Jacobin Radio: David Dayen and Alex Vitale
Suzi talked to David Dayen (https://twitter.com/ddayen?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor), editor of the American Prospect (https://prospect.org/), just days before Congress failed to negotiate a new package to replace the CARES Act, which came to an end July 31. That means the weekly $600 lifeline supplement ended, exposing tens of millions to hunger and eviction. The mostly secret negotiations were stuck by divisions within the Republicans, while the Democrats -- pushing their Heroes package -- did not appear to have a clear strategy to win. Dayen’s daily Unsanitized (https://prospect.org/coronavirus/unsanitized-republicans-in-disarray-this-time/) reports have carefully unpacked the details of the CARES Act, showing who has benefited most – and he joins us to discuss the last minute stalled negotiations over what kind of extension or package we are likely to see. Suzi then talks to Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing (https://www.versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing) – to get a deeper understanding of the nature and role of policing as a critical component of maintaining our economic system, essentially a tool of social control. Alex does not see police violence as an aberration to be reformed, but a feature of the system. We get his take on various reform efforts, how he sees police and camouflaged federal cops deployed to quell the broad movement that has emerged in response to police killings, the demand to defund the police – and how he envisions public safety without policing.