Indie Lens Pop-Up at theĀ Central Library presents a well-considered, lower-key alternative documentary to the Wisconsin Film Festival’s sold-out opening night
Brad Barber and Scott Christopherson (UW-Madison alumnus)’s Peace Officer covers the inflammatory subject of police militarization that has rightly garnered media attention in the last 18Ā months. Their intriguing documentary will be presented by PBS’ Indie Lens Pop-Up as part of the Central Cinema series in Rm 302 of the CentralĀ Public Library this Thurs, Apr 14, at 6:30p. For a balanced take on the issues, Kristen Roman, Captain of Community Outreach at Madison Police Department, will join the Independent Lens host for a discussion following the screening; tentatively scheduled to appear is David Couper, former Chief of Madison Police and current Community Policing Reformer.
Since the death of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, at the hands of officer Darren Wilson, news programs, particularly of the late-night variety, have devoted valuable airtime to investigations directly linked to these sadly recurring events. John Oliver of Last Week Tonight detailed them as a main story in Aug 2014; The Colbert Report and former iteration of The Daily Show also delved into it on a number of occasions that year. (While these shows may be satirical, the reporting is more focused than the rambling talking heads on 24-hour news networks.) Both Barber and Christopherson’s interviews, research, and reporting began prior to Brown’s tragic shooting, but the filmmakers likely found it neglectful to exclude the incident, so the Ferguson footage is shoehorned into the heart of the film. Although underdeveloped, its essential message never threatens to derail the strength of their argument for reconsidering mobilization tactics.
Sewage worker/private investigator, “Dub” Lawrence, one of the founders of the Davis County, UT, SWAT team, quickly becomes the eminent voice of reason in Peace Officer. Leading with a pull quote about helplessly witnessing a homicide, Dub recalls his former unit suppressing and then killing his brother-in-law, Brian Wood, in a residential stand-off after a domestic disturbance. From this personal Hell, the documentary jumps backwards to trace the origins of the Special Weapons and Tactics teams to the 1960s when teamsĀ attempted to diffuse rioting and robberies. 30-plus years later in 1997, a 1033 program was instituted to bequeath military surplus to police departments from the subsequent wars in the Middle East. The facts evoke John Oliver’s assessment about the inflated mentality of the role of police: if armored vehicles and high-powered weaponry are readily available, ranking officers will likely find a way to justify their implementation.
Considering this new reality, the film pointedly segues into a series of incidents that involve excessive force. At the site of each one, Dub is called in to examine chronology in classic police procedural. Local reviews have drawn comparison to Errol Morris’ Thin Blue Line, not becauseĀ Peace Officer‘s mission statement is to exonerate anyone, but because its conscientiousness is linked to Dub’s prevailing pursuit of the objective truth in every encountered case. While Dub’s concerns with justice are shown through rational analyses, they’re unequivocally clear even in his casual conversations.
Police response is integral to the perspective much in the way the two men have co-directed the film. Sheriff Jim Winder is the loudest to push against the accusation that departments across the country are militarizing. Trying to assuage the crew and the viewing public, his defensive statements allude to imminent dangers where split-second decisions mean life and death. This is true, but he continues asserting that an officer’s judgment (his/her feeling) at a particular time cannot be evaluated objectively or accurately, in opposition to Dub’s philosophy. Leading with feeling is fine in an art class, but it seems ignorant of individual biases in tensely escalating scenarios. One of the authorities in support of greater regulation mentions how some police argue the job’s volatility can only be assessed in real-time, which permits a certain freedom and protection not afforded to anyone on trial for manslaughter, for instance. In accordance with the presumption of innocence principle in the modern criminal justice system, Winder’s words also suggest that, behind a wall of police solidarity, the civilian has considerably less power to challenge a wrongful death.
Inadvertently proliferating from these institutions is a realization about their cultivating a culture of fear where people are provoked to own handguns and rifles to counterattack potential home invaders and instill a sense of vigilante justice. (The ownership of guns among civilians currently tops 350 million in the United States.) However, time and again, Peace Officer demonstrates a need for passive resistance. Charging head-first into a hostile situation with a drawn gun assuredly results in injury and death. This is true for the police as it is for Matthew Stewart, a marijuana-grower, whose house was subject to a night raid. No one in law enforcement announced themselves, so Stewart mistook them for thieves and prepared to open fire. In his pitch-black house, one officer took a blind shot, as Stewart returned fire and killed officer Jared Francom of Utah’s Odgen City Police. Dub’s analysis of this scene is as riveting as anything in one of Morris’ films. Tracing bullet trajectories with red and yellow tape to reveal evidence not originally logged by the police, Dub concludes investigative incompetence and the potential of a cover-up.
If the documentary’s accumulating gun-related incidents are cause for cynicism, the filmmakers lend the subject matter an optimistic message by affixing it to Dub’s realistic hope for reform. Peace Officer occasionally over-sentimentalizes people’s sense of duty or altruism on both sides, but Barber and Christopherson’s very active approaches and combined points of view avoid statistical fatigue even if they end with a series of bullet-point conclusions. One signifies the number of officer-related shootings in Dub’s home state (and primary setting) of Utah, which usurped gang violence in the period between 2010 and 2014. Granted, this is rural part of the country, but that really encapsulates the lucid interconnectivity of the work itself and our need for change. In the meantime, stay safe.
- Peace Officer screens 6:30p Thurs, Apr 14, in RmĀ 302 of the CentralĀ Public Library (201 W Mifflin St). Kristen Roman, Captain of Community Outreach at Madison Police Department, will join the Independent Lens Pop-up host for a subsequent discussion; tentatively scheduled to appear is David Couper, former Chief of Madison Police and Community Policing Reformer.