Black Elected Officials in Milwaukee Complain About BBC Documentary on Crime in City B/C it Accurately Shows City Overwhelmed by Black Murder/Black Mayhem/Black Gun Violence

We live in a country where police wearing body cameras is considered racist. 

We live in a country where plexiglass protecting employees of restaurants/convenience stores is racist. 

And we live in a county where BBC documentaries about murder and crime in Milwaukee is racist. [BBC documentary 'Murder in Milwaukee' sparks outrage, prompts questions about crew's access to crime scenes, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 10-27-17]:

An international documentary showing gun violence in Milwaukee in graphic detail has sparked outrage among some residents and prompted an alderman to demand answers from the Milwaukee Police Department.

The BBC documentary "Dark States: Murder Milwaukee" attacked by black elected officials in city because it accurately shows a black population committing all the murder, mayhem and gun violence in the city

Louis Theroux’s documentary "Dark States: Murder in Milwaukee" aired on BBC2 and has since swept across social media. The film crew interviewed residents who carry guns for protection and went inside the crime tape with Milwaukee police detectives and officers, showing close-up footage of two homicide victims and a person injured in a crash.

"It was pretty horrific," Ald. Khalif Rainey said Friday.

Rainey and others interviewed acknowledge the city has some areas where gun crime — and despair — are commonplace. Year after year, the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission has found deadly violence is concentrated in tight geographic spaces and disproportionately affects men of color, with firearms involved in more than 80% of all homicides.

But they say the documentary is distorted and shows none of the ongoing, community-driven efforts to stop those trends — even though the same film crew interviewed people working for positive change.

Rainey and others also said they were "shocked" at the level of access Milwaukee police gave to the cameras.

"I really need to know what the process was," Rainey said, later adding: "There's a need for restoration between the Milwaukee Police Department and residents."

Rainey, who represents the neighborhood where much of the filming took place, sent a letter to Police Chief Edward Flynn on Friday, asking him to explain how and why the film crew had such access. 

He requested Ald. Bob Donovan, chairman of the Public Safety and Health Committee, take up the issue. Donovan, who has not seen the film, said the committee will. He said he also has questions based on what has been described to him.

"I've never been allowed access behind the yellow tape," Donovan said. "To me, that's irresponsible because then you are ending up contaminating a crime scene.

"I don't know what MPD was attempting to prove by doing that," he said.

The Milwaukee Police Department signed off on giving the BBC access "to shadow the Milwaukee Police Metropolitan Investigations Unit and other District level officers" and allowed the film crew to do ride-alongs, according to a police spokesman.

"The stated purpose of the project was to highlight the work of MPD investigators and officers in combating violent crime in Milwaukee," Sgt. Tim Gauerke said Friday in an email.

"BBC employees were given guidance as to what material could be shown to ensure investigations were not compromised," he said. "However, MPD had absolutely no input on the editorial decisions of the British Broadcasting Corporation as to what was contained in the final cut of the documentary." 

BBC filmed in 2016

The BBC team visited Milwaukee several times last year and spent days covering Vaun Mayes, who runs "Program the Parks" to keep kids safe, and Khalil Coleman, who co-founded "Safe Zones," a program to interrupt disputes before they escalate to violence.

None of that footage was included in the final documentary.

"I immediately wondered why it was so negative and showing no positive," Mayes said.  "We were told they were covering black activism and the so-called struggle in Milwaukee."  

Jamaal Smith said he was "disgusted" when he watched the film.

"There are 240,000 black people in the city and when you look at that video, it looks as if this is all that happens with all black people: murder, mayhem, gun violence," said Smith, who is the YWCA's racial justice community engagement manager.

"It couldn't be further from the truth," he said. "We care about quality of life just like anyone else, and for this video to come out and make it seem as if we don't and we don't have morals and values is absurd."

The cameras of BBC documentarians showcasing black people in Milwaukee engaging in "murder, mayhem, gun violence" is exactly the reality of the 40 percent black city (whose black population largely hails from Chicago, attracted by generous welfare benefits).

Scripted images of black people on sitcoms, dramas, reality television shows as well as theatrical releases join black actors in commercials as nothing more than product placement, a diversion from the reality of blacks in America as depicted in the BBC documentary "Dark States: Murder in Milwaukee."

Or, as we see in in A&E's brilliant The First 48, a show many black-controlled municipalities have banned from filming police detectives in their cities because they showcase too much black murder... black mayhem... and black gun violence.

Scripted television shows, movies and commercials display a grotesque racial bias toward projecting impossibly inaccurate images of black people in America, which are quickly and devastatingly dispelled by police body cameras, plexiglass being a necessity to protect employees of stores located in all-black zip codes, and black elected officials complaining about documentaries exposing the reality of black dysfunction shown in the film.

Murder.

Mayhem.

Gun violence.

Strangely, all of these maladies destroying social capital (and civilization) are found wherever a community in America has a black population of more than five percent.

The reality is simple: without a black population, Milwaukee would have almost no murder.

It would have almost no mayhem.

And it would have almost no gun violence.