Whether you're in the midst of finals season or preparing for the impending doom of your unpaid summer internship, it's always important to find some time to relax and unwind during this stressful time of year. I recently found time to do just that, and I took that time to watch one of HBO's newest documentaries entitled, “Tales of the Grim Sleeper." The documentary chronicles the 62-year-old serial murder, Lonnie Franklin, Jr., who is accused of murdering at least ten women between 1985 and his arrest in 2010. He is also accused of the attempted murder of one woman during that time. Before his identity was confirmed, the killer became known as the “Grim Sleeper" because he seemed to have taken a 14-year hiatus in his attacks between the years of 1988 to 2002.
However, HBO's account of the events suggests otherwise. The film follows British director Nick Broomfield as he navigates the streets of South Central Los Angeles, interviewing residents, friends of Lonnie Franklin, family members of Franklin's victims, as well as some of his (very few) surviving victims. What is revealed throughout the documentary is that Franklin's victims most likely far outnumber the mere ten murders he is accused of. In fact, Broomfield soon comes to the conclusion, as have most residents of South Central LA, that the Grim Sleeper never really took a break from killing; he continued to kill mercilessly, with little to no police investigation. In fact, the LAPD seemed to actively ignore homicide reports from this particular area, and the residents were clear that they never received warning from the police that a serial killer was in their midst. If this is true, Franklin's victims could not just be in the tens, but in the hundreds. The film suggests that many of them were prostitutes, addicted to a variety of drugs. What began as the brutal murders of several women quickly transformed into an issue of casualties. Casualties of one man's sadistic crimes, and casualties of a much broader, much more difficult problem to solve, and one that we know all too well: institutionalized racism within the police force.
In Michelle Alexander's groundbreaking book, The New Jim Crow, Alexander discusses the ways that institutionalized racism serves not just to marginalize the black population, but also to deprive them of their rights and strip them of any protections that they rightfully have under the law. In a country where police brutality, especially against the black community, is coming under increasing scrutiny, it is easy to forget a police practice that is just as damning: negligence. We're so hesitant to believe that police officers are capable of this kind of blatant disregard for their jobs, and yet we see it happen before our own eyes on a regular basis: the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, the fatal shooting of Walter Scott in South Carolina, the mysterious death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore – just to name a few. In the current state of affairs, is it so impossible to believe that the LAPD might have turned a blind eye to these murders?
Broomfield and his team seem to think so, and their argument is convincing. One of the final scenes of the film depicts the LAPD press conference that occurred following the arrest of Lonnie Franklin in 2010. It's an eerie moment, watching a completely irresponsible police force take full credit for the capture of a serial killer that they spent so many years ignoring. They talk about justice, but it seems the only real justice will come when the LAPD admits the violence they helped perpetuate, the serial killer they let roam free for twenty-five years and the hundreds of women they failed to protect.
“Tales of the Grim Sleeper" is available to stream on HBOGo.
