For some the blue line is a lot thinner than for others. And then there are those who view it as actually worse than no line at all. It’s all about stuff like class and race and gender. Among other things.
There are folks who even argue the police are good to have around only because things would be so much worse if they were gone completely. But in the interim they don’t really expect them to be of much use when the crime is directed at them personally. Somebody breaks into your apartment or robs you on the street [in some parts of town] and chances are they will never be caught and punished.
Then there’s the part about corruption. The part that plays out when actual inncocent people are framed for a crime they didn’t commit. The part where the only thing that ever really seems to matter is to get the crime “off the books”. Cops, in other words, who really don’t give a fuck whether someone is innocent or guilty…they just want the case “solved”. So they use whatever means necessary to accomplish that. In places like this [Vidor, Texas] there’s “by the book” justice and there’s the way things actually get done. Sometimes they bear almost no resemblance to each other. It’s all invested in the “good ole boy” approach to “criminal justice”. And if you are not a “local”, you can easily be on your own.
There are so many slimeballs here. All you can think about are the hundreds of innocent folks over the years who were railroaded like this. Folks who weren’t later exonerated after famous documentaries were made about them.
IMDb
[b]Was rejected by the Oscars for Best Documentary category in 1989 because it was considered to be a fictional film due to its scripted content.
Errol Morris spent 2-1/2 years tracking down the various players in the Randall Adams case and convincing them to appear in the film.
In light of the new evidence uncovered by the film, an evidentiary hearing was held. David Harris testified, recanting his earlier testimony against Randall Adams. “Randall Adams knew nothing about this offense and was not in the car at the time,” Harris testified. Adams’ capital murder verdict was overturned, and he was released from prison in March 1989. Adams then filed suit against filmmaker Errol Morris over the rights to his life.[/b]
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Blue_Line_(film
trailer: youtu.be/dNL5A4D0G4g
THE THIN BLUE LINE [1988]
Written and directed by Errol Morris
[b]Harris: I’m driving down some street somewhere in Dallas. I had just turned 16. And there was a guy over there, I think he’d run out of gas. I took him to get some gas. This was Randall Adams.
…
Adams: I get up, I go to work on Saturday. Why did I meet this kid? I don’t know. Why did I run out of gas at that time? I don’t know. But it happened. It happened.
…
Adams: Gus Rose walked in. He had a confession there he wanted me to sign. He said that I would sign. He didn’t give a damn what I said. I would sign this piece of paper. I told him I couldn’t. “I don’t know what the hell you people expect of me. But there’s no way I can sign that.” He left. He came back in minutes. And threw a pistol on the table. Asked me to look at it. Which I did. I looked. He asked me to pick it up. I told him no, I wouldn’t do that. He threatened me. Again, I told him no. He pulled his service revolver on me. We looked at each other for… To me, it seemed hours. I do not like looking down the barrel of a pistol. I do not like being threatened. When he finally saw that he would either have to kill me… or forget the signature… I guess he forgot the signature, because he put his pistol up.
…
Dennis Johnson: I prepared a motion for a continuance to get more time to try the case and in doing that had to lay out my schedule for several weeks as to exactly what time I’d be in Vidor, Texas. Vidor is the headquarters of the Ku Klux Klan for the state of Texas. It’s a city where black people will not spend the night. Black people won’t even stop there to get their car filled with gasoline. And furthermore, the people of Vidor were under the impression that the policeman that was murdered was a black man.
…
Floyd Jackson: David didn’t have a conscience. If I do something bad I think, “Shucks, I shouldn"t done that, I feel bad about it.” It didn’t bother him. It didn’t bother him at all.
…
Edith James [regarding the Millers]: The only reason they were talking to the police at all was that there had been a three-day running knife fight in their apartment. And they were all booked for disorderly and drunk behavior in there…including assault with knives, and all kinds of stuff. When they were at the police station, they suddenly decided to volunteer all this information about what they had seen about the police officer’s killing.
…
Woman: The Millers were scum. They were actually just scum. Let me put it in his words. For enough money, he would testify to what they wanted him to say. He would say anything they wanted him to say. Or he would see anything that they wanted him to see. Those were his words.[/b]
Of course the cops and the prosecutors here are scum too.
[b]Judge: I do have to admit that in the Adams case…and I’ve never really said this…Doug Mulder’s final argument was one I’d never heard before. About the “thin blue line” of police that separated the public from anarchy. I have to concede that there my eyes kind of welled up when I heard that. It did get to me emotionally.
…
Adams: You have a D. A…he doesn’t talk about when they convict you or how they convict you… he’s talking about how he’s going to kill you. He don’t give a damn if you’re innocent. He don’t give a damn if you’re guilty. He’s talking about killing you. You get numb. You get…It’s like a bad dream. You want to wake up, but you can’t do it. Fifteen times, times a day, I hear this same story about what happens when a man is electrocuted. His eyeballs pop out. His fingernails pop out. His toenails pop out. He bleeds out of every orifice he’s got. They don’t care…They don’t care. All they want to do is talk about how they’re going to kill you. That’s the only thing that they cared about and talked about.
…
Melvyn Bruder: Prosecutors in Dallas have said for years that any prosecutor can convict a guilty man. It takes a great prosecutor to convict an innocent man.
…
Sam Kittrell: David thought that the one that was really at fault that night was the guy that got killed. He said, “That guy’s crazy. He came after me with a gun.” I told him, “David, you’d broken into his house, you abducted his girlfriend, what was he supposed to do?” He said, “Man shouldn’t come out with a gun. That dude’s crazy. He should have been killed.”
…
Adams [of David Harris]: The kid scares me. To think that he could actually be out there, walking the streets… and Dallas County let him go. The kid had seven crimes coming down on him. He had armed robberies. He had firing on a peace officer. He had breaking and enterings, aggravated assaults. God knows what all this kid had. And Dallas County gives him complete immunity for his testimony. Just lets him walk.
…
Adams: My mom had a good phrase. She said the first night she pulled into Dallas, it was raining…and that it was lightning. And they’re coming into Dallas and she said if there was ever a hell on earth, it’s Dallas County. She’s right.
…
Errol Morris: Were you surprised when the police blamed him?
Harris: They didn’t blame him. I did. A scared sixteen year old kid. He would sure like to get out of it if he can.
Errol Morris: Do you think they believed you?
Harris: No doubt. Must have. They didn’t have nothing else until I give them something, so…I guess they get something, they run with it, you know.
Errol Morris: Were you surprised they believed you?
Harris: I might have been. I don’t know. I was hoping they’d believe me, you know. After all was said and done it was kind of unbelievable. But there it is. I’ve always thought if you could say why there’s a reason Randall Adams is in jail, it might be because the fact that he didn’t have no place for somebody to stay that helped him that night…landed him where’s he’s at…That might be the reason. That might be the only, total reason why he’s where he’s at today.[/b]
That’s where the documentary ends. Read the wiki article above to find out what has transpired since. A gigantic miscarriage of justice—Texas style.