Investigative Reporter to Discuss America’s War on Drugs, Civil Liberties

At 7:30 p.m.,on Wednesday, Oct. 1, nationally renowned investigative journalist, blogger and speaker Radley Balko will discuss “The Failed War on Drugs and the Militarization of America’s Police Forces” in Mabee Theater inside Sedgwick Hall on the Rockhurst University campus. 

During his appearance as part of the Visiting Scholar Lecture Series, Balko will articulate how the war on drugs in America cultivates a climate that threatens basic liberties.

Centered on the powerful ideas that he will address in his talk, Balko’s book Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces has received widespread praise. According to The Economist, “Balko manages to avoid the clichés of both right and left, and provokes genuine outrage at the misuse of state power in its most brutal and unaccountable form: heavily armed police raiding the homes of unarmed, non-violent suspects on the flimsiest of pretexts, and behaving more like an occupying army in hostile territory than guardians of public safety.”

Balko’s work is influential enough to have been cited by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s dissent in the case of Hudson v. Michigan, concerning the violation of rights in failing to follow the “knock and announce” rule.

Balko graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science. He wrote a biweekly column for FoxNews.com from 2002-2009, was a senior editor at Reason, and has been published in numerous highly respected publications. Balko also appears regularly as an analyst on several news stations. He is currently an investigative reporter covering civil liberties and the criminal justice system for The Washington Post.

Admission is free. Register your attendance to this free lecture by calling 816-501-4828. Parking is free in the north parking garage and on campus.