Tackling Justice and Police Violence Through Fiction
Following several high-profile deaths of unarmed civilians at the hands of police officers, the conversation about police, use of force and race continues to resonate across the country.
For Jonathan Shapiro, some of those stories are better told through fiction.
"The impact you can have on millions of people is so immediate with great drama," he said. "[It] was time to address the police brutality issue that I think is so important to our democracy."
Shapiro is a former federal prosecutor and an award-winning television writer and producer whose credits include "Boston Legal" and "The Blacklist."
His new novel, "Deadly Force," takes place in the US Attorney’s Office in Santa Ana, California. It follows protagonist Lizzie Scott as she takes on what Shapiro called every prosecutor's "worst nightmare" — a case against a police officer.
"My goal is to show people why these cases are so difficult to bring and even harder to win," Shapiro said.
Although the story takes place in California, Shapiro said the theme resounds nationwide.
"It's very, very hard to get justice when you've been victimized by a police officer," he said. "And that ought to make all of us, regardless our race or regardless of where we live, concerned."
Shapiro spoke to WNYC's All Things Considered host Jami Floyd.
