Is There a War on Cops?

What this episode covers

Whatever your opinion is of law enforcement, the Black Lives Matter movement, or the root causes of violent crime, you can't claim to be informed without reading Heather Mac Donald's latest book, The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe. The stories and statistics brought to light by the Manhattan Institute Fellow go against much of what liberal elites and civil libertarians alike wish to believe. The prevailing narrative goes like this: inner-city violence and dysfunction result from a combination of unnecessary laws, a racially-biased legal system, and police that routinely violate the rights of the citizens they're supposed to protect. Against this narrative, Mac Donald brings evidence of a surge in violent crime – primarily victimizing African Americans – following a rising tide of anti-police sentiment among major media and politicians. Mac Donald channels former FBI Director James Comey in claiming that the fear of false accusation has caused police departments to dial back the "proactive policing" that has been credited with reducing past violent crime waves. Her speeches on college campuses have been shut down by the usual suspects (student mobs inflamed by the "threat" of a free exchange of ideas) leaving the strongest counter-counter-narratives to Mac Donald's counter-narrative unexpressed. Mac Donald joins the show to defend the police from unsupported charges of racial bias, and Bob takes calls to test the thesis of The War on Cops against a strict interpretation of the Constitution's civil liberty guarantees.

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