This is a movie review for "Crime + Punishment", released August 24, 2018. I watched this via Hulu on June 30, 2020.
*MIGHT NOT be suitable for sensitive people*
Genre: Documentary
Run Time: 1 hour and 52 minutes
Official MPAA Rating (According to IMDB.com):
G / General Audiences
PG / Parental Guidance Suggested
PG-13 / Parents Strongly Cautioned
R / Restricted
X
Not Rated
Trailer
Plot
In 2010, the New York Police Department (NYPD) officially got rid of their quotas for collars (arrests) and summonses per month but still silently push officers to fill these illegal quotas, for income purposes. Twelve cops stood out publicly about this to stop it from continuing. This documentary is about the illegal quotas and those that stood up against it publicly.
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
4/5 - This is a very interesting documentary. Having watched this right after the George Floyd incident and Black Lives Matter exploding across the world, I was wanting to see what the police officer side of police corruption could be. I still think that there are good cops (and bad cops obviously) but that doesn't mean that all police should be defunded.
Anyways... According to this movie, a lot of NYPD officers have been pressured to fill these illegal quotas for collars (arrests) and tickets/summonses or else they would be sent to harder work. Being a whistle-blower against the illegal quotas made the officers vulnerable to being retaliated against by their superiors. Some methods of retaliation include no patrol car duty, made to stand in one spot and be unable to do anything but stand there (even if a citizen came up asking for help), change the officers' partners, change shifts scheduled regardless of child care situations, write up the officer for petty things, keep them under watch, etc.
The death of Eric Gardner was probably due to the quotas, said one cop. Like George Floyd in 2020, Eric Gardner was a black man that was put into a chokehold. (Situation is slightly different as Floyd was overdosing on drugs and could not get the help that he needed thanks to Covid-19 procedures.) Anyways, Gardner's arrest was probably due to the quotas (to get those numbers up) and the chokehold ["I can't breathe." then passing out and dying due to suffocation] brought him to his demise. If he hadn't been black (I know that sounds bad!), it would be a possibility that he wouldn't have died or that they would have used other methods. But since he was not white, that could have been a reason why the officers acted as they did.
I am not 100% convinced that the quotas were the reason why Gardner died but since Floyd died in 2020, things have been not so good for police officers. I still back the good ones but I agree that there needs to be reform somehow. A change needs to happen but might be much more than superior officers - the quotas could be initiated/perpetuated by the police commissioner or mayor or federal.
One big question brought up by the documentary is "how do we help communities support/trust cops when so many act illegally and rudely (resorting to violence and arrests for everything)?".
The hardest hit people of the quotas are the poor and minority, hence blacks and other non-white people, putting them in prison for things they didn't commit (losing days of their life) and causing ridiculous $ charges that pads the pocket of the city budget.
One cop said "these new cops don't know how to talk with people anymore and how to de-escalate issues". We don't necessarily need to downgrade to social workers in place of police but there should be a way to learn how to de-escalate issues. The biggest problem is the fact that there are so many police officers out there that love to power trip. Of course, many of those that apply to be a police officer are going there for the power, not for the "service to the community". Is there a way to modify the task force so that we can ween out the bad officers and keep the good ones? Is there a way to police the police? This seems like a constant struggle, even today in 2021. Like I said earlier, I still back the police (in general) because of the good officers but am wary of the potentially bad officers, especially since I am a female and especially after reading about the death of Sarah Everard in the UK [where she submitted to an arrest and ended up being molested and killed by the officer].
IMHO, if quotas are actively shut down as illegal (and maybe people police the police some or another group, not in the police's pocket, police the police) then maybe we can get back to police doing their job of protecting the community and looking out for the best of the community, not their promotions and perks and city bonuses. Can we get to that point, though? That's the biggest question. Can we step back from a grab for money and get to community protection (and not just for one skin color or gender or religion)? After over a year past George Floyd's death, there is still mistrust within the police system (especially in Minneapolis). The autonomous zone that popped up around the area where the whole George Floyd incident happened has since been taken down [supposedly June 2021]. BLM has dimmed down but I still hear remnants every so often, even outside of Minnesota. Sad to say, I do have a feeling that issues with police officers will forever continue to be a thing. I would love to say that we can all go to a utopia state of living but the reality of the matter is the fact that there are differences between people which cause tensions (even if you are not trying to have issues with others) and there is a fondness for money [especially to keep your city/county/state running]. I would look forward to a sense of peace across the board between community members and the police officers but we'll have to see.
Sorry for this being so darn heavy but that's something that comes with the territory when talking about BLM and police officers.
Anyways, that's my review. Thank you for reading. There will be more reviews to eventually come so keep an eye out!
~ Gracie Mae DeLunac
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