Five years ago, 12-year old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by a police officer in Cleveland, Ohio. Rice, who was playing with a toy pellet gun, was shot by the officer within two seconds after he got out of his police car. The incident was the latest in a series of police killings and excessive use of force incidences in the city. A Department of Justice investigation completed a few weeks after Rice's killing found persistent and systemic patterns of misconduct by the Cleveland Police Department. This episode looks back at how local organizers and activists in Cleveland engaged in a daily resistance struggle to make changes in policing culture in the aftermath of Rice’s death. It also looks at the broader terrain of the Black Lives Matter movement and related discourses that position racial justice at the forefront of U.S. politics and policymaking. We have two guests. Joseph "Joe" Worthy is the Ohio Director of Youth Leadership and Organizing at the Children’s Defense Fund. In 2014, he was a member of the New Abolitionist Association and a frontline activist working mainly with young people in response to the police killing of Tamir Rice. Dr. Tehama Lopez Bunyasi is Assistant Professor at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. She is the co-author (with Dr. Candis Watts Smith) of the new book, Stay Woke: A People's Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter.
