Understanding the civil mechanisms of police impunity.
The problem was, and continues to be, that it's a negotiation between the city on one hand, and the Fraternal Order of Police on the other. There's no input from the community. So you, or I, or Black Lives Matter don't get to sit at the table and fight for provisions of transparency, and adequate discipline in that contract. Instead, the contracts have become a bulwark of reactionary policing.
Civil rights attorney Flint Taylor explains how the civil mechanisms around police accountability - from prosecutors and judges, to local and state governments - serve to protect abusive cops from the consequences of their own actions, not only enforcing a long-term culture of impunity and racism, but freezing the community out of negotiation and potential reform.
Flint is representing the family of Derek Williams, who died in the backseat of a Milwaukee police squad car in 2011.
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