Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe just won an Oscar for their live-action short, Two Distant Strangers, which deals with an unfortunately relevant topic: police brutality.
The message of the film was echoed in Free's emotional speech as well as his bespoke black and yellow Dolce & Gabbana suit, which was lined with the names of victims of police brutality, including Daunte Wright, Philando Castile, Tamir Rice, and Eric Garner.
Upon accepting the award, Free told viewers, "Today, the police will kill three people, and tomorrow, the police will kill three people, and the day after that, the police kill three people. Because on average, the police in America every day kill three people. Which amounts to about a thousand people a year." He added, "Those people happen to disproportionately be Black people … Please don't be indifferent to our pain."
Just last week, 16-year-old Ma'Khia Bryant was fatally shot by a police officer after she herself had called the authorities in Columbus, Ohio. The news came on the heels of a three-count guilty verdict for Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who killed George Floyd.
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