Episode 4 – ‘Policing the Minds of the People’

In this final episode of DOPE IS DEATH we will talk about why Dr. Mutulu Shakur is still in prison after 34 years. And how far the government will go to use the criminal legal system to shut down political movements that confront it. His longtime comrade Watani Tyehimba will tell us about the FBI’s COINTELPRO program and how they became subject to it. And attorney Brad Thomson of The People’s Law Office will explain to us the current status of his case and why Dr. Shakur should be released. Featured guests: Watani Tyehimba Brad Thomson

Om Podcasten

By the early 1970s, heroin was flooding the streets of New York City. Black and Puerto Rican neighbourhoods like Harlem and the South Bronx were hardest hit. This four part podcast series explores how Dr. Mutulu Shakur, stepfather of the late Tupac Shakur, along with members of the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords, combined community health with radical politics to create the first acupuncture detoxification program in America. Over the course of the 1970s, the Lincoln Detox People’s Program became a fixture of hope in the South Bronx and detoxed thousands of people off of drugs. DOPE IS DEATH explores why this program was considered a threat to the political and social stability of the United States. And how its brightest star, celebrated community activist and healer Dr. Mutulu Shakur, ended up one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted until he was captured and convicted of RICO conspiracy. Today, 34 years later, Dr. Mutulu Shakur remains incarcerated. Civil rights hero or enemy of the state? DOPE IS DEATH dives deep into the history of COINTELPRO and other legal tools that law enforcement can utilize to repress political dissidents.