Crime + Punishment

The controversy surrounding the misuse of the NYC police force to increase city revenue is the subject of filmmaker Stephen Maing’s unsettling documentary, which focuses on quota policing and how it has led to systemic racism in practice. Crime + Punishment opens with Officer Sandy Gonzales discussing a departmental culture in which beat cops face retaliation if they fail to meet minimum numbers of summonses and arrests—which put money into the city’s coffers—each month. Those assigned to minority areas come under special pressure to comply. The film then expands to consider the NYPD12 (a group Gonzalez belongs to), which includes Edwin Raymond, an African American repeatedly denied promotion to sergeant, and other police officers who protest the quota system and mount a class-action lawsuit. Various members disclose instances of retaliation in group discussions and individual interviews. The impact of the practice on the public is illustrated by the case of Pedro Hernandez, who after repeated arrests was locked up in Rikers when he refused to confess to false charges of threatening a man with a gun. With the assistance of his mother and investigator/former police officer Manuel Gomez, Hernandez is eventually exonerated and released, but not before serving a considerable stretch of time. Pointing an accusatory finger at Police Commissioner William Bratton as a smooth-talking politician who tries to justify the system, the documentary closes with NYPD12’s case still awaiting resolution. Presenting a strong critique of profit-based malfeasance within the NYPD, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)