Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News

From the prizewinning rising legal star, the deeply researched and definitive book on the way the media and police distract us from what matters. “Alec Karakatsanis is a leading voice in the legal struggle to dismantle mass incarceration. . . . What he says cannot be ignored.” —James Forman‚ Jr. “Copaganda” is a special kind of propaganda employed by police, prosecutors, and news media. It stokes fear of police-recorded crime and distorts society’s responses to it. As the United States incarcerates five times more people per capita than it did in 1970—despite record low crime rates—a sprawling and profitable punishment bureaucracy spends a lot of time and money to manipulate what we think that bureaucracy does and why. Copaganda is all around us. When you hear on the radio that crime is up when it’s actually down—that’s copaganda. When your local TV station obsessively focuses on shoplifting by poor people while ignoring crimes of wage theft, tax evasion, and environmental pollution that harm far more people—that’s copaganda. When you hear on your daily podcast that there is a “shortage” of prison guards rather than too many people in prison—that’s copaganda. When your newspaper quotes an “expert” saying that more money for police, prosecutors, and prisons is the answer to violence despite scientific evidence to the contrary—that’s copaganda. Recognized by Teen Vogue as “one of the most prominent voices” on the criminal legal system and a featured guest on shows like The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and The Breakfast Club, Karakatsanis brings his sharp legal expertise, trenchant political analysis, and humorous personal storytelling to delve into one of the most critical topics in our society today.