Book Club Discussion Thread (Patreon)

Hey everyone! 

This Sunday we are recording the book club episode 1 covering the first 6 chapters of Rise of the Warrior Cop by Radley Balko. We are going to use these questions as jumping off points for the discussion and would love to read your thoughts on any of them, so please post your comment below. Or if you have another angle or point to make post it as well. 

1. Should the history of policing affect our ideas about the purpose of a police force and its powers? Should the origins of the American police force rooted in slave catching affect how we view modern policing?
2. Why does Balko think the third amendment is so important and how does it relate to our country's policing in both the past and the present?
3. Multiple times in our past (very often around race laws) the US government has had to step in to enforce them (brown vs board of ed, protecting against the KKK during reconstruction). Sometimes the use of force is necessary. What is our rubric for that and how should we prevent any oversteps?
4. In the book Balko seems to talk about community police (policemen as part of the community he protects) in a positive light and disdains the police mindset of antagonism toward the public or being separated from the public. Is our society too large now for community policing to be effective?
5. Politicians have used the fear of crime and maintaining white comfort to fund more military style policing. What is the balance between safety and liberty?

We may not get to all of these this record and Balko spends a lot of the subsequent chapters outlining examples to help illustrate his thoughts on these questions, so much of what is here will frame the whole book. 

We are looking forward to reading your comments!