I have run out of words to describe video footage of police officers kneeling on or choking or shooting or striking or beating a person they suspect of a crime.

And if you count the beating of Rodney King in 1991, I've been trying to make sense of these images since I was 12.

And despite acquittal, after acquittal, after acquittal for officers involved, we are told that these videos are valuable, that body cams or dash cams will change the behavior that leads to excessive force by police officers, that they'll provide clarity and evidence in judicial cases,

even though research is shown it does neither.

And then we in journalism assume it's a civic duty to show every minute.

And some say it's a moral obligation for you to watch them

so that you might be moved to act.

But I have run out of words.

And so I wanted to hear from people who have survived the traffic stop that could have ended in death.

I wanted to hear from people who have, for lack of a better word, starred in the kind of grim movie that we've all gotten used to seeing.

What did they learn from their brush with police brutality?

How did they survive the aftermath?

Or the scrutiny from people who insist that they did something to deserve it?

How do they move on when there is always another video?

I'm Audie Cornish,

and this is the assignment.

There are the facts,

and then there is the story.

Personally, I don't like going into the details of what happened to me.

I've probably told the story several thousands of times,

and each time that I share, I relive what happened.

This is Leon Ford.

...