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NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Janai Nelson is Associate Director-Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
PROFILE
Janai Nelson
Guest
FROM Janai Nelson
To the Point
Trump transition names loyal hardliners Three major appointments we announced this morning by the Trump transition team: Alabama Senator and hardliner Jeff Sessions for Attorney General; Kansas Republican Congressman Mike Pompeo to head the CIA; and former Lt. General Mike Flynn as the President's National Security Advisor. Flynn is famous for leading the chant "lock her up," aimed at Hillary Clinton during the Republican National Convention.
To the Point
Police Repression and Police Reform For the past year, videos of police shootings have saturated the media, giving urgency to calls for police reform -- especially in poor, black neighborhoods. But what does "reform" mean in practice? For example, is so called "broken windows" a form of community policing or an excuse for racial profiling? After decades of racism and brutality, Los Angeles has been called a model for police reform, but now it’s embroiled in a familiar controversy. Is it time to look beyond the police force and deal with social and economic issues that cops will never be able to resolve?
To the Point
Police and Race in America Last Friday in Beverly Hills, California, TV producer Charles Belk—a 51-year old black man—was on his way to a pre-Emmy awards party. When he left a restaurant, he was stopped by police, handcuffed and taken to jail with bail sent at $100,000. After 6 hours, police reviewed videotape that proved Belk had not robbed a bank and released him 10 minutes later. Belk says it was all because he was “tall, bald, male and black.” Will policing ever be colorblind?
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To the Point
White House budget proposal slashes and burns President Trump's first budget request is considered dead on arrival in Congress — a familiar development in Capitol Hill. We hear what it reveals about the priorities of the new administration. What's likely to die… and what might survive?
To the Point
Trump plays scolder-in-chief with NATO allies At the opening of NATO’s dramatic new headquarters in Brussels today, President Trump acknowledged that Article 5 — promising that “an attack on one nation is an attack on all” -- has only been invoked one time: in the aftermath of September 11. But the President failed to provide what 27 other Alliance members have been waiting for: a re-commitment by America’s new leader to Article 5. Instead, they got a scolding.
To the Point
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
To the Point
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.