Tropic Sprockets Goes Streaming / Crime + Punishment

By Ian Brockway

From the East Bronx there is a hero fighting corruption in the New York Police Department. He does not use his fists, grappling hooks or high tech equipment, only his perseverance and his conviction in what is moral and right. His name is Manuel Gomez, and a documentary by Stephen Maing “Crime + Punishment details his quest.

This story is punchy, frustrating and will vex all but the most hardened among us. It is a compelling and eye opening portrait of corruption.

The film opens on Officer Sandy Gonzalez, a good cop. One day in 2014, he is pressured to make arrests, regardless of the charge at any cost. Instinctively as a public servant, Gonzalez knows this is immoral and quietly ignores the request. He is belittled and punished, sent to a vacant city corner with strict orders to stay still. As he stands in the freezing weather, Gonzales is interrogated by his superiors and given a demerit.

Cut to Manny Gomez, a former cop driven by the call to justice. Like a bull, he is built for trouble and has little tolerance for smarmy people.Gomez handles multiple cases at once and has uncovered a disturbing trend of false arrests that has been going on for decades.

For Detective Derick Waller, the department is treating the public as an adversary, not as a partner. This hostility leads to disrespect and low morale, creating a toxic environment of a kind of blue shield and those against it.

Gomez handles the case of Pedro Hernandez, a young man who was convicted with no evidence in a shooting and sent to Riker’s prison.

The rash of false arrests become so epidemic that a group known as the NYPD 12 go on NBC TV and initiate a lawsuit.

Police Commissioner Bratton adamantly stated that no concept of arrest quotas have been in place. The practice of logging quotas was outlawed in 2010. In 2014, Eric Garner, a man with heart disease was asphyxiated in a chokehold, an unnecessary escalation of force by the NYPD. Bratton resigned in 2016.

If that is not enough, Edwin Raymond is a highly qualified officer who got a insultingly low score on an evaluation, in part because he is one of the plaintiffs in the suit.

The quota portion of the case, the core of the allegations, have been dismissed by the judge via email. The lawsuit is now in limbo.

A picture emerges of the NYPD run like the mafia with no resolution in site. The slow ghostly cinematography is of a New York City gripped by an invisible toxin of intimidation, fear and distrust.

This is a troubling and eerie documentary that will challenge your assumptions of the NYPD as a model department. With heart and pointed immediacy, “Crime + Punishment” deserves to be seen alongside “Serpico,”a spiritual cousin.

This film is streaming on Hulu.

Write Ian at [email protected]

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