Last month, a conference in Greensboro brought together more than 70 attorneys, activists and average citizens to talk about human and civil rights violations at the hands of law enforcement. Among the issues discussed were racial profiling, police brutality, mass incarceration, torture and rendition. The event was a call to action and the message was that every member of society is responsible for speaking out about abuses of state power. Host Frank Stasio considers how far there is to go in creating a fair criminal justice system with conference organizer Lewis Pitts, Managing Attorney with Advocates for Children’s Services at Legal Aid of NC; civil rights attorney Flint Taylor of The People’s Law Office based in Chicago; James P. Mayes, director of the Criminal Justice Program at North Carolina A&T State University; and Christina Cowger, a volunteer with NC Stop Torture Now.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.