WEBVTT - Part One: The Cash for Kids Scandal 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:07.720 What's sad my all of you are about to be 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:11.879 I'm Robert Evans. This is Behind the Bastards podcast, Bad 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:15.840 People tell you all about him. My guest today, Mr 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:20.200 Jason Petty, a k A prop man. Drop the government 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.520 name and let me go. I'm mile here. That's how 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:25.560 much I care about you. There are two people in 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:29.160 the world that call me Jason. It's my wife and 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:32.040 a lady named Jen hat Maker. They're only two people 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:36.000 on earth that called me Jason. Robert and now Rob Jason. 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:38.519 We can bleep your your legal name's all good. That 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:41.560 worry about ice CAD, all that stuff has been expunged. 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.280 Those those are mine. I was a miner. So you 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:51.560 can't talk about the Oh that is appropriate for today's topic, 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:55.640 because today we're talking about a couple of aspects of 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:58.240 the juvenile justice system that I think we're all gonna 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:03.000 find fun. Oh no, real, real good time. I don't 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:05.720 need okay, go ahead, no, no, no, I mean, how 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:09.280 do you how do you feel about kids? You know, well, 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.520 I love kids. I got two of them. I love 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:16.559 the juvenile system. I've been a part of it. Um, Okay, 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:23.039 it works pretty well. Yes. So so there's a number 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:26.680 of connections with this. My father was an s d 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:30.080 p O two for California, which is a deputy probation 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:34.520 officer for the juvenile system in Los Angeles. He retired 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:38.399 from it, you know, because it's like, like we said before, 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.360 can't change system from withinside. It just doesn't work. So 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:45.280 like so he kind of bailed out, but he at 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:47.559 least was like, at least I could be an advocate 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:51.840 for for the time that I'm there and when. Some 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.120 of y'all may know that I used to I was 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:58.360 a teacher before I was doing music and poetry full time, 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:02.360 and I started off at My first teaching job was 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.040 as central what was a substitute position, but it was 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:08.440 with all of the juvenile halls in California, so East 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:11.480 like Correctional Facility Camp, Rocky Camp, half a Ball. So 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:15.519 my first teaching experience was all in the juvenile juvenile systems. 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:19.080 So like, I'm very connected to the store you're about 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:23.640 to talk right now, and again I was in the system. Yeah, 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:26.440 And it's there's an anthropological theory I'm kind of fond of, 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:30.560 which is the the idea that like essentially all civilization 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:33.639 and by that I don't mean necessarily like skyscrapers and 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:35.799 electric lights, which is the idea of like human beings 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:39.160 organizing in groups to do things started because of the 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:43.760 need to raise kids, because like it is evolutionarily advantageous 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:47.800 to have a big brain that allows you to make tools. Um, 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.320 but at a certain point, our brain's got so big 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.600 that you can't put you can't like just come out 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:56.040 with a brain that big, we're gonna kill the person 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.079 giving birth to you, right, Like, you can only give 0:02:58.080 --> 0:02:59.920 birth to a brain so big. So we we start 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.480 and our kids started coming out younger and younger and 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.280 less and less capable of doing anything right, Like you 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:08.440 you're if you're there, like the birthing of like a 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:12.040 calf or a baby, their fine or like a dog. 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:13.600 Yeah they could just like they're up and they're doing 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:16.720 three minutes. Yeah, yeah, pretty fucking quick in most cases. 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:18.920 And like by the time a human baby have like 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:21.240 a puppy and a baby at the same time, by 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:23.760 the time that human baby can like kind of wattle, 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:25.679 that dog will more or less be able to like 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:28.560 hunt the dogs find yes, yeah, the dogs ready for 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.720 the world. There's a whole premise in in my My 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:34.600 My book Terra form where I talk about the development 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:40.160 of culture, and it's because we're the only species that 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:44.120 aren't born with everything we need to survive. We had 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:47.080 to create language, we had to create you know, covers 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:48.960 and stuff like exactly what that thing is. And one 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:50.880 of the only things you, like you write in my 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:53.520 z own right now, one of the only things that 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:59.720 is universal in human civilization across every country and time, 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:08.320 was the idea of protecting our children, that human thing 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:10.000 in the world. Like, I don't have kids, I don't 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:12.280 ever want to have kids, but I still think I'm 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:16.080 just kidding, Like it's every adult's fucking responsibility if there's 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:18.760 if you can protect a child, to protect the child, 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:22.400 like period period like, and that's why the people were 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.560 talking about today are such fucking nightmares. They are human 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:29.680 humans who have like fundamentally decided. But what if we 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:34.680 did the opposite bro for like money, racism and to 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:39.839 get elected. I wish I could see on face right now, because, 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:42.480 like I said, we got two different stories this week. 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:45.320 For our first story today, proply what have you heard 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.160 about the kids for cash scandal? I was also a 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:51.039 high school teacher, so yes, I've heard of this. Yeah, 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:55.280 it's not great, so too. Before we get into this, 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:58.160 I think we need to talk a little bit about, um, 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.960 some relevant background. So, violent crime in the United States 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:08.000 almost quadrupled between nineteen sixty and nine by serious crimes, 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.600 including including homicide. We're all falling, so crime is by 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.719 starting to drop again. Um but right at around the 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:18.400 time crime was beginning its fall. That continued up until 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.719 fairly recently, uh, twenty four hour news in the Internet 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:24.560 really started to get going, and stories about violent crime 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:29.520 and crimes directed against particularly white suburban people were hugely popular. 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:31.200 You can make a lot of money in the new 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:36.080 you know, right, yeah, and crimes committed by teenagers against 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:39.600 particularly that demographic or like the easiest way to get 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:44.200 fucking eyeballs on screen. Yes, I know. Yeah. I am 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:49.120 a child of war on drugs, gang in junctions. I 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.720 am a child of all this. Y yeah. Now. The 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:58.600 problem was discussed through obviously, uh, the news and and 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:02.040 and fictional media. It was also something that academics talked about. 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:07.240 In November of nineteen, a political scientist named John delu 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.920 Leo Jr. Wrote an article for The Weekly Standard, which 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.600 is a right wing opinion magazine, titled The Coming of 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:20.680 the Super predators. This art was based. Yeah, this person 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:26.680 ruined my childhood. Yeah, ruin because of the work he's 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.080 about to talk about. Go ahead, Yeah, he he dropped 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:31.520 a bomb on I don't know, a few million kids 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:36.200 childhoods conservatively. Um. The article that he wrote was based 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.400 primarily on data from boys in Philadelphia that showed that 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:44.440 six percent of of young like of minor male male 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:46.880 miners in Philadelphia accounted for more than half of the 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:51.279 serious crimes committed by male children in that city. UM. Now, 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:52.960 as you might have guessed number one, there's a number 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:54.840 of reasons for this. This is just Philadelphia. There's a 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:57.200 lot going on here. It's maybe not the best thing 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:01.720 to draw broad sweeping societal conclusions from, especially in a vacuum. Um. And, 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:04.120 as you probably won't be surprised to hear, the article 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:08.000 that Delileo wrote was filled with very uncomfortable race related 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:11.880 lines like this paragraph. While the trouble will be greatest 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:15.080 in black inner city neighborhoods, other places are also certain 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:17.800 to have burgeoning youth crime problems that will spill over 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:21.640 into upscale central city districts, entering suburbs, and even the 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:26.120 rural heartland. To underscore, this point. Abraham Recount was one 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:28.480 of the people who's talking to. Recounted a recent town 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:30.480 hall meeting in a white working class section of the 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:32.880 city that has fallen on hard times. They were coming 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:35.320 afraid of their own children. There were some big beefy 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:37.360 guys there too, and they're asking me what am I 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:39.680 going to do to control their children. There's a lot 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.160 going there, including the idea that like, well, crime in 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:44.000 the inner city is obviously going to happen. It's a 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:47.800 problem because it might spill over into upscale areas and 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:51.240 in the suburbs. Right like that, there's so much happening here. 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.160 I'm trying to like because I'm so like even the 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:57.560 time frame, like like I I'm revella my age here, 0:07:57.600 --> 0:07:59.880 but I'm at high school when this is happening. So 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:04.200 like I am who he's talking about, you know, inner 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:08.520 city black male, you know what I'm saying. So I'm 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:12.000 like and just little that stuff would drop and it's 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:16.040 like you see people like I'm walking home from school, 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:19.880 then my pe clothes no less, you know, because I 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:23.120 got I got shipped out to a suburbian high school, 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:27.160 you know, so like it wasn't my I was long 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.560 story short joint custody, YadA YadA. Right, So I went 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:33.080 to the nicer high school. So walking home, I'm just 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:37.040 like stupid headphones on, listening to Wu Tang and like 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:41.000 watching the lady Clutcher person cross the street and just 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.600 about like you're nervous about situ And I'm like, dude, like, 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:49.320 I'm you see my nerd assmpe clothes with my bow 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:52.840 straps on my backpack, Like I'm really up. You're telling 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:54.599 me I'm a problem. And the reason why I'm a 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.160 problem is because this is the source material that us 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:00.439 moving into your city, into this part of town is 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.640 going to bring the problems that you're talking about in 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:06.640 this thing. Absolutely, yeah, that's that's exactly, and that that 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:09.719 kind of fear, that's that specific population sphere is what 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.839 he's stoking with this. And obviously the bulk of this article, 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:15.840 there's that little study from Philadelphia that's um that that 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:18.760 is kind of the statistical nut for for what he's 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:22.320 writing here. Um, But most of it's based on interviews 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.760 with police officers and other individuals with a very obvious bias. 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:28.800 One district attorney is cited in the article is saying 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:32.240 about children they kill her maim on impulse without any 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:35.839 intelligible motive, and a police officer is quoted as saying, 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:38.120 I never used to be scared. Now I say a 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:40.160 quick hail Mary. Every time I get a call at 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.120 night involving juveniles, I pray I go home in one 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:46.520 piece to my own kids. See this book. It's like 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:50.319 all these times that we say, like like fast forward 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:53.680 to Tamir Rice and you're treating this fourteen year old 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:58.839 like a goddamn adult. It's this ship. It's like, like 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:02.880 we not just keep like we're kids kids like everybody else. 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:08.480 I'm sorry, I'm so triggered right now. This Yeah, it's 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:11.600 it's it's it's not going to get less frustrated. So 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.280 in the article, these quotes are followed by quotes from 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:17.440 a group of what who Delulio describes as life term 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:21.280 inmates in a prison uh in New Jersey. UM And 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:23.880 Delulo makes sure we know of these inmates that quote. 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:26.600 Many of them are black males from inner city Newark 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.199 and Camden. Uh. And these guys he quotes, is being 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.280 terrified of today's super predator children too. So he's being like, look, 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:35.679 even these black criminals in prison are scared of kids 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:40.800 these days, like it's it's really a pretty horrific article. Um. Now, 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:44.800 according to Wikipedia, Delulio is a Democrat today. I don't 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:46.960 know if that's true. I don't know much about his 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:49.679 present life. It is important we be clear that he 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:53.600 was wrong about everything predicted in this article. His big 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:57.120 prediction is that because of these super predators, juvenile crime 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.960 would triple by two thousand ten. But of course, by 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.480 the time he wrote this article, juvenile crime had already 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:04.719 been dropping for a couple of years, and by two 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:09.040 thousand eleven, juvenile homicides had plunged by two thirds. So 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:14.359 he's literally the opposite of what he says happens pretty much. Um, 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:17.040 and despite the fact that he was perfectly wrong about 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:19.440 what's pretty much the only noteworthy claim he makes in 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:22.760 his career, delu Leo received two awards in two thousand 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:25.440 and ten for Excellence and Academics. Of course, again, it 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:28.480 doesn't matter. What matters that you gave people an excuse 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:32.040 to be scared and do violence. Um, that's all you 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:39.320 gotta do. Yeah, what's what's interesting about this moment is 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:44.320 around I'm a really show you all some some Mike. 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:48.800 Actual politics was like around the end of the nineties, 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:54.200 there was a call that came from really from jail 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:58.280 that was like, you gotta stop doing drive bys. And 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:00.400 it was basic because it was like listen to it's 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:03.959 just it's just not g like, this is not We're 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:06.200 not spending our lifetime in prison for y'all to just 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.200 drive by somewhere and shoot them. So so even like 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:14.840 even the violent crime kind of slowing down, that was 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.480 like we did that for ourselves, you know, saying like 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:22.199 like it wasn't and granted obviously like the War on 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:24.800 Jugs and the Gang of Junctions and Rico and all 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:27.800 this different stuff, and the gang uptick, Like obviously, like 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:30.760 of course you're gonna drop. You're gonna drop crime if 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:34.679 gentrification starts other stuff that the economy is expanding huge 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:40.480 gets created. I'm like, we got jobs number one. I'm like, well, 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:44.960 we're adults now we have jobs, and there's other things 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:48.840 to do happening around. Yeah, you start to see the 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:50.520 impact of the fact that they got lit out of 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:53.199 fucking gasoline, you know, stating in like what the seventies 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:55.240 of the eighties, so like a bunch of ship happens, 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:58.000 that's why crime drops by so much. Total it's important 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:03.080 is that doulu Leo is again perfectly wrong. Absolute. Yeah. Now, 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:06.199 the despite this fact, his work had a huge influence 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:08.360 on how juvenile crime was perceived, and it led to 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:11.840 a massive change nationwide and how often children were tried 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.520 and sentenced as adults. I want to quote now from 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:17.320 an article in NBC News about this period because it 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.040 makes a good point about some broader trends that Delulo's 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:22.600 work fed into. So he's not obviously the beginning of 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:25.840 this quote. Just a few years before, the news media 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:29.240 had introduced the terms wilding and wolfpack to the national 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:33.360 vocabulary to describe five teenagers, four black and one Hispanic, 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:35.920 who were convicted and later exonerated, of the rape of 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:38.920 a woman in New York Central Park. That's this kind 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:42.000 of animal savagery was already in the conversation, said Kim 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:45.040 Taylor Thompson, a law professor at New York University. The 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:47.760 super predator language began a process of allowing us to 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:50.520 suspend our feelings of empathy towards young people of color. 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:54.680 And again, I might I might quible about it that 0:13:54.760 --> 0:14:00.040 this began the processes a moment. Yeah, yeah, one of 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:02.160 started it escalates. I think it's fair to say that 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:05.440 it does escalate absolutely, and and and more to the point, 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:08.000 it leads to kind of some structural things that that 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:10.640 that escalate. How this is actually like built into the 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:13.840 legal system. Um, now, it's probably worth noting before we 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:17.040 move on that delu Leo's mentor was a political scientist 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:21.160 named James Q. Wilson. Now. Mr Wilson got famous for 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.120 writing a nineteen five book with the title Crime and 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:27.800 Human Nature, which argued that criminality was caused by specific 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:33.360 genetic factors. You will not again. Yeah, he also got 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:39.960 famous for chasing around Dennis the Menace, Mr Wilson because 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:44.800 this is that, Mr. Yes. Anyway, go on, Um, he 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:46.920 spends a lot of his book writing paragraphs like this. 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.600 A central problem, perhaps the central problem and improving the 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:53.680 relationship between white and black Americans, is the difference in 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:56.240 racial crime rates. No matter how whit a center guilty 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:58.760 a stranger, maybe he carries with him in public the 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:05.640 burdens or benefits of his group identity. Now you know, yeah, yeah, 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:08.000 the fact that like, yes, people carry with them like 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:10.440 the benefits of how their group, the group that they 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:14.760 visually at least belonged to his person by society. Sure, um, 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:18.040 but it's yeah, there's a lot of kind of eugenic 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:19.800 c e ship in this book where he's sort of 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:22.840 talking about like certain populations are more prone for crime, 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:26.160 and it definitely definitely ignores a lot of important things 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:29.160 like how economics feed into it and how certain historical trends. 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:32.280 There's obviously he's he's he's piece of shit. Um. And 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.240 it's not surprising that racists said racist ship. What is 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:38.560 surprising is that both of these guys, these very right wing, 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:42.640 very kind of white supremacist e thinkers, are backed not 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:46.840 just by conservatives but by supposedly liberal colleges. And what 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:50.480 they wrote was uncritically disseminated by large chunks of the 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:54.640 mainstream media. And here's NBC again. The Marshall Projects review 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:56.840 of forty major news outlets in the five years after 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.280 his Weekly Standard article shows the new legis neilogism hopping 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:03.000 up nearly three hundred times, and that is an undercount. 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.840 There was the Philadelphia Inquirers Fawnding magazine profile of Delu Leo, 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:09.960 who grew up there. Until recently, Pennsylvania had the country's 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.120 largest population of people still serving life sentences without parole 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:16.080 for crimes they committed as children. There was also a lengthy, 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:18.800 mostly gentle New Yorker profile, a spot on the New 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:21.320 York Times is op ed page, and an appearance on 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:25.320 CBS Evening News. The media exposure led to conference invitations, 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:28.240 which led to more media exposure. The words super predator 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:30.560 became so much a part of the national vocabulary that 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.200 journalists and talk show hosts used it without reference to 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.320 de Lulo, including even Oprah Winfrey in a segment on 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:39.160 Good Morning America. So this is one of those things 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:43.480 that is just such a successful piece of fucking culture 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:47.080 jambing Clinton, Yeah, Clinton to Everyone uses it, and most 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:50.120 people don't even recognize know anything about de lu Leo, 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:52.880 know anything about Wilson, know anything about like where this 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:56.440 comes from. They just kind of take it as scientific fact. Almost. 0:16:56.440 --> 0:17:02.680 That moment, even with with Oprah, is like stellar reputation 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:05.360 with black people. That moment, like we never forgot that. 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:09.000 Yeah you know what I'm saying. And I was like, yo, really, 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:11.440 like you really don't let this man talk talk about 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:14.120 us like this. Yeah, And it's perfect what he's saying. 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:18.160 It's really perfectly framed for shows like Oprah was doing 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.199 for like daytime TV rights, the kind of thing that 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:23.280 people who are like in the middle of their day 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:25.960 will will stop to hear about because you're you're tickling 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:28.960 that amygdala, you're making the like for one thing, adults 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:32.200 are always a little not always, but it is very 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:35.879 common for adults to be kind of uncomfortable around teenagers. 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:38.520 They're weird. They like things you don't understand. Yeah you 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:42.159 forgot what it was like, Yeah, yeah, exactly. Uh and 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:44.520 if you can again, there's a shipload of money to 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:46.679 be made and tapping into the fact that a lot 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:49.240 of adults are just kind of uncomfortable around teams and 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:52.359 two our to our I mean I taught freshman, so 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:57.639 I was around teens all the time. But in adults defense, 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:00.800 teams are weird. Oh yeah, I one in my and 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.840 without a taser for sure. I got one in my house, 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:07.080 and I'll be like, I love you, you you are you 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:10.640 are you are my child. I am raising you. That's 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:14.320 weird because like, oh yeah, yeah, like are sorts of 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:17.639 all sorts of music that that I just think, finally, people, 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:19.800 finally music is wrong. It took a long time. It 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:23.160 took when before me who said that music was wrong 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:25.720 was wrong. But now it's wrong. Now that's wrong. Now, 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:28.159 now it's wrong. Now I am. I am happy to 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:30.840 report that my child is oh so when it comes 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:32.919 to music, and like, we actually like a lot of 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:36.240 the same stuff except for her B two BTS obsession. 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:39.800 But besides that, we're like, we're pretty much on the 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:43.439 same page. But that's an exception. Her father's a rapper, 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.320 so of course she's gonna know a little bit more 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:51.880 about music. Yeah, it's uh anyway, so um. The fear 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:54.280 dreamed up or drummed up by these nonsense theories and 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:56.960 the media recitations of them, led to a surge in 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:00.840 zero tolerance, in zero tolerance rules for in school, and 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:03.080 a lot of horrible ship we covered in an episode 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:05.800 we did titled the War on Children. If you want 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:08.040 more of an idea of how politicians grabbed onto all 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:10.240 of this, I should read a quote from Senator or 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:14.240 in Hatch in n We've got to quit cuddling these 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:16.639 violent kids. Like nothing that's going on. Getting some of 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:18.520 these do good or liberals to do what's right is 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.159 real tough. We'd all like to rehabilitate these kids, but 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:24.440 by gosh, we are in a different age, right, or 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:27.520 in Hatch everybody or Hatch everybody the man who made 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:30.320 sure that you can sell supplements filled with lead to 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:33.600 people and there's no regulations on it. Good man, that's 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:38.400 our guy we love, or in hatch um. So today, however, 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:41.119 we're not. This is just a leaded because the thing 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:43.639 that we are talking is one of the worst crimes. 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.480 All this rhetoric and racism directly enabled. This is a 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:50.240 story of greed that begat violence on an almost industrial scale, 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:54.040 the Cash for Kids scandal. Now are two main bastards 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:57.440 for today are a pair of former judges, Mark Ciavarella 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:01.320 uh and Michael Conna hand YEA sie Evarella is how 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:05.000 it's pronounced, more or less now. Mark A. Siavarella was 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:09.320 born on March third, nineteen fifty in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:11.639 He was raised on the east end of the city, 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:14.000 and he went to a Catholic high school. Here's how 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:17.720 the New York Times described his upbringing, quote a stellar 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.199 athlete and student. Judge Siavarella was the son of a 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:23.800 brewery worker and a phone company operator nicknamed Scooch. Like 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:26.480 his father, he drove a beat up both swagen Beetle 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:28.800 for years, and even after moving away, he visited his 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:31.639 aging mother daily until she died in two thousand seven. 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:36.439 The boy's name was Scooch, Scooch, Scooch, and Scooch grows up. 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:39.320 You know, to his credit, he's working class, like a 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:41.920 lot of most people become judges, not don't come from 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:48.320 like scooch bro. Like you know you, Scooch, Yeah, like 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:50.560 you one of the guys, Bro. They don't. They don't 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:53.760 call rich kids scooch. Nobody, nobody ever went to a 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:57.400 British boarding school and got called scoop bro, Scooch man, 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:01.119 you and scooch yall cut school, went the cornered liquor store, 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:05.160 stole a beer and like hung out and smoked your 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:10.600 granddad's cigarettes, like Scooch stole a lot of cigarettes. I'm 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:15.359 gonna say thirteen at least. Yeah. So after law school 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:18.359 he went to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. I think that's 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:21.400 how it pronounced. Uh. Mark Siavarella ran for a seat 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:23.879 in the country's Court of Common Pleas in August of 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:28.159 nineteen now as a judge. Because he wins, he becomes 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:31.040 known for the fact that he is a harsh sentence 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:33.360 er um and also kind of like he he likes 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:35.040 to be kind of the judge judy dude. He likes 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:37.600 to have these like quips and ship and I want 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:40.679 to play an ad from his nineteen campaign to make 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:44.320 it clear how inside of the super predator zeitgeist this 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:47.320 dude was. I hate this guy already. Yeah, he's not 0:21:47.400 --> 0:21:51.440 great and convicted of hurder right or violent primes against 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:53.840 our children or the elderly. You're gonna expect that I 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:57.359 will have closed the maximum sentence allowed by law. Now, 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:02.480 you can't do that. No, legally, No, you can't run 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:05.200 to be a judge. There's a thing called the Judicial 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:08.080 Code of Conduct, dude. One of the things that says 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:10.520 is that if you're running to be a judge, you 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:13.760 can't make pledges or promises to voters about your rulings 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:16.480 other than that they'll be faithful and impartial because you're 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:19.440 a judge. Let me, okay, can I can I put 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:23.439 my teacher hat on right now? Okay? Listen, civics lesson. 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:27.280 You got your three branches of government right, and two 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:32.960 of the three branches are elected officials. The reason why 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:37.840