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As more bystanders began to gather around, the crowd turned protestive. As the situation unfolded bystanders began to record the interaction in order to make sure the young child was not criminalized. Inside of one particular bus, an officer was detaining a black 14-year-old suspected of drinking alcohol. As they mourned and celebrated the lives of victims such as Tamir Rice and Sandra Bland, one activist began to play Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright.” One activist, a youth reverend named Waltrina Midleton, described the moments as, “A celebratory moment of black love.” When the conference began to end, buses waited outside of the university waiting to transport the activists. This gathering was a time for them to discuss their agenda to combat this growing issue. Hundred of black activists and organizers from across the country gathered in Cleveland, Ohio, which was significant due to it being the same city Tamir Rice was killed in just a year earlier. In the summer of 2015, a Black Lives Matter conference was held on the campus of Cleveland State University.
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As the interaction grew increasingly hostile, the officer pulled out a gun, which she recorded a 39-second video on her phone and broadcast it publicly. Sandra Bland, a 28 year old African American woman, had just driven in from Illinois to start a new job in Texas when a state trooper pulled her over for failing to signal a lane change.
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This event belongs to the broader event at issue of the Black Lives Matter Movement Against Police Hostility. The CPD officer claimed when he saw the gun, he “feared for his life,” which caused him to shoot. Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy, was fatally shot in Cleveland, Ohio by a former Cleveland Police Department (CPD) officer because of the pellet gun Rice was playing with. Response to the shooting of Tamir Rice and the arrest and death of Sandra Bland.Addressing the serious civil unrest in the United States by combating racial inequality.Co-Producers: Mark Spears, Pharrell Williams in Los Angeles, California.“Alright” is a song from Kendrick Lamar’s album To Pimp a Butterfly.
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