Crime Strike

I am (trying to) watch Crime Strike, which is a documentary-type show about individuals who have fought back against crime, often because they were armed with a firearm, but not exclusively. Narrated by Wayne LaPierre of the NRA, the show ran from 1998 to 2014, and I think I had seen episodes of it before, but I haven't seen most of it.

However, I am watching it through FilmRise Documentary, and the advertising makes watching it almost unbearable. For one thing, this is a show about citizens protecting themselves against crime, mostly through the use of a firearm, but one of its advertisers is the Southern Poverty Law Center, whose ad I am subjected to at least twice during every episode.

Then they have another ad for some organization that works to rehabilitate criminals in prison, which wouldn't be so bad except that it nearly a ten-minute advertisement, and the same ad plays during every episode. Twice, I clicked out of it thinking that FilmRise had logged me into another show for some reason, as the ad plays more like a documentary show of its own, only not one that I want to watch more than once. In fact, all of the ads are the same ad over and over again.

If I try to fast-forward through the ads, it starts them all over again, so I don't think I am going to be able to stick with this one. I have watched several other documentaries on FilmRise that were tolerable, but they've managed to make Crime Strike pretty much unwatchable.

 

One of the documentary stories in the series was particularly odd, although some here probably wouldn't think so. A man stops an armed intruder who has broken into his home. He is holding his gun on the intruder while his girlfriend calls 9-1-1 to alert the police. She tells the 9-1-1 dispatcher that her boyfriend is holding a gun on the intruder. Immediately, the dispatcher homes in on the boyfriend having a firearm, and tells the caller to tell her boyfriend that he needs to put the gun down. The caller tries to tell her that she doesn't understand - an intruder has broken into their home with a gun, and her boyfriend is holding a gun on him until the police get there. The dispatcher again tells the girl to have her boyfriend put the firearm down or he will be arrested. She passes the message on but makes it clear that the dispatcher is an idiot. He doesn't put his gun down and the intruder is arrested when the police arrive.

 

Yes, it does. The dispatcher was more concerned about the homeowner having a firearm than the intruder.

In another episode, a woman is being attacked by a man with a knife in a park. It turns out to be her ex-boyfriend. Another man in the park sees what's going on because it's daylight. He calls 9-1-1 and reports the attack, including the location, then tells the dispatcher that he is going to help the woman. The dispatcher tells him not to do so. Clearly, he is having trouble accepting that he should stand there and watch a woman get stabbed to death before the police arrive, and he again tells the dispatcher that he should be over there helping. She says no, so he stays. Instead, another woman helps and they subdue the guy until the police arrive. In this case, I can understand the dispatcher telling him to stay where he is because she doesn't want to be responsible if he goes over there on her advice and gets stabbed himself, but he should have ignored her and gone over there, I think. It seemed clear that he knew that too, but submitted to what he viewed as the authority in the dispatcher. I suspect that a lot of people think they are speaking to a cop when they call 9-1-1.