Listen ad-free

No Special Duty

Radiolab

17-06-2022 • 46 mins

Since the massacre that took the lives of 19 schoolchildren in Uvalde, Texas, people across the world began to ask versions of one question: why did police wait outside the door instead of protecting the kids?

It's not the first time this question has come up. Two years ago, as she watched police respond to the protests that followed the death of George Floyd, Producer B.A. Parker wondered: what are police for? With the help of our Producer Sarah Qari, she found that the United States’ Supreme Court had given this a most consequential and bewildering answer.

We decided to re-air this episode to shed light on how a case from 2005 upended our assumptions about the role police are meant to play in our lives.

Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.

Radiolab is on YouTube! (https://zpr.io/MTSFMLXQWDkE) Catch up with new episodes and hear classics from our archive. Plus, find other cool things we did in the past — like miniseries, music videos, short films and animations, behind-the-scenes features, Radiolab live shows, and more. Take a look, explore and subscribe!

You Might Like

StarTalk Radio
StarTalk Radio
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Hidden Brain
Hidden Brain
Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam
Radiolab
Radiolab
WNYC Studios
Sasquatch Chronicles
Sasquatch Chronicles
Sasquatch Chronicles - Bigfoot Encounters
Paranormal Mysteries Podcast
Paranormal Mysteries Podcast
Paranormal Mysteries | Unexplained Supernatural Stories
Something You Should Know
Something You Should Know
Mike Carruthers | OmniCast Media | Cumulus Podcast Network
Science Vs
Science Vs
Spotify Studios
This Podcast Will Kill You
This Podcast Will Kill You
Exactly Right Media – the original true crime comedy network
Tooth & Claw: True Stories of Animal Attacks
Tooth & Claw: True Stories of Animal Attacks
Wes Larson, Jeff Larson, Mike Smith | QCODE
Science Friday
Science Friday
Science Friday and WNYC Studios