I Just Saw The Trailer For "Killing County" — Which Is About My Hometown — And I'm Embarrassed, Frustrated, And Not The Least Bit Surprised
Note: This article contains mention and video of a police interaction currently under investigation, which may be hard for some to view.
I've been obsessed with true crime shows for a while, but I was too stunned to speak when I saw the trailer for Colin Kaepernick's new series, Killing County.
The three-part documentary concentrates on the failures and misdeeds of law enforcement in Bakersfield, California — my hometown. It's a crisis I understand all too well.
To give you some insight into the documentary, Kaepernick broke it down into three simple, but devastatingly true, statistics.
A true crime thriller we made set in Kevin McCarthy’s district. The highest homicide rate ? The most crime. ? The most police executions. ? Welcome to Killing County.
Years back, as a closeted queer Black kid, I tried to ignore all the dangers associated with growing up in Bakersfield.
But the death of Tyre Nichols and the ongoing conversation about police brutality urged me to face every moment of this trailer. Every passing second seemed to bring up memories that left me sad, frustrated, and embarrassed to call this place home.
According to People, the crime documentary uncovers the alleged corruption of the Bakersfield Police Department and the fatal officer-involved shooting of Jorge Ramirez Jr.
The trailer opens with Colin warning, "This is one of the most powerful projects I've ever been involved with."
So, I braced myself for what was to come.
Then a woman says, "I knew the homicide rate in Bakersfield was high. I didn't really know what that meant. Until I got here."
Even when I reflect on my best memories from Bakersfield, my mind can't help but simultaneously think about stories of violence and murder that plagued the community. Stories I heard about but also experienced firsthand.
As children, you hear so many cautionary tales and are told which dangerous neighborhoods to avoid. For children with brown skin, like me, you are taught how to survive an interaction with police.
Next, we're told Bakersfield has "the deadliest law enforcement in the country per capita" as the screen pans across a 2015 article from the Guardian investigating the police force.
I came from a complicated world. Members of my family were law enforcement, and we are Black. I didn't want to believe the statistics because it spelled danger for us from all sides.
Then, a narrator, over a hauntingly slowed down version of Dwight Yoakam's "Streets of Bakersfield," says that Bakersfield has "the highest rate of officer-involved deaths than anywhere in the country."
As I look at the disheartening statistics (8,166 fatal police shootings nationwide since 2015, a disproportionate number being Black men, like me), my heart hurts. It's infuriating that Bakersfield, the place that raised me, is a major contributor to these statistics.
When I'm forced to see another unarmed person murdered by law enforcement overwhelming the news cycle, I'm immediately transported back to my worst memories of Bakersfield — as the trailer describes, "where more than a couple of bad officers" reside.
I'm that young Black man nervously avoiding saying the wrong thing while I watch the officers reach for their guns during a "routine traffic stop" that would result in me thankfully driving away with no ticket because I passed their "test" with flying colors. In other words, I kept my "aggression" in check.
Killing County is a reminder that the violent history of the policing of people in the United States is not just a news headline or political hot topic. For many of us, it's our reality.
