On April 23, 2021, Derek Chauvin, the police officer that murdered George Floyd, was convicted in a Minnesota court. Two months prior to Floyd’s killing, in March of 2020, another Black man named Manuel Ellis was killed by officers in Tacoma, Washington.

Ellis’ killing was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner, but the investigation into his death has been plagued by issues. As of recording, an announcement of a prosecuting decision is allegedly imminent and the officers that killed Eliis remain on taxpayer funded paid leave.

One of the major reasons we know about any of this is because of the activism of the Tacoma Action Collective and one of its members in particular, activist and filmmaker Jamika Scott. Jamika joined us to talk about the investigation, policing in the region, and how she as an activist has been targeted by law enforcement.

In the second segment, we talked about Jamika’s film project, Matriarch, a web series about the role of women as leaders in groups and families.

Cast of Characters

The Nerd Farmer Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts and is brought to you by Libro FM 

Please consider supporting the podcast by joining Channel 253 as a member