Movie Review: “The Glass Shield”
The 1995 movie, “The Glass Shield,” written and directed by Charles Burnett, covers the issue of corruption in the sheriff’s department and taints the integrity of the officers. The film is about the dirty deals and wrongdoings of corruption involving Chief Sherriff and most of his deputies at the Edgemar Station in Los Angeles. The movie begins with cartoon images that represent the imaginations and perceptions of a newly graduated officer from the police academy, J. J. Johnson. In the cartoons, Johnson has a shaky picture of the police force as he thinks that when one works in the force, he only has to deal with criminals, who are the bad people in the outside world. However, his assumptions take a drift once he is posted at the Edgemar Station; he tries his best to fit in as the only black officer at the station. The officers at the station are entangled in racism, corruption, and stereotypes. Johnson and a Jewish female officer, Deborah, become the sheriff deputies who seem outsiders from the rest of everyone else.
How the Issue of Corruption in the Police Force Unfolds in the Movie
Johnson gladly accepts his new assignment as a deputy sheriff at Edgemar Station despite him being the only black cop at the station. The senior commanding officer at the station, Chief Massey, gives him a seeming enthusiastic orientation. Still, the new member gets a hint from how other members welcome him that not every officer is excited about his arrival to join the team. Only Deborah, who also considers herself an outsider at the station, seems to welcome Johnson warmly. While at an investigation scene of a homicide, where a man named Greenspan claims to have lost his wife to a robbery by violence committed a black male criminal, Deborah finds some inconsistences between the witness’s statements and the evidence on the crime scene. However, when she tries to speak her mind, the senior cops at the station banishes her claims, arguing that they do not need a Jewish mother to advise them on how to examine a crime scene. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
In another incident, Johnson offers a backup to a fellow officer who arrests a black man named Teddy Woods in controversial circumstances, with racism being the epicenter motive of the arrest. The senior cops at the station prepare wrong charges against Teddy Woods, accusing him of the murder of Greenspan’s wife. To ensure a single version of the story to the case, they senior cops coach every officer who is to testify against Teddy Woods, including Johnson, on what to say in court. Johnson later learns that Teddy Woods’ arrest report that he prepared was edited to accommodate Woods’ false charges. In his quest to expose the corruption at the station, Johnson teams up with Deborah and Woods’ attorney to build exposure. The expose succeeds when the attorney general orders an investigation of the station that leads to some officers facing charges and prison sentences for perjury.
How It Could Have Turned Out Better
The worst mistake that Johnson did was to defend the wrongful arrest of Teddy Woods by a fellow officer in court. Although Johnson wanted to fit in the station by doing things that would prove him worth to his fellow officers, upholding a firm stand on professional integrity from the start would have helped to prevent Teddy Woods’ case from taking too long to determine and expose the corrupt senior officers at the station. Holmes (2015) argued that the integrity of police officers is a sensitive matter. According to Holmes, if a police officer who is supposed to enforce the law bends it to one’s advantage, numerous negative ramifications can touch the community and society. One of the effects of Johnson’s decision to be an accomplice to the corruption at the Edgemar station was the prosecution of an innocent black man and a cover-up of a potential murder committed by Mr. Greenspan.
What Could Have Been Done To Prevent The Incident From Happening?
The incident of arresting and prosecuting Teddy Woods on wrongful charges could not have happened if some things were fixed in the police force. First, the officers could not have harassed Teddy Woods if the issue of stereotype and racism was not condoned in the police force. This incident and the many others committed by the senior officers at Edgemar station is a hint of the many hidden cases of corruption among law enforcement agencies. Using the critical race theory, Chaney and Robertson (2013) argued that many institutions, including law enforcement, have a structurally embedded race that exacerbates white hegemony expression and ostensibly increases the likelihood of encouraging disparate treatment of minority groups such as people of color. Woods’ treatment in the hands of the arresting officers was an apparent show of white supremacy by the officer. He claims Woods’ possession of a seemingly expensive car can only be possible from drug trafficking. The harsh words that the officer directs to Woods demonstrate how he undermines him as a black suspect.
A Press Release for Local News Outlets to Report on This Incident
The narration in this document entails a press release because there is some important news that Edgemar station would like to share with the public concerning a recent incident at this station. A few weeks ago, two officers from Edgemar station arrested a black male suspect by the name Teddy Woods under seeming controversial circumstances. Mr. Woods was arrested for violating traffic rules later; he was found in possession of a gun without a license to own one. As it is well known to the law-abiding citizens, no civilian is allowed to keep nor walk around with a firearm without first seeking the necessary certifications and licensing for the same. However, after some investigations, the officers established that the weapon that Mr. Woods was carrying could have been the one used in a recent homicide that left one woman, the wife to Mr. Greenspan dead. Mr. Greenspan has identified Mr. Woods as the one who attacked them and shot his wife dead. Therefore, Mr. Woods is facing murder charges for that homicide incident, and Mr. Greenspan is the crucial witness in the case. While there may be some potential controversies in this matter, members of the public are at this moment urged to refrain from spreading unnecessary rumors and leave the issue to the investigating agencies to handle it with the professionalism it deserves and establish reliable facts. There is an utmost belief that justice will prevail and all culprits brought to book to face the law, including any officer who may have acted inappropriately.
The Importance of Repairing and Preventing This Incident from Happening
As a law enforcement agency, the best strategy that can help to make the work of the officers easy in maintaining law and order is to strengthen the trust of the public in the agency (Jackson, 2015). The community and the general public need to trust the officers in how they solve criminal and other matters with transparency and honesty. Since this incident has left a bad image to the station, it is necessary to repair the incident by straightening the facts of the case and allow the truth to prevail. By doing so, members of the public will have a reason to trust the officers at this station again.
References
Burnett, C. (1995). The glass shield [film]. United States, France: CIBY 2000.
Chaney, C., & Robertson, R. (2013). Racism and Police Brutality in America. Journal Of African American Studies, 17(4), 480-505. doi: 10.1007/s12111-013-9246-5
Holmes, L. (2015). Methods for ensuring police integrity: A comparative analysis. In W. Hardi, P. Heywood, L. Holmes, D. Torsello, E. Uslaner & G. Weave, Debates of corruption and integrity: Perspectives from Europe and the US (2nd ed., pp. 81-82). Palgrave Macmillan.
Jackson, B. (2015). Strengthening trust between police and the public in an era of increasing transparency [pdf] (pp. 1-10). RAND Office of External Affairs. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/testimonies/CT400/CT440/RAND_CT440.pdf