Episode 4899: American Cities Are In Collapse; The Decline Of Public Spaces And Commons
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Summary
In this episode, former Kansas City DA stops by to talk about the Justice Department's handling of the Trump administration and its impact on the criminal justice system, and why it's time to take a hard look at what's happening in Washington, D.C.
Transcript
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on just how the Biden Justice Department approached these cases surrounding Trump.
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You know, what Aaron and I found in injustice was like a tragedy in three acts.
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And the second act is the Biden administration and its desire to turn the page.
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Attorney General Merrick Garland, well-intentioned, incredibly respected jurist,
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doesn't go to the Supreme Court, but becomes the attorney general for Joe Biden.
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And what he concludes is we have to stay away from looking partisan.
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We have to do something different than what Donald Trump did
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and make sure that this institution is above politics.
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But the problem was it delayed looking directly at the evidence that you all saw and knew
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that he was engaged in a crime to overturn a free and fair election.
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A little bit more of what President Obama said just around this issue of how much worse it is,
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You know, a lot of people have asked me lately whether I am surprised at the direction the country has taken.
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And even though I'm the hope and change guy, I want to be honest with them.
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And so I admit to them that I have cause for deep concern.
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I admit to them that I'm worried about how quickly basic democratic rules and norms have been weakened.
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We don't need to speculate about the dangers to our democracy.
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We don't need to wonder if harm is going to be done to vulnerable people
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or whether the public conversation will become meaner and coarser.
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We all have more power than we sometimes imagine.
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So if you believe in that better story of America,
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which is so ironic when you look at what's going on right now in the Justice Department.
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It's worse than I could have possibly imagined.
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As somebody who spent the formative years of my career
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in a criminal courtroom doing state and local crimes,
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as the elected DA in Kansas City working with the feds,
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I want you to talk about what is going on in the District of Columbia right now.
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that it is the only jurisdiction in the country that handles violent crime.
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Because violent crime is handled by state prosecutors across America.
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The FBI doesn't get a 911 call when there's a murder.
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And in D.C., those cases have always gone to a state system.
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And now Piro is trying to shoehorn low-level state crimes
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into federal crimes with years in the penitentiary
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for stuff that in most jurisdictions in the country
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would get you maybe six months in the county jail.
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Well, I mean, a lot of the justice that we're seeing
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in the U.S. attorney's offices, especially in D.C.,
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but also other big deal ones, New York, Newark,
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You know, a lot of the U.S. attorneys that Donald Trump has chosen
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are moving to, you know, what's going to get me on TV
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And it's not prosecuting corrupt public officials, right?
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They eviscerated places where we usually focused our energies.
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All sorts of teams like this, we learned, are getting gutted.
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More recently, Americans have been watching videos of ICE
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tear gas being used in a Chicago residential neighborhood,
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by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama.
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Many of them are people that were thrown out of their countries
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that you were going to deport the worst of the worst.
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But a lot of the people that your administration has arrested
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farm workers, the family of U.S. service members.
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I need landscapers and I need farmers more than anybody, okay?
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and the policy has to be you came into the country illegally,
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However, you've also seen you're going to go out,
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and you're going to come back into our country legally.
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It's actually very important that there are multiple agencies involved,
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and the reason it's very important is because last week
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with a lot of career ICE officials taken out of leadership roles
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and a lot of Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection officials
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being put in to oversee ICE offices in their place.
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a lot of the most aggressive tactics we've seen
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that was, you actually saw the U.S. Border Patrol patch
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on the sleeve of the man who was pitting down that,
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there isn't a whole lot of interest in holding agents accountable,
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of the agency that's been engaging in the most aggressive tactics.
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Pay attention right now so that you can mobilize fast.
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Well, volunteer as a poll worker or an election observer.
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Register voters through local civic organizations.
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The more people vote, the harder it is to overturn those votes.
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especially for neighbors who fear intimidation at the polls.
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is the potential deployment of ICE agents to polling places.
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thrown into detention until they can clear their names
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That's why these elections on Tuesday are so important,
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The military deployments, attempted voter purges,
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consider them all trial runs for the bigger play,
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the one that's going to happen right where you live.
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And finally, do not let Donald Trump and Republicans
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A third presidential term is illegal, full stop.
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So when that one uncle floats a third term loophole conspiracy
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no person shall be elected to the office of the president
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It's being rehearsed right now in Chicago streets,
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I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that,
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And where do people like that go to share the big line?
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I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
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Remember where you were about this time five years ago?
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It's important you remember everything about that
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and we're going to have days that are not as good.
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I spent all afternoon talking to folks in Jersey
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But the President will get on and do teletown halls
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from everything from the judge situation in Pennsylvania
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California will be going through at least to midnight
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coming right out of the box of where that's at.
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Remember, President Trump's doing teletown halls
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because none of these groups wanted to integrate
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You know, if Stephanie Rule's taking the night off,
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Is this the same way we got up off the floor in,
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Settle your tax problems quickly and in your favor.
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Their team has helped clear over $1 billion in tax debt,
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Talk to a strategist and finally put this behind you.
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or your failure to file work on your nerves anymore.