The Killing Season: I Love and Hate A&E

The A&E network is that digital true crime frenemy.

On the one hand, they do a lot of crime journalism that I don't find anywhere else.  They often get things done that nobody else does.  The problem is right in the name:  Arts & Entertainment.  True crime isn't a form of entertainment, or it shouldn't be.  Therein lies the issue.  We're using the wrong tool to address the crisis of violence against women: entertainment.

Frankly, whenever I see the "graphic content" warning, I bristle.  It always seems to me like the thing creepers use to determine whether they'll be turned on by the content or not.  And unfortunately A&E usually doesn't disappoint them, routinely including at least a few graphic photos of dead/mangled women.

I didn't see the above-linked program, The Killing Season, when it first aired.  I recently watched the whole thing back-to-back.  I have thoughts.

• I'm grateful that the filmmakers put in so much time and effort.  They truly invested themselves in humanizing a lot of disposable, disposed-of women.  They went to a lot of grimy, swampy, crime-infested places, and talked to a lot of people nobody cares about.  As a survivor it means a lot to me.
• It horrifies me how easy it is for anyone with mainstream media access to get a sit-down with the authorities in this country.  As a survivor of a cold case I can't always get detectives to return my phone calls -- a refrain you'll hear over and over from loved ones of murder victims in this series.  But these filmmakers, who have no skin in the game, can get meetings with all kinds of authority figures by the grace of A&E.   Because it's entertainment.   INFURIATING.
• The filmmakers -- and I bless them very much for their efforts -- are out of their depth. 
• This genre of "entertainment" exists because women's needs are not being met by the system itself.  I hear Josh, the male filmmaker, decrying over and over the "broken system."  It is absolutely not a broken system.  The system perfectly reflects the ethos of its designers, and the violence against women that they demand.
• On the one hand, I appreciate that they are willing to track down leads from the crowdsourcers at Websleuths.  On the other hand, there's a reason they don't start police officers with murders on their first investigations.  Street smarts are something people build up over time.  It's painful to watch the filmmakers being played, especially since they don't always seem to know it, even when they should be able to see it coming, even in hindsight.  But I applaud their courage and heart.
• The most cringeable part of the show is their German profiler, a former submarine crewman and current fiction author named Brendt.  He's prominently featured on multiple episodes and even in the intro, and says such laughable drivel that I won't even waste time quoting him.  How did this person make it into the final edits?  WTF?  Don't make me pull quotes.
• The thing is, some of the other people from Websleuths were worthwhile, like the two women with the topographical surveys in New Mexico.  And because they're affiliated with A&E, the crew was able to get access to the New Mexico Department of Geology to coordinate with them.  GOOD JOB! 
  
• New Mexico was where that whole series should have stopped and done some self-examination.  Because they accomplished some very good things.  And in that episode, they also exemplified all that hurts me about A&E.  They allowed the self-important German fantasist to say all sorts of silly things as though he were equally valid as the others, entirely skewing everything IMO.
  
• In the New Mexico portion of the above-linked video, they discuss the West Mesa killer.  This bold film crew took the time and effort to speak with multiple sex workers on the stroll and ask their opinions on the murders!  For that, I give them all the stars.  That's real journalism.  And the women said the same things over and over:  the cops were involved.  They gave the same name over and over, too.  As did the social service and NGO workers they spoke with, that one guy's name kept coming up.  They did some real investigative journalism in New Mexico.
  
• Another excellent thing they did in New Mexico was to work with a private detective and possibly get a confession, or at least an admission, on tape.  Another example of the system not being broken but functioning the way the powers that be want it to work.
  
• They spoke with another credible investigator who discussed a potential Mexican cartel connection. The dumps didn't match her scenario.  And being afraid to raise American law enforcement's attention? Yes and no.  I've seen pictures of the cartels arresting the police in Mexico.  They really don't care how many of their people get arrested here, if they're not already on the ABQ police force. Then again, they don't want to raise a lot of attention if they're on the police force.  Which defeats the purpose of sending a message, right?  If nobody finds the bodies?  But that investigator is still worth listening to, unlike Brendt who is so prominently featured.
  
• Based on what I know, ABQ/Gallup is a major human/drug trafficking thoroughfare anyway, no Mexican cartels needed.  Though they're by no means ruled out.  It's already a huge place for women to disappear, especially Native women.  And all of these women were in or near the local drug scene.  The West Mesa situation looks to me, after watching this investigation, more like a Jefferson Davis 8 situation involving local law enforcement and criminals working together with a nod from the FBI, like with Whitey Bulger.
  
• They spoke with a former police officer from New Mexico -- a woman with actual credentials, who I understand had been professionally vetted by Websleuths.  And the one and only point she made was that there are some very, very bad people in law enforcement.  That was what she tried to impress upon them.  They didn't have any follow-up questions.  They didn't seem to understand what she was trying to say.  They didn't ask her if she was saying that anyone in law enforcement might also work for a Mexican cartel.  They had the German guy, the former submariner with no credentials other than chain smoking on webcam, talk out his butt.  He rambled on and on about who would or wouldn't go out on the Mesa and dump a body where.  Those three people weren't presented as equally credible or valuable.  It wasn't a level playing field. There was much, much more of him.  He was presented as more credible than either of the two women with real-world knowledge, the guy who has no credentials and has probably never been to ABQ. It was a very false narrative in that way. That keeps the conversation firmly at the gibberish level in the mainstream American media.
  
• I don't know if the filmmakers truly lost the plot that hard or if A&E won't let them bite the hand that feeds it.  But this is why we're frenemies.  Because A&E will allow that sort of ridonkulous bullshit to go unchecked.  They don't insist on critical thinking in the final edit.  They allow for emotional baiting and other foolishness, because at the end of the day it's entertainment.
  
• This will be my last point on it, the most important one, and I'll leave you to consider the following.  Because I'm very grateful that they did this series.  And I'll need to rewatch the part about Oklahoma.  I think the part about Daytona is worthwhile and well-solved -- the bikers handle their business however they do.  But what got missed on the Mesa said it all for me.  This last point landed right on my heart.
  
• At one point Josh calls the police officer who was named over and over again as the possible West Mesa killer.  Many sex workers have said they were Holtzclawed by this guy, taken up to the Mesa and shaken down for sex.  Some say they had been taken up there, beaten up, and left up there to walk back to town. These are things police are known have done to harass people in other areas of the country.  None of these complaints, if verified, would be the first time this had happened in America. The filmmakers receive at least a dozen reports on this one person. 
  
• When contacted, the accused cop says that the ABQ police department told women that they were the ones killing and dumping sex workers on the Mesa, in order to keep them off the streets.  He goes on to say that all prostitutes accuse vice detectives, and it's par for the course and means nothing.  The crew accepts both of these explanations and moves on.  I wanted to smash the device I was watching it on.
  
• Again, I don't know if these two lack the street smarts to understand what just happened there, or were not allowed to bite the hand that gets them invited into every police chief's office.  But this is why we can't have nice things. 
  
• Josh, ask yourself.  Why him and not any other officers?  Why his name over and over?  Can you imagine a police agency telling people that they're murdering people and dumping bodies to deter crime?  That absolutely didn't happen.  JFC, man.  And no prosecutor followed up after hearing that phone call, go figure.  Because for sure public safety veterans know that that absolutely didn't happen.
  
• No matter how well these filmmakers may mean, there's always what I've now come to think of as "the Harvey factor."  It's the way movies always left me unsatisfied, and I really never went.  Because movies always have to suit the male gaze.  Harvey Weinstein always has to enjoy them, which makes me not enjoy them.  And you know what?  A&E makes sure that the creepers are always okay with their content, too.  They do.