NO GUNS FOR CHRISTMAS / Op Doc Dec 19 Friday Morning Transcript of Vimeo Link “NGFC - S” 0:00:00 Fade in on long haired white child, who addresses the camera. Beau: I’m four and a half. Julia/Narrator: This is our grandson, Beau. Steve (to Beau): Wait, what’s the whole list, Beau? What would you like for Christmas? Beau: Uhhh a yoga mat, a gun, uh a (audio fades) 0:00:25 Julia/Narrator Our grandson is hardly the only kid to want a gun for Christmas. [Street musician on saxophone plays Here Comes Santa Claus] Julia/Narrator But here where we live in Ohio, toy guns don’t seem so playful right now. 911 Dispatcher Beavercreek 911, What is your emergency? [Exterior of Walmart, combined with audio from 911 call] Julia/Narrator Here’s what happened on August 5th at the Walmart right near our house. Ronald Ritchie (911 caller) I’m at the Beavercreek Walmart, there’s a gentleman walking around with a gun in the store. 911 Dispatcher: Has he got it pulled out? RR: Yeah he’s like pointing it at people. 911 Dispatcher: What does he look like? 0:55 RR: He’s a black male probably about six foot tall. [Dayton CW 2News Footage] Mark Allan: Still breaking right now, a massive police presence at the Beavercreek Walmart store following a shooting there. [Security footage from Walmart surveillance cameras combined with audio from 911 call] 911 Dispatcher: What’s he doing now? RR: He... looks like he’s just trying to load it. 911 Dispatcher: He’s just trying to load it? 911 Caller / RR: Yeah. 911 Dispatcher: Confirmed. Okay. [Alicia Reece interview, begins in voiceover] Alicia Reece: The 911 caller said he was loading the gun, that he was waiving it around. 1:25 (Alicia on camera) But that’s not what happened with John Crawford. Julia/Narrator John Crawford picked up a pellet gun from a shelf in the store, while talking on his phone. [Walmart security footage of Crawford in store, walking and talking on cell phone] Alicia Reece: He’s walking around with this air rifle that the store sells. [Walmart security footage of Crawford picking up the fake gun from the shelf] Alicia Reece: Because of that 911 tape, Police showed up with a description and they came in ready for some kind of problem that did not exist. 2:07 [Walmart security footage of armed police entering the store] Alicia: John Crawford did nothing wrong and had a right to be in that store, had not bothered any customers. He was not facing the officers. [Security footage from Walmart surveillance cameras combined with audio from 911 call] [John Crawford is shot] Unknown screaming. 911 Dispatcher: Sir what’s going on? RR: Gunshots in the store. [John Crawford picture] [Local NBC WLWT Channel 5 News Footage] News Reporter: Police shot dead twenty two year old John Crawford last night in Beavercreek and we just got done talking with his family, they tell us that he was only holding on to a fake gun last night. 2:41 [Local ABC 22 News Footage] Anchor Deborah Linz: Shock and disbelief for the family of John Crawford the third, a special grand jury chooses not to indict after Crawford is shot and killed by Beavercreek police. Family Attorney: He was only a kid shopping at Walmart. [Alicia Reece interview audio with footage of peaceful protests] Alicia Reece: After the no indictment came back in the John Crawford case people were taking to the streets, folks upset, I go to church, people were angry. [protestors sing etc.] (Singing: “No Justice, No Peace, ‘cuz we won’t get no justice from the Beavercreek police“) Alicia Reece: There were conversations in our homes, there were conversations in the grocery stores, but when I came up to the State House, there was no conversation, there was complete silence. Like “Oh well, let’s move on.” [shot of Rep. Reece walking in State House] 00:03:36 Julia/Narration State Representative Reece decides to introduce a bill, named after John Crawford, that would require airsoft, BB guns and pellet guns to really look like toys. [Alicia Reece interview] Alicia Reece: Toy manufacturers you know are making money because they’re making them look more and more real, and the community is left with these incidents. Basim: No, I don’t think the issue is toy guns. Certainly that’s something that can be looked at and open for debate. But I think the issue is Black skin. Basim in the radio station on-air studio Julia/Narrator Basim Blunt is a local radio host and producer, who has spoken out, on air, about John Crawford’s killing. Basim My nine year old son asked, “Why did they shoot him, daddy?” (See Police Officer holding rifle outside Walmart) I feel that police officer really was responding to Black skin. Sometimes, they’re afraid. Alicia Reece The John Crawford law - This could be one step, it’s not the end all, but one step in the right direction. 5:01 Alicia Reece So we had it all ready to go and I said “we’ll introduce it in January.” As soon as I said that, I left here on a Thursday, it was ready, it was sitting on our desk, and on Sunday I wake up to Tamir Rice. 4:58 [News Footage on Tamir Rice] Unknown News Reporter: Breaking news on Cleveland’s west side, a 12 year old boy shot by police. Other News Reporter: There was outrage and anguish tonight after police shot a 12 year old boy over a BB gun. News report clip: This is part of an epidemic of police violence against black and Latino youth. Alicia Reece The police car pull up and in a matter of seconds - A 12 year old killed in Cleveland Ohio. I decided we would go forward with the bill, introduce it and get the conversation going. Christmas scenes 5:32 Alicia Reece This Christmas, it raises our responsibility to make sure that we’re not buying something that puts our children in harm’s way. Basim Blunt: Not for Christmas. Not - That’s not going to be under our tree. Julia/Narrator How do you explain to a kid, or a grandkid, why they won’t be getting a gun for Christmas? 5:58 Alicia Reece It’s a different conversation unfortunately for a mom who has an African American particularly son, based on what has transpired. I had one mom, she has rules for her twelve year old, and it’s not a rule of make your bed or, you know, brush your teeth or do your homework, her rule is how to not...get killed. Gun images, then fade to black. directed, produced, and edited by Steven Bognar & Julia Reichert researcher / production assistant Randy Miller Thank you Wayne Baker Jordan Plottner Joshua Marston Lela Klein Robert Holt Deborah Shaffer WYSO 91.3