52: These 3 people died

If this is your first time listening to this podcast, you need to know this is not a typical episode. Usually, each episode is a conversation with someone who has been through some type of extremely unusual situation, and that person comes on the show and tells what happened, first hand.

Not this week.

This week our country is in turmoil because a black man in Minneapolis died at the hands of the police. The video of that happening in broad daylight has – again – shown that racism in America is alive and well. So I have to do something different here on this podcast, for this episode.

Some people run for office to get elected and try to bring change from the inside. Some people hold signs. Some people go through police academy and become skilled police officers. I know that, because they are my close family members. Some people riot in the streets. I’m not here to comment on any of those things. For me, what I have is this podcast. It reaches a lot of people. So this is how I’m using it for this particular episode.

When something like this happens, you see it on your TV or your computer or your phone and you read the story. But those are just words on the screen. There’s distance between you and what happened.

With this episode, I want to put you at the scene.

I’m going to present you with three true stories today. In each one of these stories, a person of color died at the hands of the police. What puts us at the scene is the phone call that was made when it happened.

My hope today is that what you hear makes it more real. These are not just names in the newspaper or on the evening news. These are people, and what happened to them needs to be known. We need to be aware of this reality, and we need to find a solution to this problem. Because what we’ve been doing so far isn’t working.

For more information about these three people:

Atatiana Jefferson - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Atatiana_Jefferson

Botham Jean - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Botham_Jean

Breonna Taylor - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Breonna_Taylor

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