WEBVTT

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- In the summer of 2020 in
the context of the protests,

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the title just came to me.

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I mean, America was on fire then,

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and it just seemed like we've
been on fire since the 1960s,

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if not well before.

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(jazzy music)

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I'm Elizabeth Hinton,
author of America on Fire:

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The Untold Story of Police
Violence and Black Rebellion

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Since the 1960s.

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The book shows why the post-Civil
Rights turn to policing,

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surveillance, and
incarceration as urban policy

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is one of the biggest
domestic policy failures

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in the history of the United States.

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Beginning with the first kind of incident

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of mass political protest
in Harlem in 1964,

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after a 15-year-old high school student

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was killed by an NYPD officer,

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Lyndon Johnson called
this collective violence -

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throwing objects at
police, burning buildings

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and looting stores - as a riot,

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something that was completely
criminal and meaningless.

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In labeling this form
of political violence,

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this form of protest a riot,

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we have been trapped since the
1960s in this policy cycle,

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where then the only solution
becomes more policing.

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Federal policymakers and officials

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at all levels of government
failed to address

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the root causes that led people to feel

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that they had no other recourse,

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but to embrace this form of protest.

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The crucible years of Black rebellion,

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as I call them, really in the
late sixties and early 1970s

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were in response to the
expansion of police forces

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and targeted communities of color.

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In Miami in 1980 and LA in 1992,

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rebellions emerged in
those cities in response

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to the acquittal of a
group of police officers

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for an incident of police
violence with Rodney King,

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you know, the first kind of
viral video of police violence

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that was shown on the nightly news

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for nearly a year constantly.

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The officers involved
were acquitted by a jury

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and those acquittals led
to particularly brutal

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and destructive rebellions.

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And even now with Michael Brown
and George Floyd and beyond,

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it's not, you know, the
breaking up of a house party

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that's causing this form

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of collective political protest to emerge.

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It is in response to
incidents of police violence

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that just cannot be denied

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and that galvanized
people across the nation

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to say this form of policing has to end.

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In many ways, the launch
of the war on crime,

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Lyndon Johnson's call for the
war on crime in March 1965

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was very much in response to
the threat of Black rebellion.

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And the idea was if we
can expand police forces

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in communities of color and
militarize those forces,

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then this will somehow
serve as a deterrent.

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The strategy was to find people,

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especially young people,
before the riot began

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or before they committed a crime.

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It wasn't based on actual
crime that happened,

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but potential criminals in
low-income communities of color,

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searching for potential
criminals and arresting them

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and removing them from the community.

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And in middle-class and
suburban communities,

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policing is about protecting property

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and protecting residents from outsiders.

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Alternatives are consistently presented

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to policymakers at all
levels of government.

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Think about the Kerner Commission

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that Lyndon Johnson called in
the middle of the rebellion

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in Detroit in 1967,

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to evaluate the causes
and come up with solutions

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to prevent unrest in the future.

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The Kerner Commission
said, if we're serious,

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we have to go well beyond
the war on poverty,

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we need to create jobs
for low-income Americans.

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We need a complete
overhaul of public schools.

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We have to provide people
with decent housing.

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And the Kerner Commission also recognized

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the role of white racism.

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These recommendations were ignored.

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Policymakers, both
conservatives and liberals,

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have been really resistant
to investing the resource,

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to bring about the kind of transformation

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that will more equitably
redistribute resources

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and disrupt the racial hierarchies

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that have defined the
United States historically.

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The biggest takeaway of America on Fire

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is that if we are serious about
addressing these problems,

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we have to move beyond police reform.

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We need robust prevention programs

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that allocate resources to
jobs and to improving access

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to housing and healthcare opportunities.

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If that kind of structural transformation

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would have been realized then,

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would George Floyd still be with us today?

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Would we be a more racially
egalitarian society?

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And the only way we're gonna get there

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is if we actually begin to
invest in social welfare programs

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for people who need it most.