Matt’s back for a 4th of July Extravaganza— two episodes, two guests, two stories to tell about America. First up is Carl Tennenbaum, a former sergeant of the San Francisco Police Department who is now a member of ‘LEAP’ (Law Enforcement Action Partnership). Matt and Carl discuss Carl’s time as a narcotics officer amid the ‘crack cocaine epidemic’ of the 1980s, how that experience changed and shaped his feelings about his work, what inspired Carl to become an outspoken advocate for the legalization of drugs (yes, all drugs), and the many existing successful models around the world for said legalization. From there they get into the endless moral, legal, and sociopolitical failures of America’s ‘war on drugs’, its undeniably racist roots, the ongoing plague of police brutality against Black Americans, the disturbing militarization of the modern police force, the far-reaching tentacles of systemic racism within the justice system, how laziness and bureaucracy entrench that racism even deeper, and why the common ‘few bad apples’ excuse for violent officers actually makes no sense at all.