PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "And while the show’s shadowy organisation, The Correction, might be a classic thriller trope (it was the governments what done it), it remains just this side of believable. The nifty tricks deployed by said organisation – the splicing of footage, the manipulation of CCTV – feel darkly credible. It may not have happened yet, but you wouldn’t be at all surprised if it did."
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
BACKGROUND: TECHNOLOGY: In the last several years I have been spending considerably more time than usual on applications of rapidly developing technology in the criminal justice process that could effect the quality of the administration of justice - for better, or, most often, for worse. First, of course, predictive policing (AKA Predpol) made it’s interest, at its most extreme promising the ability to identify a criminal act before it occurred. At it’s minimal level, it offered police a better sense of where certain crimes where occurring in the community being policed - knowledge that the seasoned beat officer had intuited through every day police work years earlier. Predpol has lost some of it’s lustre as police departments discovered that the expense of acquiring and using the technology was not justified. Then we entered a period where logarithms were become popular with judges for use on bail hearings and on sentencing, In my eyes, these judges were just passing the buck to the machine when they could have, and should have made their decisions based on information they received in open court - not from Logarithm’s which were notorious for their secrecy, because the manufacturers did not want to reveal their trade secrets - even in a courtroom where an accused person’s liberty and reputation were in jeopardy. Some of these logarithms have come under attack for discriminating against minorities and are hopefully on the way out. Lastly. facial recognition technology has become a concern to this Blog because of its prove ability to sweep up huge numbers of people, lead to wrongful arrests and prosecutions, and discriminate racially. May we never forget that a huge, extremely well-funded, powerful industry, often politically connected industry is pushing for profit use of all these technologies in the criminal systems - and, hopefully, in the post George Floyd aftermath will be more concerned with the welfare of the community than their bottom Line. HL.
-------------------------------------------------------------
REVIEW: “Trust nothing! Why ‘The Capture’ is perfect TV for our paranoid times,” by Reviewer Sarah Hughes, published by The Guardian on October 3, 2019.
SUB-HEADING: “In the most spied on country in the world, the BBC surveillance thriller is both deeply unsettling and terrifyingly plausible.”
GIST: "If there were any justice, everyone would be talking about The Capture right now. Ben Chanan’s surveillance thriller isn’t just one of the most cleverly plotted dramas of recent years – it’s also one of the most satisfying.
In part, that satisfaction comes from the many ways the show uses technology to keep the audience off balance. From the moment it became clear that while DI Rachel Carey (Holliday Grainger) was convinced her detectives were outside the house Shaun Emery (Callum Turner) was being interrogated in he clearly couldn’t be, to the jaw-dropping explanation by an image manipulation expert of just how that scene could be faked, The Capture has created outlandish scenarios that are also strangely plausible.
The UK is the most spied on country in the world, our images constantly caught on CCTV, body cameras and drones and even controversially used by private companies. From there, it’s a small step to The Capture – a world in which security forces don’t simply spy on citizens but manipulate images to ensure that “justice” is served.
And while the show’s shadowy organisation, The Correction, might be a classic thriller trope (it was the governments what done it), it remains just this side of believable. The nifty tricks deployed by said organisation – the splicing of footage, the manipulation of CCTV – feel darkly credible. It may not have happened yet, but you wouldn’t be at all surprised if it did.
Adding to that sense of plausibility is a refusal to cheat the audience by providing easy explanations. Chanan’s script doesn’t withhold crucial information to deliver cheap gotcha moments later; instead, we discover things as Carey and Emery do – a fact never more obvious than with this week’s penultimate episode.
Thus we learned how the injustice at the heart of the story came about: that barrister Hannah (Laura Haddock) had her own agenda all along. That she and her colleague Charlie (Barry Ward) never had Shaun’s interests at heart. In fact, it was another case entirely that held their attention. The case, as it happened, that made Carey’s name: a possible miscarriage of justice involving four young Muslim men, now jailed for terrorism offences, which they hoped to bring into the spotlight using Emery as collateral.
And if Emery was simply a pawn, who really cared? He was only a soldier, after all, and one who may well be guilty of the crime they fought so hard to exonerate him for.
As treachery has piled upon treachery and Emery came to realise just how much he had been used, we were treated not only to an immensely rewarding experience but also a refreshingly grownup hour of television. And, in an era defined by endless cliffhanging twists and turns, there is something fascinating about a show that refuses to spoon-feed its audience.
It helps, too, that the acting is so strong. As Carey, Grainger expertly walks the line between ruthless and concerned (it’s a pleasure, too, to see a female character so unapologetic about her ambition). But the show really belongs to Turner, whose Emery is a plausible mix of vulnerable and dangerous – a man who has undoubtedly been set up, yet whose capacity for violence always simmers just under the surface.
The real reason The Capture strikes such a nerve, though, is that it references not the whizz-bang edge-of-your-seat thrillers of the current era but darker, more complicated stories of the 1970s."
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/oct/03/trust-nothing-why-the-capture-bbc-is-perfect-tv-for-our-paranoid-times
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
------------------------------------------------------------------
