Presented with urgency and righteous cause, Crossfire delivers a disturbing portrait of an America ruptured and ready to explode, and the plight of the American police officer caught in the middle of a war where the spirit of a once might empire is at stake.
It is not a question of if America will explode, but when. An alarmist opinion, perhaps, but one based on the realities of a dire situation, where a nation that once stood unified is now self-segregated across cultural and political divisions.
Perhaps the biggest punching bag is the American police officer. Only yesterday it seemed that the very same police force that dived headfirst into the wreckage of the Twin Towers was a respected institution. Now as the last days of the Trump administration tick away, the police have been a target of harassment by citizen, media, and politician alike.
Writer and producer Lauren Southern (Farmlands), along with director Scooter Downey (Hoaxed), delves into not only how this happened, but why such scapegoating has taken attention away from the real problems facing an America that has become a schizophrenic nation.
Southern has made a name for herself as a controversial social media commentator, who leans more towards the conservative side of the political spectrum. It is to her credit that Crossfire features a wide range of voices and opinions not only about law enforcement, but the role the media especially plays in tarnishing an institution sworn to serve and protect, and the ramifications of such gutter journalism.
Not to say that incidents of late have not helped perceptions, especially in these tech heavy times where video footage of police brutality spread like wildfire across social media. The Breonna Taylor case, in which a black medical worker was killed in a botched raid, is of particular focus as inept policing at is worst. When Black Lives Matter activist Hawk Newsome states on screen that the “police are the frontline of white supremacy”, you better believe he and other believe this to be so.
With surgical precision Crossfire counters these claims with facts from wide ranging experts in criminology and politics to police officers themselves. Presented is the uncomfortable truth that decades of poor policies, a corrupt legal system, an ever-increasing drug pandemic, and communities segregated by identity politics, have turned a nation onto its head.
Caught in the whirlwind of it all is the beat cop. There are almost 50 million interactions everyday in the US between police and citizens. Some are banal in nature, while others push these men and women of service into throes of despair. The fact is that more officers die by suicide than in the line of duty. Crossfire features body cam footage of interactions that would crush the mind and spirit of the hardest men walking, if a bullet doesn’t kill them first, such the dangerous nature of the profession.
It all concludes with a call for action not only to stop this avalanche of social destruction and political driven violence, but to place more resources towards the psychological wellbeing of those who have sworn to protect us. Crossfire takes the rallying call of “defund the police” and reduces it to a miserable whimper. It is a documentary not only relevant to these times, but an eternal reminder that blue lives matter more than anyone will ever know.
