Since then, the department has been working to meet thirteen
benchmark criteria for reform to get out from under federal controls. Progress
was so halting that in 2012, ten years in, the court appointed a full time
“compliance director” with broad powers to force more rapid compliance. Even
so, it has continued to be a hard road, complicated by the byzantine political
and racial politics of the city and the related difficulty in finding and
keeping competent police chiefs. Between 2003 and the appointment of the
current chief in January 2017, Oakland has gone through nine police chiefs (or
interim chiefs).
Meanwhile, throughout America over the last several years,
as we all know, there has been a renewed focus on the difficulties and
complexities of urban policing generally and on law enforcement’s treatment of
black citizens specifically, abetted by live footage of tragic shootings and the
consequent venting of public outrage, as epitomized by the Black Lives Matter
movement (as well as a right-wing backlash).
This is the context for The
Force, a fascinating new documentary aiming to give us a multi-layered,
day-in-the-life, on-the-ground look at contemporary American urban law
enforcement through the prism of the OPD. Filmed over two years, from 2014 to
2016, it’s primarily from the cops’ point of view, yet gives ample airing to
the various community voices – on the street and at public meetings and rallies
– critical of the police. The filmmakers were given unprecedented ride-along
access to working officers in patrol cars and on the street during arrests, and
there’s some pretty amazing footage from the cruiser dash-cams and officers’
body-cams. We also have entrée to behind the scenes planning sessions, and
watch ethics and best practices classes at the police academy, interviews with
the (then) police chief Sean Whent, as well as press conferences and community
meetings. The filmmakers also include protests that capture the anger of the
community and the rhetoric of activists.
All of this is done in a verité style which gives The Force
a surprisingly immediacy – so much so that this documentary feels like a
thriller at times. This is enhanced by a throbbing soundtrack that accompanies
some of the more dramatic moments; but even without such encouragement, there
are several police confrontations with criminal suspects, as well as a few with upset community members, that are just damn
scary. With its taut pacing and tight editing, there are definitely some
heart-pounding moments.
The Force gives us what feels like a real sense of
what policing is like – and the incredible practical, physical, emotional and
even ethical difficulties facing beat cops working in a frequently hostile and
always complicated environment. It
reminded me of the terrific documentary about life in an urban general hospital
ER department, The Waiting Room (2012)
- reviewed here
a few years back. Not coincidentally, both films are from the same team: director
Peter Nicks and producer Linda Davis.
The critics of the OPD (and many other police departments)
have a lot of valid concerns and a
plethora of material to work with, but one walks away from The Force with a sense that there are also a lot of good cops
trying to do a very, very hard job in the best way possible in an almost impossible
environment. In Oakland’s case, as one instructor puts it (although I’m
paraphrasing), the department dug itself a very deep hole both through the
behavior of some very bad cops and by most of the others tolerating that
behavior based on a mistaken belief (“the Blue Code”) that cops must protect
their comrades, regardless. So, the
antagonism and lack of public trust that they face is of their own making. As
the instructor points out, the current force needs to assiduously and patiently
work to rebuild public trust the hard (and honest) way: by doing things the
right way, every day. This includes reporting bad conduct by other cops (easier
said than done, I’m sure).
The general sense one gets from The Force is that the
OPD has earnestly been trying to change, and
that there has been some
significant progress. I, for one, was rooting for them to pull things together.
But then in 2016, another scandal was disclosed, unrelated to the issues of
brutality or even racism, having to do instead with sexual misconduct by several
officers. This might have been managed, except that the top brass tried to
cover it up – always a bad strategy, one that in this case blew up in their
faces. Oy vey! Chief Whent resigns, and the Mayor goes public with a
pronouncement that a frat house atmosphere will no longer be tolerated.
And so it goes.
We get a glimpse of how difficult it is to move away from a male-dominated
macho “frat house” culture, in a great scene captured at the police academy as
cadets watch a video clip of an actual officer-involved shooting and discuss the difficult question of whether the
use of force in the depicted situation was appropriate. A female cadet tries to
make a point and gets cut-off repeatedly by her male counterparts, until she
just sits back in disgust - as the camera lingers on her angry, frustrated
face.
One walks away from The Force with a better
appreciation of just how difficult and complicated it is to do urban policing
right. Being a cop in a tough city calls for intelligence, restraint, confidence,
a high level of good judgment, physical strength, emotional resiliency, and a
host of other attributes. Mistakes can be deadly, and sometimes are. It’s a rough,
tough job; and I’m amazed that there are folks who actually want to do it. One
can’t ignore the myriad problems that have been exposed in Oakland and many other
departments. Still, I came out of The Force reassured that most of cops try
very hard to do it right.
I do have a nit to pick with the film, however. The picture
focusses almost exclusively on the economically depressed, high-crime neighborhoods of East and West Oakland and their mostly Black or Hispanic residents. Watching The Force, one would have no idea that there are middle class neighborhoods
in the city or that a lot of white and Asian-American people live there, not to
mention middle-class African Americans and Latinos. In fact, Oakland is quite
economically and ethnically diverse – roughly a quarter Black, a quarter white,
a quarter Hispanic, and 25% Asian and “other”. Its median household income is
in the top twenty of American cities, and its proportion of those with college
degrees is even higher. While it is not inappropriate for the movie to focus on
the neighborhoods where most police action occurs and where most of the concerns
about bad police behaviors reside, it would not have take much time or effort
to acknowledge that the city is more than that: a few shots of a police cruiser
driving in the Montclair district, or a cop chatting with folks in Temescal or
Rockridge, for example. Maybe a shot of beautiful Lake Merritt, showing people
of all classes and ethnicities exercising, walking with their baby strollers,
and so on. In other words, a little more
context would make the picture more complete, more understandable.
Still, overall The Force is an excellent film, a riveting
documentary well worth seeking out for anyone concerned about current issues
and concerns about law enforcement – which would seem to be most everyone.
1 hour 20 minutes
Grade A-
The Force is being
released on September 15, 2017 in New York, L.A., and select theaters in the SF
Bay Area. Hopefully, other cities throughout the Fall.
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