Civil Liberties Don't Just Belong To the Rich!
Billy Binion takes on the abuse of power by police, courts, and legacy media.
Scroll down to watch on YouTube or listen on Apple, or Spotify.
The guest on this week’s Reason Interview podcast is my Reason colleague Billy Binion, who joined our staff in 2019 after stints at an opera company (!) and as a contractor for NATO (!!).
He’s written blockbuster stories about the abuse of power by cops and courts, and he just produced an incredible documentary about Patricia Villarreal, a citizen journalist who calls herself Lagordiloca (the ‘fat crazy lady’) in Laredo, Texas, who sued the city after they arrested her for reporting on a couple of controversial local stories (the doc includes interviews with figures ranging from
to James O’Keefe, who wrote an amicus brief in Villarreal’s case). It's a case that could have major First Amendment implications for independent reporters. The number of legacy outlets and established journalists who don’t support figures like Villareal is stunning and deeply disappointing, and something we get into.I talk with Billy about what drives his interests in such topics as civil asset forfeiture, SWAT teams run amok, and victimized people who get arrested after using unlicensed guns to ward off would-be killers. Like me, he’s not a gun owner but he understands that gun laws fall differently on the wealthy and the middle class than they do on lower-income people, who have less political or social capital to begin with. “If you support those permitting regimes that make it very difficult for poorer people to get guns, you are making the right to self-defense something that is only accessible to people of a certain class,” he tells me.
We also discuss how contrary to most news accounts, today's Supreme Court is less polarized than the country it serves. And we talk about how Billy’s time living in California and Texas back to back gives him a distinct perspective on blue and red America—and insight into what sort of government governs better, if not quite best. Billy’s perspective and voice is refreshing and tough to categorize, especially in an era when virtually all journalism gets coopted into an ultra-binary political status quo.
Take an hour to get to know him and his work.
Here are the topics we cover. Scroll down to watch on YouTube or listen on Apple or Spotify.
0:00- Ad: St John's College
1:17- Introduction
2:24- Priscilla Villarreal documentary
9:55- James O'Keefe
14:56- Qualified immunity & absolute immunity
21:08- Charles Foehner self defense/gun possession case
23:16- LaShawn Craig self defense case
25:20- Dexter Taylor 'ghost guns' case
28:38- Civil liberties shouldn't be granted based on class
33:46- SWAT damage cases
42:38- Is policing getting better or worse?
46:18- Binion's background
49:48- Are the arts politically homogenous?
53:04- Being disillusioned by Los Angeles
57:08- Leaving California for Texas
1:01:41- Finding libertarianism
1:04:49- The Supreme Court is not 'radical'
1:09:08- The complicated story is more interesting
This week’s sponsors:
St. John's College. Explore 3,000 years of human thought on campuses in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and in Annapolis, Maryland. From the Greek philosophers who are the wellspring of democratic ideals to America's founding fathers to contemporary critics who question everything: Each is welcome at St. John's College. In-person and online Master's degree courses are offered, too.
The Reason Speakeasy. The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly unscripted discussion in midtown New York City that doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie. The next one is on Thursday, October 24, and features the Stony Brook sociologist Musa al-Gharbi, whose new book is We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite. Tickets are $15 and include beer, wine, soft drinks, and light food. For more information and to buy tickets, go here. To watch or listen to past Speakeasys, go here.
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