When the Facts Aren’t Enough

On Monday, National Guard troops and other federal agents were deployed to Washington, D.C., ostensibly, to beat back violent crime. This, despite Department of Justice facts showing violent crime in that city is at a 30-year low. Nonetheless, the President of the United States  characterized our nation’s capitol as overrun by “bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of violent youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people.” His administration is also advocating for 14-year-olds to be tried as adults.

Race, Community and Law Enforcement

I’m old enough to remember when our current president advocated for the execution of a group of Black and Latinx teenagers accused of a violent crime. The Central Park Five were convicted in 1989 despite prosecutors’ failure to produce conclusive evidence linking them to the crime. They ended up spending 5-13 years behind bars before finally having their sentences vacated. Ken Burns’ 2012 documentary about their ordeal shed much needed light on the real-life problem and consequences of racial profiling, media frenzy and reactionary civic leadership. 

The Body Politic (2023) is a BPM-funded documentary by Dawne Langford and Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough. It covers Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s first year in office. Having spent his youth watching law enforcement fail to fix the city’s crime problem, Mayor Scott sought the help of local leaders, formerly incarcerated elders, grassroots organizations, and multi-level law enforcement officers. Today, only five years later, violent crime is at a 50-year low in Baltimore.

Brad Lichtenstein’s Emmy-award winning documentary, When Claude Got Shot, (2021) which also received BPM funding, points its lens on the complicated relationship between Claude Motley, a struggling law student, and Nathan King, a wayward teenager who shot Motley during a botched carjacking. Instead of focusing his energy on retribution, Motley seeks to understand what led to King’s actions. The relationship these two develop ignites an unexpected form of healing for both.

Amplifying Innovative Solutions

Invoking tired stereotypes that dehumanize Black and Brown youth, placing them at greater risk for wrongful death, incarceration and criminal recidivism, has never served us well. Instead, I invite leaders to watch documentaries like The Body Politic, The Central Park Five, When Claude Got Shot, and Race to Execution, a 2007 BPM-funded film by Rachel V. Lyon that examines the role race discrimination plays in our criminal justice system. Of course, documentaries alone can’t solve our problems. But they do play an important role in helping us gain deeper incites into what is happening around us. And they can encourage us to consider and learn from innovative solutions. 

Supporting the work of media makers who — like Brad, Dawne, Gabriel, Ken, and Rachel — aim to edify the public about complex problems is what Black Public Media does. If you support this mission, we invite you to become one of our donors. Since Congress rescinded CPB’s 1.1B, BPM now faces a $1.8M funding gap. Your support will help us ensure that stories like the ones cited in this blog continue to be made and distributed.