Traffic Stop

The topics of systemic racism, police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement are supremely important (especially in today's America), which is why I was so disappointed in this weak and slanted documentary about the "brutal arrest" of Austin school-teacher Breaion King. Police incidents boil down to the human beings involved, their backgrounds, perceptions and subsequent actions/reactions.

This would have been an excellent opportunity to explore those by profiling both King AND Officer Richter, to solid context for understanding the issue and finding a solution to it. Instead director Kate Davis choose to go to great lengths placing King in the warmest light possible for cheap shock value. The result is an emotionally manipulative profile featuring iPhone videos of her daughter's ballet recital, tearful stories of her struggles of being raised by and then being a single-parent, and the most out-of-context news coverage possible.

On top of this, (while unfortunate,) the arrest video clearly shows a suspect trying to get out of a ticket, being uncooperative, and playing up the scene for any cameras present. In response, the Officer is compelled to escalate in order to do his job, and did so in a calm, respectful tone of voice without his gun, tazer, baton or punches. A cop asking you to stay in your car, or put your feet inside (to close the door) is not unreasonable. But trying to frustrate a cop so much that he won't write you a ticket IS unreasonable. As a relatively mild misunderstanding, this was an opportunity for both sides to LEARN, to tamp down fear on both sides, and create a better bridge of understanding.

Instead of elevating the conversation, the director does harm to her own cause and sets us back on this important issue. First: It will be quickly dismissed by Blue Lives Matter supporters for what it is: a propaganda piece with an (unfortunate) but not brutal ordinary traffic stop with a difficult suspect. Second: it lends credence and legitimizes right-wing docs like "Obama's America" (2012) by saying all docs are political.

This is a disturbing trend in "Documentaries" these days: Heavy-handed, thinly-sourced, and purposefully unbalanced clearly intended to sway viewers based on a political agenda. Documentaries have the potential to become the new "investigative journalism," for the short attention span audiences of today, educating the electorate, and pulling people out of their bubbles. If you strongly believe your 'side' is right, showing the entire truth should bear that out. Save the fact-picking for historical dramas.

This is a great example of people not taking responsibility for their actions.1. She sped 2. She tried to avoid being pulled over 3. She took an attitude with the cop and didnt listen to his orders. 4. She immediately goes to the police brutal excuse as she cries out for a black cop.

Now, I definitely believe the officer could have handled it better. But to make this specific case the basis for this argument is weak.

I was excited to watch this but within the first 10 minutes could already distinguish this was not a true documentary, rather a political view and biased storytelling. Using the old trick of emotional attachment was way too obvious.. Breaion's own recounts and commentary of her own life became a 30 minute boasting party of "look how great and wonderful I am". All relatablity to her as a person went out the window with her arrogance. I left feeling... not pity towards her, not anger toward Law Enforcement like she wanted but rather a greater disconnect to her life and story than before. It's a documentary and for that I found watching the footage from the incident the most interesting thing about the film. However, I was highly disappointed in the lack of unbiased storytelling and would have appreciated Breaion taking ownership and accountability for at least one of her actions..I wanted to and would have related more to a person who can show me they aren't perfect yet are still good. When someone claims and attempts to show their life as all good and they do no wrong, it's unrelatable. Sad to give this such a low rating!

Any reasonable person knows the topic is a real issue. And there are moments where we get to see the perspective of both a cop and the driver without it being wrapped in all of the emotional overdrive and posturing that oozes out of the rest of the film.

With a different case this same format might have worked really well. This specific traffic stop's footage doesn't tell the story that needs to be told. It might actually serve to convince people in the opposite direction. Instead I have to wonder if the production team watched the dash cam footage. Did they edit it in believing they knew what it portrayed? Or were they so blinded by passion for the topic that they felt Breaion's life story would cause us to excuse her choices?

Either way, it's sloppy. Hopefully future filmmakers take more care to ensure the dashcam footage matches the story they build.

Most of this film is made of footage of our victim and what a normal helpful person she is, by the end when you have her and young kids frolicking in slow motion you know you are in the land of Hollywood fantasy.

There have been cases of police brutality which lead to people being killed where the victims did less to the police than our victim does here. And I had a friend get arrested for behaving in a lesser manor than our victim does here after a traffic stop.

They do show the video of the incident--it seems they show it mostly without editing though you can't tell for sure. The officer is shown explaining what happened after we see it for ourselves and his account matches what we saw--unlike our victim saying "he's lying."

The question here is why does this seemingly nice normal woman--who has a relative who is a police officer--immediately rudely question and disobey the cop from the very start. There is nothing shown here to indicate that because she is black she immediately, maybe even just and valid reasons for behaving this way and being in a state of fear and distrust of police from the start. It's also worth noting that though she swears and continues to fight and kick even when put in the car on her own, while non of the police ever raise their voices or use any racial slurs--even while talking to themselves.. There seems to be nothing in her own past to show police racially mistreating her or her family or friends or that there is any thread of violence or crime that affects her.

The best scene in the film is a conversation she has--from police video--with another officer who takes her in to be arrested. It's a fascinating conversation more so than anything in the after-the-fact interviews with her or any point the film is trying to make. In the conversation it's clear that both, her and the cop, have racial bias and lack information about the other side.

It just seems like the filmmaker wants to portray our victim as saintly almost, but she does so without ever having out victim explain her own illogical actions when confronted. If she has a relative who is a cop it's especially baffling the way she behaves and that she doesn't at some point say, hey my relative is in your shoes.

There could be another point here or one the film accidentally makes, she complains that if you google her all that comes up is video of the incident and this case, though she still has her normal job and life, so how much real impact has it had on her life other than, as she says, photos of her when she was a model no longer pop up first.

There is no talk about if she spent any time in jail for this incident--I assume she didn't as otherwise they'd certainly mention it as it would ad to their case of cop vs. regular citizen who just happens to be black.

So she is to be pitied because her old modeling pictures don't come up now? Is that tragic? I suppose this could or may work best as a film showing how not to behave when you encounter a cop as even a relatively minor incident like this will haunt you through the media and internet long after whatever happened matters to you anymore.