Drawing from his first two books "Lockdown America" and "The Soft Cage", Christian Parenti argues that the over-development of American criminal justice, began, not coincidentally, in the late 1960s in direct opposition to grassroots rebellion. In this talk, Parenti provides a Marxist analysis of the current American criminal justice system and today's crisis of police violence.

Suggested reading:
• Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis by Christian Parenti
• The Soft Cage: Surveillance in America From Slavery to the War on Terror by Christian Parenti
• Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence by Christian Parenti