas is a pizza delivery driver, a proud grandmother, and community activist who asserts that she was railroaded into a felony conviction that could result in up to 2 years in prison.

Tune in every Thursday at 9:00 p.m. EST for new episodes of the Police Accountability Report: https://therealnews.com/par

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