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CULTURE

New Documentary ‘Crime + Punishment’ Exposes Police Corruption in New York

Debuting this week on Hulu and in theaters is Crime + Punishment, an award-winning documentary that goes behind the scenes and undercover to expose discriminatory policing practices, intimidation and corruption within the New York Police Department.

Directed by Stephen Maing, Crime + Punishment won this year’s U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking at the Sundance Film Festival. The streaming service Hulu acquired the documentary, teaming with IFC Films to release the film simultaneously on August 24 in theaters as well.

Filmed between 2014 and 2017, the documentary offers fly-on-the-wall access to the practices within the nation’s largest police institution in New York, and is billed as a “galvanizing documentary that goes behind the scenes and undercover to expose racism, corruption, and intimidation within the New York Police Department.”

It chronicles a band of minority whistleblower officers known as The NYPD 12, who sue the department for its continued use of arrest and summons quotas—an illegal, decades-long practice that overwhelmingly targets young black and Hispanic men.

The band of officers, consisting of black and Latino men, put their careers on the line, risking retaliation and harassment. Among them is a cop-turned-private investigator, Manuel Gomez.

The film fared well at Sundance and with critics, who praised the documentary for its timely focus on police brutality and corruption as well as for “its empathic look at its whistle-blowing cops, particularly Edwin Raymond, a well-spoken officer who eloquently speaks truth to power.”

Laura Poitras, Oscar winner for 2015’s Best Documentary Feature (Citizenfour), is an executive producer.

Director Stephen Maing is an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker & visual journalist based in New York City. He directed, shot and edited High Tech, Low LifeThe Surrender and the forthcoming documentary The Great Experiment.

Crime + Punishment premieres this Friday, August 24 on Hulu and in theaters.

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2 Comments

  1. Tai Decker ?? August 21, 2018

    Why isn’t the Public Defender (PD) more prominent?

    Isn’t the PD the most important government funct… https://t.co/7HoH88zeS0

    Reply
  2. Larry L. Cunningham August 21, 2018

    Why we kneel!

    Reply

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