10 episodes
Black and Blue: Behind the Badge Curiouscast
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- True Crime
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4.6 • 26 Ratings
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For Michael Morrison, the police badge is his future: his ambition, his way out of poverty, his ‘American dream’. But once he puts on his uniform, the badge starts to mean something very different.
Michael takes on a new identity – but not the one he expects. Inside the force, he faces racism and violence, and on the streets he’s surrounded by hostility. Michael is stuck in the middle, between being Black and being a police officer.
And when a routine day at work goes wrong and his career is thrown into crisis, Michael is forced to pick a side.
In this new, limited podcast series hosted by Seren Jones, Michael and others like him finally get to tell their story: a story that has made them question everything they thought they knew about justice, community, and, ultimately, what it means to be both Black and Blue: Behind the Badge. .
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Catching Hell | 1
It’s 1986 and Michael Morrison is offered the opportunity of a lifetime. A chance to leave his life of poverty in Newark and start afresh. It’s a job offer he can’t afford to refuse. Michael has no idea what this new job has in store. But he soon realizes: he’s just joined ‘the biggest gang in America’. Join Seren Jones to hear Michael’s story and find out what it means to be both Black and Blue.
Contact:
Email: blackandblue@curiouscast.ca
Facebook: @BlanchardHouseStories
Instagram: @BlanchardHouseStories
X (formerly Twitter): @BlanchardTweets
Blanchard House website: blanchard-house.com
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Boyz N The Hood | 2
Trying to figure out why Black people become police officers can be… confusing. What's even more confusing is why, after everything he’s been through, an officer like Michael Morrison would stay in the force. To find out, Seren Jones goes back to where it all started: Newark.
Stricken by neglect, crime and crack cocaine, the city didn’t have much to offer young Black boys like Michael. And Maplewood, an affluent sleepy suburb next door, was off limits. The town didn’t want outsiders coming in. But then Michael became a cop…
Contact:
Email: blackandblue@curiouscast.ca
Facebook: @BlanchardHouseStories
Instagram: @BlanchardHouseStories
X (formerly Twitter): @BlanchardTweets
Blanchard House website: blanchard-house.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
Sins of The Fathers | 3
Michael Morrison makes it to Maplewood. It’s a childhood dream come true: moving to the suburbs and building his ‘American dream’. He befriends Larry, one of the few Black officers at Maplewood PD. But the two quickly discover not everything in this picture-perfect town is as it seems. Beneath its idyllic surface, Maplewood’s police department has an ugly history.
Contact:
Email: blackandblue@curiouscast.ca
Facebook: @BlanchardHouseStories
Instagram: @BlanchardHouseStories
X (formerly Twitter): @BlanchardTweets
Blanchard House website: blanchard-house.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
Officer, Officer, Overseer | 4
It’s 2003 and Michael Morrison progresses at Maplewood Police Department. But when an incident escalates at the local high school and Michael is forced to intervene, he’s accused of police brutality and his career is thrown into crisis. Once again he’s faced with the reality of his dual identity. But this time he’s forced to pick a side: Black or Blue?
Contact:
Email: blackandblue@curiouscast.ca
Facebook: @BlanchardHouseStories
Instagram: @BlanchardHouseStories
X (formerly Twitter): @BlanchardTweets
Blanchard House website: blanchard-house.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
Triple Threat | 5
As we leave Maplewood we speak to someone we haven’t heard from yet. Someone whose voice is rarely ever heard at all. Meet Tina, one of the vanishingly small number of Black women in American law enforcement. Her story will make us question why so few like her make it in the force and ultimately whether police work, for Black women, is really worth it.
Contact:
Email: blackandblue@curiouscast.ca
Facebook: @BlanchardHouseStories
Instagram: @BlanchardHouseStories
X (formerly Twitter): @BlanchardTweets
Blanchard House website: blanchard-house.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
Home is Where the Hate Is | 6
It’s 2016 and Maplewood is holding its annual July 4th celebrations. Everything is running smoothly –- until it’s not. After years of growing tension between the police and the Black community, Maplewood PD has one of its darkest nights; a night that shocks the community, and challenges its identity for years to come.
Contact:
Email: blackandblue@curiouscast.ca
Facebook: @BlanchardHouseStories
Instagram: @BlanchardHouseStories
X (formerly Twitter): @BlanchardTweets
Blanchard House website: blanchard-house.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices