Daphne Frias is a 22-year-old organizer from West Harlem, New York.She is a nationally acclaimed activist within the movement to prevent gun violence, the New York state director of March for Our Lives, a delegate at the United Nations Youth Climate Summit, and she just began med school. Daphne is a great, tough young person, who was kind enough to join host JJ to talk about the intersection of coronavirus, disability, and gun violence.
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For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.
Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
In a crisis? Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor 24/7.
Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady
JJ (00:09):
Hey everybody. This is the legal disclaimer, where we tell you that the views, thoughts, and opinions shared on this podcast belong solely to our guests and our hosts and not necessarily Brady or Brady's affiliates. Please know that this podcast can contain discussions of violence that some people may find disturbing. It's okay. We find it disturbing too.
JJ (00:44):
Welcome back everyone to Red, Blue and Brady. Today, I am so happy to be joined by Daphne Frias, she's a 22 year old organizer from West Harlem, New York. She's a nationally acclaimed activist within the movement to prevent gun violence. She's the New York State Director of March For Our Lives. She's a delegate at the United Nations Youth Climate Summit, and she just began med school. She's wicked impressive. She's a great, tough young person who is kind enough to join me today to talk about the intersection of coronavirus, disability, and gun violence. Then in our Unbelievable But segment we talk about the risks of combining puppies and guns. Finally, in our weekly wrap up, we're continuing on with our coverage of gun violence during the time of COVID-19 as well as the high profile shootings of two young black men.
JJ (01:38):
Daphne, I am so excited to talk to you and I know you're on a super tight schedule, so I think we should go ahead and just hop right to it. Can you go ahead and introduce yourself to our audience?
Daphne (01:48):
Hey everyone, my name is Daphne Frias, I'm 22 years old. I am a gun violence prevention activist from New York City. Currently I hold the position of New York City director of March For Our Lives. If you're unfamiliar with March For Our Lives, we are a youth led gun violence prevention organization that was founded shortly after the Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 2018. We were founded by the survivors of that shooting and since have grown into holding space for any and all victims of gun violence and accomplished student leaders from all over the country. Here in New York the work that I do is really making sure that even though we are a progressive state in terms of gun violence prevention legislation, the communities that are so affected by gun laws on a daily basis, such as communities like mine, I live in Harlem, New York. So it's primarily Black and Brown individuals that they are still being listened to and are still being represented. Because even though we have progressive laws here in New York state, there are still communities who are facing violence on an everyday basis. And this week is incredibly personal to me. As I said before, I live in Harlem, New York and growing up I've seen a sort of changing levels of gun violence throughout my life. And most recently had an uptick in gun violence in relation to gang violence. So I do this work to protect everyone, but I also do this work because it's personal and I'm so happy to be here with you all.
JJ (03:15):
Well, and we're so happy and so thankful that you could be here with us, especially because, and I hope I'm not like outing your past illness, but you've just gotten over COVID. So I was wondering, particularly when we're hearing so many stories come out of New York and, and we've seen how sort of this virus has directly been disproportionately impacting communities of color, almost the same way that gun violence does. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about your experiences with being ill.
Daphne (03:43):
Yeah, so just to give a background as to my health before COVID, I am disabled, I have cerebral palsy. I use a wheelchair to get around. I was diagnosed at three years old, so being disabled is something that I've never really not known. And because of that, I have a compromising system. So all of those warnings that we all hear in the news about immunocompromised individual I have to take those for you seriously. And the minute that COVID landed in the United States, beginning on the West Coast. I already had to be alert and I was already kind of self isolating before the official sort of declarations happened within all of our states, because I have a very low, low working respiratory system. I have a history of contracting pneumonia, and that has left my respiratory system very weak. So I was already just staying home, but then started having a cough, tightness of chest then as my symptoms weren't clearing, and obviously because of the current climate that we're in, I had to begin thinking, Hey, maybe this is something a little bit more than just what I've usually had going on. And luckily, because of my activism background, I do have political connections. Um, so I contacted a governors employee and I said, you know, this is what's going on. This is my symptoms I tried, you know, I really did try to adhere to the amount of days that since I had been feeling, I really tried to track my symptoms as diligently as possible because as, even though I was feeling unwell, I also knew the situation that we were in with testing capacity. And if I didn't feel like I needed to take a test, I was really trying to be careful in order to be able to save a test for someone who really needed it. But at this point I felt like I did require a test. So after making that phone call, they were able to connect with the urgent care that I was trying to go to and told them to test me. Less than 48 hours later. I got my test results and they were positive. What's really scary is I live with my mom and my sister and my dog. Can't leave out my dog. She's my favorite person.
JJ (05:47):
Yeah. We can never forget the dog.
Daphne (05:49):
Exactly. So because I'm disabled. I do require assistance with care. And I knew that I was in a position to really isolate myself and my family because they do need assistance with certain things. So I knew I was putting my family at risk in staying with them during this time. Immediately began quarantining. And then about a week and a half into our quarantine, my mom began developing symptoms of COVID and this was sort of, we were kind of expecting this, but also hoping for the best. So then it was just really my sister that was healthy. She had to navigate between helping my mom and I.
JJ (06:25):
Well, so, and then you've been symptom free for almost like three days; you get a massive fever and then a relapse of COVID, right?
Daphne (06:33):
Yeah. And then after speaking to my doctor, it was determined that what's happening to many immunocompromised individuals who contract covered is that they can also have a super imposed bacterial infection of pneumonia. So because your immune system is compromised fighting COVID it leaves it susceptible to other bacterial infections. And so I was fighting COVID and pneumonia at the same time. We decided that because I was increasingly more sick and my mom was starting to slightly get better, that I needed to find a way to separate myself from my family. So that's when we made the tough decision to put me into a hotel for another 14 days of quarantine, apart from my family. And that was really rough for multiple reasons. Financially, the hotel stay was a little over a thousand dollars for 15 days while I was there. And I was preparing to start medical school and med school super expensive, anyone knows who does higher education beyond undergrad, as you move into, you know, masters and more specializations, there's very little financial aid so you're doing a lot of the cost covering on your own. And it was really concerning cause like my dreams of medical school were fading away as my income was decreasing. So I'm so lucky that my friends were rallying around me. And within three days we were able to recover all of the income plus a little bit extra of what I had lost during this time. And I'm still so, so, so incredibly grateful to every single person, but it was still incredibly difficult. That being said, like my battle with COVID is nowhere near over. COVID leaves a huge impact on the body. It's been about a month now, almost a month, three weeks of me being COVID negative. And I'm still so, so, so tired every single day. And I'm just starting to get over those aches and pains. I have a doctor's appointment coming up to check my respiratory system to check my heart. Um, because the thing about COVID unlike other diseases is we're learning about COVID as COVID happens. So we don't know what the effect a year or two years, however years later will be and being that I'm already immunocompromised. You know, I feel a difference in my body, I feel how it's harder to breath. I feel that my blood pressure is higher, you know, all these things that are concerning. So I think that's something that I definitely want people to take to heart that it's not only the initial battle of COVID, it's a huge long battle afterwards. So please try to stay as safe as possible because it's really scary having to deal with this huge unknown. And we don't, we don't really know how COVID is going to manifest itself in the future. So it's definitely been a wild ride.
JJ (09:21):
Well, yeah. And one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about not to sort of position disability as like a proxy for gun violence or COVID as a proxy for gun violence. They're very different things, right. But like, there are similar situations in this crazy world that we now live in where I think there's this misconception, particularly with COVID that like, once you heal you're and by heal, I mean, you're discharged from the hospital. You're perfectly fine. You're okay. And you know, I think we see sort of a similar thing around firearm injuries that if, if you, if you don't die, if you're released from the hospital, just sort of magically you're okay. But, but the fact remains that, you know, like healing, isn't so simple healing in many cases for people is, is a lifelong process and what their body looks like, how their body feels, how their body operates in the world, how others view their body, like that might be fundamentally changed. Right. And I know you do a lot with this with March For Our Lives and I was wondering if you could talk about, you know, just that misconception and what that does for, I think, sort of survivors and puts them in that awkward position.
Daphne (10:30):
Yeah. I think there needs to be a better understanding that healing is a multifaceted life long process, and that there is physical healing and there is mental and emotional healing. I think what's also important is that once you get past that physical healing, that mental and emotional healing is invisible. So on the outside everyone expects you to be okay and fine. If you don't have any visible remanence of your, of your firearm injury, but that internal turmoil and trauma that you're dealing with is still present. And it's still affects your life on every single level. And I think that's something that survivors deal with on a consistent basis. The fact that their sort of trauma and demons aren't readily seen by individuals and how do they, how do they talk about things that aren't able to be seen.
JJ (11:25):
I like that your dog has thoughts too. I love that. He's like, I agree wholeheartedly
Daphne (11:31):
My dog. She is, um, my personal mascot for gun laws prevention, and she knows all of the facts and she's there 100% of the time. She's like she's videobombed and soundbombed every single one of my digital rallies and events cause she's like, I am the gun violence prevention expert.
JJ (11:49):
I love it. Okay. And our very first podcast episode, Ivy Seamus from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, a teacher there, she was like, all dogs would be for gun violence prevention if they could talk. And I've been running with that as my mantra.
Daphne (12:03):
100%. Yeah. I totally agree not to mention the, how dogs have been incredibly useful in the healing of those who have been victims of gun violence in terms of emotional support. So moral of the story is dogs are really the heroes of everything. But to go back to survivors and their healing, I think what for me, as I've communicated with survivors over the past two years, obviously there is the immediate physical recovery of, you know, firearm penetration and dealing with the after effects of being a victim of a shooting. And I think this brings me back to a couple of months ago. In 2019, when doctors began this movement called This Is Our Lane and how doctors were talking about, we are also gun violence prevention, advocates. This is as much our fight as it is any advocate as any survivor because they're the ones literally trying to piece together, shreds of body parts after shootings and the way that bullets penetrate bodies. It destroys tissue unlike any other penetrating object. And it leaves so much trauma within the body. Oftentimes bullets being left within the body, because that is a safer option then removing them. And that leaves a lot of trauma for survivors because you're constantly living with a physical memory of the incident that you went through. And how do you grapple around looking down at your body and seeing these physical remnants of the trauma that you endured. And that's something that I feel is greatly overlooked. And then as I was saying, the emotional impacts, many of the survivors deal with posttraumatic stress disorder have now various triggers within their environment that abruptly, bring them back to the trauma that they experienced and there's no, their normal is now something completely different. And in many ways, normal doesn't exist for them anymore. So how can we provide them the support and how can we help them integrate back into everyday life? And that's why many of the survivors that I've spoken to have taken to gun violence prevention work, not only because it's personal but because it actively allows them to heal from their trauma because they feel like they've contributed to the fight to end the violence and make sure that nobody experiences what they experienced, but also the cathartic sort of quality of sharing your story and making sure that people hear a first person account of what you've been through has helped many of the survivors that I've spoken to. I think if you take away anything from that, it's the fact that the healing goes so much further than just the initial discharge from the hospital. It's a lifelong process. So if any of you out there know someone who's been, even if that's also to say that those who've experienced gun violence and haven't had a physical injury, they should not be left out of the conversation. There's still so much emotional and, you know, psychological trauma that they face as well. And then there's also survivor guilt. And the fact that they're alive and the victims who've unfortunately past have been murdered are not alive anymore. And you know, a lot of these survivors contemplate like why them and how do we deal with life after losing individuals in this horrible way? Um, so healing for survivors is a huge multifaceted process that deserves a lot more nuance and a lot more respect because it's a really difficult journey.
JJ (15:54):
Well, and I think that, that goes back to, again, this idea that gun violence survivors, you know, you survive that initial event, but then you have this long, lifelong impact that you have to work through. That includes, you know, not just this damage possibly to your body or this damage mentally, but then like this financial impact. I don't think, especially too we have a lot of listeners outside of the US that they don't realize how expensive healthcare costs are.
Daphne (16:23):
Oh, Oh my gosh. I think this is why gun violence prevention work is so multifaceted for me, as I was talking about before I am just beginning my journey into becoming a doctor, I will, at some point in my life, I'm pretty sure treat someone who is a victim of gun violence. And that will be emotional for me in many, many respects. But something that I consistently struggle with is how am I going into a system of healthcare that doesn't put their patients first. For me being disabled, I say that that has allowed me to become a professional patient. So I've seen the really good sides of our healthcare system. And I've seen the super, super bad sides of our healthcare system. To this day I have piles of medical debt, and this is something that I consistently grapple with going into the system that has helped me so much. Yes. But has also contributed to so much additional stress. And then kind of like how you're saying, how do we expect gun violence prevention survivors, how do we expect COVID survivors to integrate themselves back into everyday life when they're now dealing with piles of debt? And then if you're a gun violence survivor not to mention the environmental triggers that you may have, that don't allow you to work, quote unquote, a traditional nine to five job, because maybe that is too emotionally triggering you. Our health care system doesn't prioritize mental health at all. In many instances, mental health resources like therapy, like medication are considered out of network costs and many therapists aren't in that way providers. And then not to mention in communities of color therapy and mental health is a completely stigmatized like area. So many individuals aren't receiving the mental health care that they need. It's so common for survivors, especially young survivors who are still living with their families to feel so burdened. And there goes my dog advocating again for gun violence prevention.
JJ (18:30):
He feels very strongly. And I appreciate it.
Daphne (18:33):
Totally, she's going to be getting all the treats after this. But especially young survivors of gun violence. They feel incredibly burdened--they feel like they're a burden to their families because of the health impacts. And because of all the sort of financial implications of being a survivor of gun violence. And I think also like just how we were talking about healing is a lifelong journey. Many times the initial recovery of physical wounds is literally just about saving the person's life and having them be in somewhat of a stable position. And then it requires countless other reconstructive and, and anatomical surgeries after to make the person as whole as possible if they can ever be that. So the projection of healthcare from the incident to whenever, you know, their, their healthcare journey is sort of at the end is incredibly long and incredibly costly. My hope is that like, as I work towards becoming the best medical professional that I can be, I can also actively continue the work that I'm doing to promote a better health care system. So it begs the question again, America has such an intrinsic gun violence problem, but our health care system does not help survivors of these shootings.
JJ (19:56):
But I, I think what, what we need to be clear on though, is that it's not the healthcare workers though themselves. Because I know that that's the thing that we've seen with, you know, hashtag this is our lane. You have these frontline healthcare workers who were saying, we really need X, Y, and Z to help. And maybe a system that can support them. Like for example, we estimate that firearm injuries affect three times as many people per year as firearm deaths, but we don't know, like for sure, number.
Daphne (20:26):
Yeah. It's incredibly, again, not to like, be the mascot for public health, but gun violence prevention is intrinsically a public health issue. And we also deal with sort of opposing interests groups like my arch nemesis, the NRA that actively fund other groups to sort of mask the research that is being put out there and try to actively work towards accurate reporting of who's surviving these incidents of shootings. But I so, so appreciate your clarity. And the fact that healthcare workers are as much activists in this movement as I am, as you are, they're on the front lines every single day, trying to save these people's lives, who are survivors of these shootings, just the last surviving individual from the El Paso shooting, unfortunately succumbed to their injuries and this goes to show how long these health care individuals had been fighting for this man to help his life. And I've also been seeing this rhetoric of health care individuals sort of pushing back on the notion that they're heroes and I really sort of emotionally connect with their sentiments because you know, when, when you take your oath as a doctor, it's right there in our oath is do no harm. And that means so many things. And it's such, it's a short line, but it's so complex. And our main goal isn't to have patients coming in, it's actually to have patients not coming in. And I think that's sort of a misconception of healthcare because it's like, Oh, hospitals and doctors and all these things, these people wouldn't have jobs if people weren't sick, but we're here to help people because they are sick. Not because we benefit off of them being sick. And doctors who are treating doctors and nurses and the whole health care team who are treating these individuals who are victims of gun violence, they so much more than a statistic can speak to the volumes of individuals who are coming in as survivors of shootings. And I think we need to be including them in our conversation of gun violence prevention.
JJ (22:39):
So right away, one of my questions is then is what keeps you going in this fight? You know, what has pushed you to keep up gun violence prevention, activism from being sort of a grassroots activist to now wanting to go into sort of like the, This Is Our Lane style activism of being a doctor.
Daphne (22:56):
It's about being cognizant that when you're fighting you're not fighting for you, and you're not fighting for your notoriety, you're fighting for the general cause and for your community and not necessarily taking the space of someone's voice but being a megaphone and amplifier for your community's voice. And I think that's what really keeps me going. If you're not there to be an amplifier and a megaphone for your community, that is a voice and a course that will never be heard in the fight too. And human rights atrocities and end gun violence. So whenever I speak I always just like trying to ground myself and remember that I'm speaking for so many more people than just me. I always have my community on my shoulders. It's my community that's gotten me here.
JJ (23:36):
Well, and to interject that this is a community that I I've seen you comment on your Twitter is amazing. That is now dealing with a pandemic and an epidemic. And I'm just wondering how you've been navigating that. Like, do you have any advice, particularly to our young activists who might be listening?
Daphne (23:50):
It's been such a strange conversation for me to be a part of, because people who are in my life that actively know that I'm a gun violence prevention activist were not talking to me about gun violence. They knew that I was doing this work, but never showed a general interest in it. And I was like, I'm glad you're showing interest in it now, but I also want you to know that this issue existed way before COVID. And it's interesting to see how the pandemic has brought to light the issues around guns that we have in this country. This reminds me of actually right before COVID in February, before everything got locked down, Microsoft and a bunch of March For Our Life activists, occupied Mitch McConnell's office. My second arch nemesis. I like to make that clear just in case anybody had any conflicting opinions. So we were occupying my second arch-nemesis Mitch McConnell's office. There was a secretary of his there, and she was very unenthused with the fact that all these young people were now in his office. We were protesting against his position to literally just let Americans die and not do anything. Additionally, we had activists from Kentucky who is his constituents directly talk about how many of his own constituents are literally dying from gun violence. And they think that that's something that's not necessarily always pointed out. Yes. Anyone who works in this sphere knows that Mitch McConnell doesn't care about gun violence prevention, but the simple fact that he's literally not caring at all about his own constituents, like that should make you even more angry, but what was really poignant about our occupation there? It wasn't about him. It wasn't about any of that. It was, we were literally sitting in his office and we sat in a circle and we just shared our stories of why gun violence prevention is personal to us. And literally within like 10 minutes of me being there with all of my activist peers, I was crying and I was crying cause I was feeling the emotional impacts of what it's like to be a young person in a country that is actively letting your friends and family die. And we shared those stories and we talked about how gun violence disproportionally affects Black and Brown communities, those who are disabled indigenous communities, LGBTQ individuals. And I think that's, that's what gets me through doing this fight. It's about remembering sort of, how do we break through the opposition is about remembering that this is personal and whether, whether you're cognizant or not, more people than you know, are connected to this fight and more people than you realize, have someone who they've lost to this violence. And it's just about like in a battle that's so heated and it's so sort of driven by, by greed and by sort of corporate corruption and government corruption that there is empathy. And that there are people who are sharing their stories and talking about how this violence affects them.
JJ (26:57):
And that I think leads me beautifully. So thank you so much to a great ending question for this, which is in this time of physical distancing and, you know, and we don't know how long this is going to go on. Every other day, there's a new date. Presumably this will go on for a while because we want to protect people. How, how are, so what are some ways that listeners right now be they, you know, either through Brady or through March For Our Lives or through other organizations, what are some things that they can do to help lift up like these more, these, these voices in a more equitable way? How can we better be serving people in this time?
Daphne (27:36):
Yeah. Right off the bat, I'd say, I know everyone is going through financial strain because of COVID and many people are on unemployment and have lost their job. But if you have the bandwidth and the resources, please donate to nonprofits who are fighting actively. There's so many of us, please, if you're able to please donate to us. I also say that, while our young people are at home. Find ways to sort of like bridge the intergenerational gap between parents and young people. That's something that's always incredibly important in the work that I do because while young people are one of the frontline communities in terms of who are impacted by gun violence, we also need everyone to work together to end this violence. So I think that this is an incredibly important time to have plenty of conversations with your kids, with your grandkids, whatever young person that you are able to communicate with, try to spark these conversations and talk to them about why this issue matters to them. Even if a young person isn't actively involved in an organization, I can assure you that this is something that they think about. And this is something that concerns them. So try to spark those conversations, also try to keep your community informed as much as possible. So something that I have developed is a telephone chain. So it's like utilizing, you know, that old, like childhood game where you play like telephone. So, but what I did with that is I created so every week at the beginning of the week, I create a script and it'll be like a short script, three or four sentences of like important information that I want my community to know. So what I did is I call a neighbor of mine and that person has an assigned person after me that they're going to call or text and the chain goes on like that until we have the whole community covered. And everyone sort of has that PSA or that memo or that script that I developed. So that script will either be here's location where you can go pick up food. Or we did another one because as we talked about the link between firearm sales and COVID, here are ways that you can keep yourself safe. You know, what's the current situation around gun violence that we're dealing with in the community. I think communication is key letting communities know that just because we are distant doesn't mean that they're forgotten.
JJ (30:05):
So thank you. Thank you so much for coming on Daphne. This was amazing. It's so it's again, it's one of these things that in times of physical distancing, it's really nice even just to talk to folks who feel as passionately about the same things.
Daphne (30:20):
That's another form of healing finding spaces that you still feel safe and feel motivated. And so it's been super amazing to talk to you. And I'm so happy that we got to sit down and chat for a little bit. So thank you so much.
JJ (30:35):
In today's Unbelievable, But dogs get their revenge. A man with seven puppies, wasn't happy about all the baby doggos, which is madness because the only thing better than seven puppies is eight puppies. But I mean, I get it. It's a lot of work after deciding he couldn't care for them though. And apparently that taking them to an animal shelter was too difficult or not an option this 37 year old Florida man decided to shoot the puppies. This is absolutely horrible. I know. And I wouldn't even be telling you the story, but just as the man geared up to shoot the dogs, one of the puppies wriggled in the man's hand and placed his own paw on the trigger of the loaded 38 caliber revolver, the gun went off striking the man in the wrist. Ultimately, the man went to the hospital, the puppies were taken in by animal control and are now available for adoption. And the man is up for charges on animal cruelty. I would love to make a joke here about karma, but I just actually to be serious, want to say that this is a wonderful example of why you should spay and neuter your pets and how you should not be using your gun
JJ (31:36):
First in this week's wrap up. I want to point out that by forcing people to shelter in place during the coronavirus outbreak, we may have seen a decrease in deaths from COVID-19. That's amazing. We've also seen fewer victims of mass shootings. That's also amazing. The number of mass shootings in the U S plunged 24% in April from a year earlier because things like churches, malls, restaurants, schools, and parks, all places that have seen mass shootings were shuttered and most businesses were closed, but still there were mass shootings. There were 25 mass shootings in April, this year with 22 dead and 89 wounded. Now in the same month, last year, there were 33 shootings, 25 deaths and 130 injuries. Now, luckily the number of deaths in April was the lowest for the month since 2015, according to the gun violence archive, which as we talked about before has been keeping track of such incidents since 2013.
JJ (32:26):
Now the organization defines mass shootings as incidents where four more people are shot during a single event, not including the shooter. To quote Kai Hunter, frequent guest of the podcast and vice president of programs for Brady quote, It took pandemic and it took people being completely disrupted and forced to sit at home all day and not go outside and be terrified of going outside to see a drop in mass shootings. I can think all of us agree that this is no way that we want to continue to live our lives end quote. Meanwhile, two shootings rocked the US. The first was the video release of the murder of 25 year old Ahmaud Arbery. But Arbery's murder clearly shows is how our nation's history and tendency for vigilante justice and armed confrontation as shown in policies like stand your ground are a threat to Black and Brown lives.
JJ (33:14):
These are gun lobby push laws, ones that are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the second amendment that encourages vigilantism a very deadly frame of mind that endangers Black and Brown people. Given our nations, you know, well-documented and present racism and criminalization of people of color. According to a working paper, put out by the National Bureau of Economic Research stand your ground laws are shown to increase firearm homicides do not prevent crime and in instances where a black victim is murdered by a white shooter, the shooting is more likely to be deemed quote unquote justified. The second was the shooting death of Sean Reed. On Wednesday, May sixth, Shawn Reed was shot and killed by Indianapolis police after being pulled over for speeding. While facts in this case, continue to emerge, Reed broadcasted portions of the interaction on Facebook, live, documenting the interaction and ending with his death while running from the police, that recording and other evidence around Reed's death, demand attention from everyone throughout the US given the long history of racialized and abusive policing across the United States, there has to be a transparent and independent investigation into this event.
EFF (34:27):
He got me, galaxy is safe once again. Sometimes kids play with pretend guns. It's up to us to make sure they don't play with real ones. Keep your stored, locked and unloaded. Learn more at endfamilyfire.org brought to you by end family fire Brady and the ad council.
JJ (34:44):
Thanks for listening as always. Brady's lifesaving work in Congress, the courts and communities across the country is made possible. Thanks to you for more information on Brady or how to get involved in the fight against gun violence, please like, and subscribe to the podcast. Get in touch with us at bradyunited.org or on social app. @Bradybuzz. Be brave. And remember, take action, not sides.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
[inaudible].