Everyday Injustice Podcast Episode 176: The Security State and Criminal Justice Reform

This week on Everyday Injustice, Brian Hofer of Secure-Justice discusses the surveillance state, and the abuse of state power as well as the current state of criminal justice reform. A recent incident in Berkeley, where the leak of text messages showed the president of the police officers union making racially charged remarks and calling for arrest quotas. The leak was made public by Secure Justice and led to the pausing the appointment of Jennifer Louis as police chief until after an independent investigation can take place. Hofer told the media, “The text messages are revealing a racist culture and we’re seeing it reflected in the metrics.” Nearly 35% of police stops in Berkeley in the last year were of Black people, despite the fact that only 8% of the city is Black. This is not the only scandal, Hofer also talks about San Francisco’s efforts to utilize private surveillance for purposes of criminal investigation despite little evidence that it would aid in such efforts.