Taylor and Sweta welcome former NYC Public Defender, Mike Starr Hopkins. He is the founding partner of Northern Starr Strategies who also served on the Democratic presidential campaigns for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Delaney. They candidly discuss what brought America to this racial justice tipping point in history, and what evidence there is for effective equitability policies going forward. If Mike sounds familiar it’s because you’ve probably heard him on his popular podcast, The Starr Report, or seen him on MSNBC, CBS, C-SPAN, and more! We discuss the difference between defunding vs. abolishing the police, qualified immunity, and more. Civil discourse, spreading awareness, and knowledge is how society progresses. We at Risky Behavior all agree that we need to have this somber, but critical conversation. As we end our first season with this informative, eye-opening episode, we invite you to have a drink as per usual, to listen and learn, and to think critically about where we are in America, and where conversations and actions need to go for a truly equitable future. Remember, vote for your local representatives! They have more influence on your lives and communities than the lame-duck president. 

In the meantime, you can demand #JusticeForBreonnaTaylor here: 

https://justiceforbreonna.org/

Resources & References: 

Mapping Police Violence (https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/) 

How Redlining led to rioting (https://washingtonspectator.org/how-redlining-led-to-rioting/) 

Police Brutality and Black Health: Setting the Agenda for Public Health (https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2017.303691) 

Excessive Police Violence as a Public Health Issue (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11524-016-0040-2) War Comes Home: The Excessive 

Militarization of the American Police (https://www.aclu.org/report/war-comes-home-excessive-militarization-american-police) 

Davis, Angela Y. Are prisons obsolete?. Seven Stories Press, 2011.

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