Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Keegan Stephan: My Living Street Will



Keegan Stephan is a writer, cyclist, bicycle mechanic, environmentalist, Time's Up volunteer, and general safer streets advocate. Watch him share his Living Will and read on to see why this campaign is important to him...

"A year and a half ago, Marilyn Dershowitz and Ray Deter, two amazing activists and friends of mine, were killed by automobile on the streets of NYC in the same week. I remember talking to Charlie Komanoff, who was writing an article about how unjust it was that we would never see their Accident Investigation Reports, the only available tool to absolve them of the guilt being piled on these victims of traffic violence by the press, the drivers, and the NYPD. I remember feeling powerless, like eventually all my friends and I were going to die out there, the police would declare "no criminality suspected" and never release our accident reports, and the public would never have the facts to best advocate for safer streets.

"I carried that feeling with me for over a year, until Josh pitched the idea of Living Street Wills to me. Suddenly I felt like we had a tool to reclaim some power, an effective, heart-wrenching way to demand thorough, transparent investigations. If I die, I want the NYPD to suspect criminality, do a full investigation, and release their report to the public. If you feel the same way, please make a similar video and join this movement."

-Keegan Stephan

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