Larry Lessig: "Black Lives Matter" Movement Is A Response To Tyrannical "Taxation Through Citation" System

In an interview with Cenk Uygur, Larry Lessig explains how the Black Lives Matter movement is a manifestation of larger problems in America, not a separate racial issue.





LARRY LESSIG: What I think the meaning of Black Lives Matter is... people are focusing on the Black part, I think we should focus on the Lives part.



When you have a system of fundamental inequality, what that does is disempower people, and in America to be disempowered as a black person is not just that you aren't getting roads built, or that ambulances take longer, it is that your life is not respected, so you are actually risking your life to be a black person driving in certain areas, because we have instituionalized this idea that inequality of so deeply in America.



Ferguson is an amazing example of how they have structured their tax system to basically tax through fines. Taxation through citation. Police officers aren't police officers, they are tax collectors.



You park your car, get a traffic violation, you don't pay that fineon time, you get a fine on top of that, you don't pay that on time, you get an arrest warrant, you're facing $500, and these are not people who have $500.



They've decided in this county that the best way to make money is to tax the least empowered political group, because what are they going to do? Elect a candidate to overturn it?



This is just a manifestation of the inequality that this campaign ought to be about.



If we could have a campaign where we talk about equality as the solution to our problem, we could stand with our black brohters and sisters and say yes, what you are saying is just the most profound substantiation of this fundamental problem.



It is the one we have to address first, I agree, but it is the same problem we all face.