Uncommon_Brain

WOW. This is incredible and makes sense. I want that doc -- about the hidden perniciousness of this conduct and police conduct in general, further marginalizes those already on the margins. Thank you for your candor and the work you are doing!

I realize broad generalizations aren’t helpful and that plenty of police officers who DON’T deploy these tactics are out there doing good work. Your film presents enough examples, however, for an objective viewer to be worried. Be honest, is this a result of being under-resourced? Because that’s the mantra we always hear, yet police budgets are almost always the biggest expense in municipalities of all sizes, so I’m skeptical. How much funding does a department need to give a damn when a woman is raped?

I can’t remember the stat Nancy provided in the podcast, but in an entire large college town in Alabama, something like 10 rapes are reported a year. The number seemed staggeringly low. Whatever the stat is, it makes me believe that what you’ve documented has already had an (intended?) effect of creating a culture where sexual assaults don’t get reported. At best it’s a hassle with no sense of justice… and at worst, it’ll ruin you. 1. Do you think that’s true? 2. If so (or even if it’s a little bit true), what does it take to change back — new police chief, outreach, what?

Thank you for this response! I do have a follow up for you on the point of bias, however, given that we are talking about policing. Do you have any sense of the experiences that BIPOC and/or trans women have in these contexts and/or are you considering a future project that takes a more intersectional/expansive view of this issue to include women from historically marginalized/minoritized groups? It seems to me that this would be even more serious and pervasive for Indigenous women, for example.