This is why everyone’s talking about the new Hulu documentary Crime + Punishment
For years, organizations like Black Lives Matter have worked to bring the issues of police brutality and racial profiling to light. And now, the latest documentary from Hulu, Crime + Punishment, is helping to expose the corruption and abuse of power entrenched in many police departments nationwide.
Crime + Punishment follows a group of 12 officers in the New York Police Department who say they were forced to meet monthly arrest quotas—specifically in minority neighborhoods (arrest quotas in N.Y.C. were made illegal in 2010, fyi). The group, now known as the NYPD 12, and most of whom are black or Latinx, filed a class action lawsuit against the NYPD in 2015, and the documentary chronicles their fight for change.
You can watch the trailer for Crime + Punishment below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4WfaaJi_fQ?feature=oembed
Directed and filmed by the Emmy-nominated Stephen Maing, the documentary has been one of the most lauded of the year. It was honored with a jury award for social impact at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and also won the grand jury prize at the Independent Film Festival in Boston.
The New York Daily News reports that in February, the NYPD implemented “no quota” training for all of its officers, and under the new rules, supervisors who ask officers to fill quotas will reportedly face punishment.
The documentary will be available to stream on Hulu starting August 24th. But if you’d rather see the film on the big screen, you can check the website for information about screenings in select theaters around the country. Crime + Punishment is definitely a documentary you should make time to see.