Listen • 11:21
City Council candidate Stanley Martin stands in front of an informal memorial to Daniel Prude in Rochester, N.Y. Prude was a man with mental health and drug issues who died last year after being taken into police custody.
, on American democracy.
Stanley Martin was one of the Black Lives Matter activists who organized last year s protests in Rochester, N.Y. She pushed to change policing from outside the system.
This year, Martin is seeking change from the inside, running in the Rochester City Council primary on June 22. Her focus: reimagining public safety. To Martin, this means a radical new plan to abolish the police gradually.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR News is 50 years old today, 50 years of covering American democracy. And today, we launch a project that poses a question - how can Americans make democracy work for them? In stories to come, we report on tools Americans can use to influence a system many see as failing. MORNING EDITION is capturing local debates of people seeking change, beginning in Rochester, N.Y. It s a fitting place to start, the home of a past fighter for democratic progress.
(SOUNDBITE OF CITY STREET AMBIENCE)
INSKEEP: Just came around the corner here. Look through the alley, and there s Frederick Douglass.