'You won't kill me.' The repetitive reality of police brutality cases

September 12, 2019 / 11:20 am

caption: RadioActive's Hong Ta, Essey Paulos and Marian Mohamed stand outside the Seattle Police department in Capitol Hill.

In the United States, black people are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white people.

And about one in every 1,000 black men can expect to be killed by police.

This is according to a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In this episode of the RadioActive Youth Media podcast, three young people unravel painful truths about how police treat people of color and the role of journalists in covering police violence.

Youth producers Hong Ta, Essey Paulos and Marian Mohamed wonder why police officers are rarely charged or convicted for shootings and using deadly force.

They talk with KUOW criminal justice reporter Patricia Murphy and Officer Thaddeus Kerkhoff from the Renton Police Department, and share their own experiences.

This story was created in KUOW's RadioActive Intro to Journalism Workshop for 15- to 18-year-olds, with production support from Zuheera Ali. Edited by Kyle Norris.

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