Coast to Coast AM - Oct 08 2011 - Police Exposé

Host: Ian Punnett
Guests: Norm Stamper, Robert Scheer

Hour 1 - Truthdig editor-in-chief Robert Scheer commented on the Occupy Wall Street movement, which seeks to shine a light on the injustices perpetrated by the U.S. financial sector.

According to Scheer, the protests are a response to real pain, with 25 million people unable to find full-time work and 50 million in some state of mortgage foreclosure. Scheer blamed Wall Street lobbyists and compliant politicians for ending the sensible banking regulations that Franklin D. Roosevelt put into place to prevent another depression. The radical deregulation allowed bankers to gamble with credit default swaps and securitized mortgage debt, and, ultimately, caused much of the financial suffering ordinary Americans are now experiencing, Scheer suggested.

Hours 2, 3 & 4 - Norm Stamper, former chief of the Seattle Police Department, joined Ian to expose some of issues affecting the 21st-century police force. "I believe that the vast majority of the problems that are associated with American law enforcement are embedded in the system itself," he said, noting that racism, violence, and deception are pervasive within the field.

Deceit is actually incorporated into the job, as cops are allowed to say whatever they want to get a confession, Stamper revealed. The police organization itself produces a culture that compels individual officers to engage in patterned lying in order to protect themselves from possible prosecution, he added.