The Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs invite you to hear prize-winning civil rights lawyer Alec Karakatsanis read from and discuss his new book, “Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News.”
Have you ever noticed that your local TV station obsessively focuses on shoplifting by poor people while ignoring crimes of wage theft, tax evasion, and environmental pollution? That’s part of what Karakatsanis defines as “copaganda” – a manipulation of our perception of what keeps us safe, creating a culture fearful of poor people, strangers, immigrants, unhoused people, and people of color. The result is more and more authoritarian state repression, more inequality, and huge profits for the massive public and private punishment bureaucracy. Karakatsanis will discuss his book, and take questions from the audience. Mike Bonin, the adjunct faculty member who teaches UEP 295: Reimagining Public Safety: Debates Over Policing and Criminal Justice, will introduce him.
