Power

"Power," the 86-minute long documentary about the history of policing in America that was written, directed and produced by Yance Ford and is currently streaming on Netflix is a thought-provoking examination of our failed systems of justice and our longstanding prejudices that merits attention. The documentary shows how policing, which began with the corraling and erasure of the indigenous on the frontier, and proceeded, even with the first police force in NYC in 1844 that arose directly as a result of the problems of immigration, to evolve as a force that curtails the powers of the oppressed and minorities in service of the white elite.

The documentary is not a "hate-the-police" show or plug, as it also features the words and efforts of caring, experienced police officers, rather, a call to think and care about the systematic oppression by authorities of the weak and underserved that has prevailed through centuries here in the name of "law and order."

Of course we need police, but the standards by which police operate, the documentary makes clear, are largely determined by police themselves, and as long as the shadow force of policing continues to exert its power unchecked in this country, we are in danger of losing our freedom and democracy.

To some of us this information is unfortunately not new. Hate it or love it these are the facts and it's an ugly truth. More people should watch it and really drink it in. A good watch IMO. The negative reviews are very telling of the mind set that holds us all back in one way or another. It makes you think what is even the point of law enforcement especially knowing what we know now in this day and age. Makes you really wonder who are they really protecting? It's definitely not the poor. Regardless of ethnicity if you're not in the 1% you're pretty much screwed. The system is not broken it is designed purposely this way smh.

Watched this at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Interesting, yet it feels repetitive with the main subject it wants to explore. The topics about police corruption and abuse of power has been explored within the media for years and the documentary explores the subject with some pretty interesting insights and conversations to explain the issues and the topics. Lance Ford who created "Strong Island" was impactful and while his direction here is good, his sense of exploration and emotion feels lacking and not as strong as his previous movie.

With the movie using many archival footage, interviews and presentations, the style ends up feeling dry as it ends up feeling like the typical and basic Netflix documentary with some really odd editing choices and repetitive tone. The subject is a very serious matter which I do agree with some of the main points but I wish the documentary didn't feel as repetitive as it is.

Overall, it is a interesting story but it runs dry at the end of the day.

I see it as the film was mostly right about policing in a police brutality way, controling the lower class and minorities, but we do need to control violence/criminals.

We all should know by now Police brutality happens daily, we all should know far too many police lie and cover up for each other.

There has to be a balanced alternative.

We need to be responsible for our own behavior, EVERYONE. I don't think this film was biased as some has said.

I think we need to just keep trying to strive to do better.

Most importantly we need to get rid of the politicians who are committing crimes all the time.

There are avenues left to explore when it comes to policing in America, but this documentary fails to find any of them.

Instead of, as they say in the intro, encouraging the viewer to question policing, the documentary tries to tell you exactly what you should believe about policing, what policing is, and it's all the same points you hear parroted online (police are slave patrol descendants, policing is unfair so you shouldn't obey, etc.). It's a film that stokes racial adversity rather than offering the fair analysis of policing that it claims in the intro.

If you've ever gone down a twitter thread about race and policing, then you've already seen everything this film has to offer.