Let's Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice - Paperback

Radical ideas for changing the justice system, rooted in the real-life experiences of those in overpoliced communities, from the acclaimed former federal prosecutor and author of Chokehold Paul Butler was an ambitious federal prosecutor, a Harvard Law grad who gave up his corporate law salary to fight the good fight--until one day he was arrested on the street and charged with a crime he didn't commit. In a book Harvard Law professor Charles Ogletree calls "a must-read," Butler looks at places where ordinary citizens meet the justice system--as jurors, witnesses, and in encounters with the police--and explores what "doing the right thing" means in a corrupt system. No matter how powerless those caught up in the web of the law may feel, there is a chance to regain agency, argues Butler. Through groundbreaking and sometimes controversial methods--jury nullification (voting "not guilty" in drug cases as a form of protest), just saying "no" when the police request your permission to search, and refusing to work inside the system as a snitch or a prosecutor--ordinary people can tip the system towards actual justice. Let's Get Free is an evocative, compelling look at the steps we can collectively take to reform our broken system.

• | Author: Paul Butler
• | Publisher: New Press
• | Publication Date: Jun 01, 2010
• | Number of Pages: 224 pages
• | Binding: Paperback or Softback
• | ISBN-10: 1595585001
• | ISBN-13: 9781595585004