New NPR Series: "We Keep Us Safe" from the Embedded podcast

**Kenny Malone** (0:01)
Hi, Planet Money listeners, Kenny Malone here, because we wanted to let you know about a new investigative series that's coming out from our colleagues at Embedded, which is NPR's award-winning documentary podcast. We could explain what that series is, but honestly, they've put together an incredible trailer, and we'd like to just share that. So here's that trailer.

**Sydney Brownstone** (0:21)
Back in 2020, a remarkable experiment took place. After an intense standoff with anti-police brutality protesters, police abandoned their own precinct.

**Will James** (0:33)
Protesters stayed and started occupying about eight city blocks in the middle of Seattle.

**Kenny Malone** (0:39)
There's several hundred people being completely peaceful.

**Sydney Brownstone** (0:42)
It's like a block party.

**Will James** (0:44)
They set up tents. There was free food, a mutual aid station, a stage for speeches and music.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:54)
It evolved into this community.

**Sydney Brownstone** (0:57)
They called it CHOP.

**Will James** (0:59)
The Capitol Hill organized protest. A place with no police.
It was their attempt to build a better world.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:07)
For a moment there, it was utopia.

**Will James** (1:11)
But protesters feared an attack from right-wing activists. I'm taking my group down around City Hall to monitor the group of the Proud Boys.

**Sydney Brownstone** (1:20)
Some protesters appointed themselves CHOP security, began walking around in tactical gear carrying guns. I'm not very familiar with firearms.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:27)
AR-50.

**Will James** (1:28)
That's an AR-50.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:28)
AR-50.

**Sydney Brownstone** (1:29)
And then one night, a jeep drove into the camp.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:33)
Shots of fire. Shots of fire, Joe. Shots of fire.

**Sydney Brownstone** (1:36)
Protesters thought they were under attack and shot at the jeep.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:39)
Move out the way! Oh, Jesus.

**Sydney Brownstone** (1:41)
Oh, Jesus.

**Will James** (1:43)
After the shooting ended, one of the jeep's passengers was dead, 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. That night, protesters saw him as a threat, but his dad, who taught him what it means to be black in America, says his son was there for the cause.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:01)
To be honest, if the man that had my son back, I wouldn't teach my son black history, because I want to have him back right now. That's the man that helped with black history.

**Sydney Brownstone** (2:10)
Six years later, the case remains unsolved.

**Will James** (2:14)
And no one has been able to explain how this place built to protect black life ended up killing a black teenager. I'm Will James.

**Sydney Brownstone** (2:26)
And I'm Sydney Brownstone. For more than a year, we've been investigating what happened that night, sifting through rumors.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:33)
He put in work for the streets, I guess. That's what they were saying.

**Sydney Brownstone** (2:37)
That's why he got killed.

**Will James** (2:38)
Digging up new witnesses. Is someone chasing you?

**SPEAKER_4** (2:41)
Oh, yeah.

**Will James** (2:42)
For sure. In a car chasing you?

**SPEAKER_4** (2:44)
Yes, like multiple cars.

**Will James** (2:45)
And uncovering never-before-seen evidence. See this right here? That's a long gun out of the front seat.

**Kenny Malone** (2:53)
Holy ****.

**Sydney Brownstone** (2:57)
Listen to We Keep Us Safe, a new true crime series from NPR's embedded podcast, The Seattle Times and KUOW.

**Kenny Malone** (3:10)
You can find Embedded wherever you get your podcasts or at npr.org/embedded.