[S9 E6]
On this episode of Economic Update, Prof. Wolff discusses the public education crisis (teacher strikes, declining quality, insufficient resources) and how it undermines the economic future of the U.S. and the absurdity of the government shutdown over an ineffective wall and a tiny portion of the government's budget.
In the second half of the show, Prof. Wolff interviews Professor Alex Vitale about his book, The End of Policing, as they discuss how and why police in the U.S. have grown and changed their functions so drastically in recent decades.
Alex Vitale is professor of sociology and coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College. He has spent the last 25 years consulting police departments and human rights groups internationally. In his new book, "The End of Policing," he argues that the bulk of liberal police reforms currently being considered in the US are either ineffective or counterproductive and what's really needed is a dramatic reduction in our reliance on police.