The depressing reality when it comes to a documentary like Sound of the Police is that new, equally damning examples of state-sponsored violence—perpetrated by cops against vulnerable citizens—will likely continue to pop up at a pace that films just can't keep up with. And that eyewitness reports spread throughout social media will provide even more horrific (and necessary) images that movie studios may not be willing to show on screen. But while this film feels more like a basic crash course on racist American policing (touching on its roots in slavery, sympathetic media portrayals of cops, and the importance of cameras today), it still touches on most of the essential arguments that should leave anybody with a heart in disgust. There may not be much of a through line or a proper conclusion here, but it's still good to be reminded of the kind of tyranny that Black America lives through today.
Synopsis
This documentary examines the fraught relationship between African Americans and the police, often rife with tension, fear, suspicion and hostility on all sides. Framed by some of the most recent conflicts between Black Americans and police officers, which garnered national media attention, the film traces the country’s complex racial history that set the path for policing in Black communities and fuels the ongoing conflict between African American communities and law enforcement.
Storyline
An overview of the United States' history of racially motivated police brutality and the ways in which the impunity of law enforcement is protected and maintained.
TLDR
In all seriousness, please be informed that this should come with a trigger warning for scenes of real violence and of certain kinds of pigs behaving badly.
What stands out
No matter how many times we see footage of Black men and women being approached with extreme prejudice for behavior that shouldn't even be seen as criminal, it doesn't get any easier to watch. Much of Sound of the Police is made up of these hard-to-watch videos, where it is clear as day that there is a massive gulf between how the victims are acting and how the cops are responding. And while there's definitely a debate to be had about the necessity of looking at these disturbing images again and again, the fact that so many of them have been collected here feels like an essential act of preservation for this ugly side of history.
