"The man compliantly answers the officer's questions, but suddenly, the officers yank him from his car, kick him in the ribs, then they shoot him 10 times. BENJAMIN CRUMP: (Reading) It wasn't fair. None of it was fair. How could so much be taken from him without provocation, as if his life held no meaning - inconsequential, like that of an insect caught in a gale, whipped and thrashed until splattering on a car's windshield."
"Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and the list goes on and on. But I wanted to have a character who was a good person through and through. But when we have a system that immediately tries to have the officers appear as angels and the victims appear as something less than, that's where Attorney Beau Lee Cooper realizes very early on in the novel that it's a broken system."
Hollis Montrose, an older Black man and respected former police officer with a loving family, is stopped by white officers in Chicago, beaten, and shot ten times. Montrose compliantly answers questions before being dragged from his car, kicked in the ribs, and shot repeatedly. The incident highlights how victims' characters are often attacked in cases of police brutality. Civil rights attorney Beau Lee Cooper recognizes systemic bias that shields officers and vilifies victims and pursues accountability using legal skill and media strategy. Themes include racialized violence, institutional protection of officers, narrative control, and the difficult path to justice.
Read at www.npr.org
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