Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the shooting death of an unarmed black man Walter Scott by a white police officer in North Charleston South Carolina that was captured on a cell phone and has forced the local police to change their story as first reported and charge Officer Michael Slager with murder. Corey Hutchins, the winner of the South Carolina Press Association’s Journalist of the Year award in 2012 joins us to discuss his article in The Daily Beast “Michael Slager’s Attorney Dumped Him As Soon As He Saw the Video” and the key role the cell phone video captured by a bystander played in changing the narrative.

Part 2

Then we speak with Bernard Powers, a Professor of History at the College of Charleston who is the author of “Black Charlestonians: A Social History”. He joins us to discuss the similarities to Ferguson, Missouri of the predominately white police force in the predominately black community of North Charleston, and the local reaction to the shooting that has sparked protests and renewed the call that “black lives matter”.

Part 3

Then finally we address the issue of the criminalization of poverty and the extent to which it applies in this case of the shooting death of Walter Scott. Karen Dolan, a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies who currently coordinates IPS’s Economic Hardship Reporting Project with New York Times best-selling author Barbara Ehrenreich and is the author of a new report “The Poor Get Prison: The Alarming Spread of the Criminalization of Poverty”, joins us.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the announcement by Israel’s Minister for Strategic Affairs that the military option to strike Iran and kill the recent P5+1 deal is still on the table and is going to remain on the table. Dr. Stephen Walt, a Professor of International Relations at Harvard University who has a recent article at Foreign Policy “Just Say No: Why the United States can’t kick the habit of repeating failed campaigns in its war against terror” joins us to discuss whether the prospect that Iran will grow more moderate, responsible and democratic in the future is a better bet than continuing to ally with Saudi Arabia.

Part 2

Then we speak with James Jennings, Founder and President of Conscience International, a humanitarian aid organization who has worked in the giant Daadab Camp for Somali refugees in Kenya. We discuss the tensions between the majority Christian community and the growing Somali refugee population in the north of the country which Al-Shabab terrorists from Somalia, who recently massacred 148 Christian university students in the northern city Garissa, were able to infiltrate.

Part 3

Then finally, we assess the utility of bombing raids by the Kenyan Air Force on Al-Shabab camps in Somalia and speak with Kefa Otiso, a Professor of Geography at Bowling Green State University and the founding president of the U.S.-based Kenya Scholars and Studies Association. We also discuss the Kenyan government’s denials that its security forces were slow to respond to Thursday’s massacre at the university