Originally published on August 20, 2014. Initial text below:
“Any time a police
department can get [military] equipment for the
department, they’re going to try and do that,” says Bernard Kerik, the
former New York Police Department Commissioner and one-time
nominee to be secretary of Homeland Security.
Speaking about events in Ferguson, Missouri and the
general militarization of police over the past several decades, he
continues: “When you create this militarization of all these
smaller agencies and they don’t have the ability to communicate
with each other, that’s going to create a
problem.”
In 2009, Kerik pled guilty to making false tax
statements and eventually served time in federal
prison. Released in 2013, Kerik now runs a crisis-management consulting
group and advocates for criminal justice
reform.
He recently sat down with Reason TV‘s Nick Gillespie
to discuss the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, the
militarization of police, the effect of the drug war on law
enforcement, and what it’s like to be prosecuted in today’s
America.
“Every high school student in America, before they graduate high
school,” says Kerik, “should be forced to read
[Reason Contributor Harvey] Silverglate’s book
[Three
Felonies a Day]. No one in America knows that if you give
me a stack of subpoenas and give me the power to scrutinize you
like they did me, I promise you that you’re going to
prison.”
About 25 minutes. Edited by Amanda Winkler. Shot by Joshua Swain
and Todd Krainin.
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