Police capturing sufferer Leon Ford continues name for reform with museum donation
CP Photograph: Jamie Wiggan
Leon Ford and Scott Schubert on the Heal America launch occasion on Wed., June 22, 2022.
A decade after he was shot by police, Leon Ford hopes to immediate new conversations about public security by donating the garments he wore that night time to the Senator John Heinz Historical past Middle.
Ford was pulled over on Nov. 11, 2012 for a routine visitors cease however left the scene gravely wounded after taking 4 bullets to the chest and, since then, has by no means regained the usage of his legs. After suing town, he acquired a $5 million settlement in 2018.
Since being shot, Ford has change into a powerful advocate for police reform.
A lot of Ford’s preliminary advocacy was extremely essential of police, however he lately launched a nonprofit initiative to foster higher working relationships between regulation enforcement and the general public at massive. The Hear Basis was inaugurated in June with an preliminary $75,000 grant from Heal America.
Ford says he hopes the garments can showcase his ache whereas reminding the general public of the necessity for extra reform and therapeutic.
“Whereas it’s a image of a trauma expertise that has occurred and the place we had been as a divided metropolis 10 years in the past, it additionally represents the therapeutic, redemption and reconciliation that’s potential and is already transpiring right here,” Ford mentioned Friday, in line with a press launch. “There’s nonetheless a lot to be achieved, however we’ve got begun the work, and by selecting to hear to at least one one other, we are going to construct a safer, stronger metropolis for everybody.”
Ford’s garments have been added to within the museum’s African American Assortment, a part of its broader African American Program. In accordance with a launch, this system is “devoted to the preservation, dissemination, and interpretation of the life, historical past, and tradition of Africans and African Individuals in Western Pennsylvania.”
Andy Masich, president and CEO of the Historical past Middle, says he welcomes the donation.
“The Historical past Middle’s exhibitions and collections chronicle the African American expertise in Pittsburgh, and this is a crucial chapter in that story,” mentioned Masich. “As a Smithsonian Affiliate and Pittsburgh’s individuals museum, we worth this assortment and partnership with The Hear Basis.”
