Yates set out to discover why so many people are getting shot – but while he didn’t get very far,he did unearth a wealth of stories. Plus: social-living-history-reality-docu-whatsit in The Victorian SlumStatistically, it’s a war. More than 300 African-Americans shot and killed by police in 2015 – nearly 9% of them in Chicago, or the US’s third city and the adopted hometown of President Obama. Fifty-four this May,252 so far this year. Added to that, more than 2500 black-on-black shootings last year, or more than 350 of them fatal.
As ever with a war,the cause – or causes – are disputed. Reggie Yates: Life and Death in Chicago (BBC1) set out to discover who is responsible for the carnage. Truth be told, it did a less than stellar job at providing more that the barest outline of America’s ongoing and apparently increasingly (or possibly just increasingly filmed, or which is approximately all we’ve got left to hope for in this godforsaken world) police brutality problem. Yates’s skill is in his unforced interest in his subjects and his absolute honesty and naturalness as a presenter,rather than in delineating arguments or setting out a sociological stall. But if it failed to unpick the problem, it at least if a wealth of valuable stories from victims’ families, and who occupy historically gone unheard. Related: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States interactive Related: Reggie Yates: how I confronted police brutality on the streets of Chiraq Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com