Flint Town

This is an excellent Netflix docuseries. I found it on Monday and finished it today. While it focuses on the problems in the Flint PD, it does a great job of showing both the police and residents points of view. (I'm sure it may be more interesting to me than most since this is 40 min north of me and was saturated in the news and everyone down here in Detroit trying to get as much water up there as possible.) It's very well done and it humanizes everyone involved in trying to keep that city barely above water. I did not feel I wasted one second watching this. Thank you, Netflix! Nobody else was getting to the heart of this.

..... a decimated and demoralized Flint Michigan Police force struggling to cope with violent crime after the city's downward spiral into an epidemic of record-high murder rates.

The opening shows scenes of Flint as it was during the boom years and which began to crumble in the late 70's following the closing of the Chevrolet and Buick factories, two of GM's biggest plants.

At one time, Flint had the highest per capita income of blue collar workers in America. I know, because I lived and worked there for a while during its boom years. Businesses flourished and the nightlife scene, a sure indicator of disposable income, was New Year's Eve virtually every night.

The factory closings led to massive unemployment which in turn bred the violent and virtually uncontrollable crime rate. Neither City Hall nor the State Government succeeded in finding secondary industries to replace GM's closed plants. The drug industry boomed.

Due to the economic crash, the Police force shrunk from a high of over five hundred officers down to one hundred or so due to City Hall mismanagement, graft, incompetence and the misappropriation of the city finances.

The documentary reveals the problems and frustrations of the skeleton police force through the eyes of its Chief and various police officers who patrol streets of boarded up, condemned houses in poverty stricken, drug infested neighborhoods whose poorly educated residents seem condemned to never escape their toxic environment.

It's well done and worth watching.

Insightful, frightful and balanced. Netflix is offering a documentary everyone should see.

I binged watched this over 2 days and was simply in awe of the visuals, characters and insane world shown in this documentary series. It's hard to believe the most prosperous city in the US has turned into this! The film makers had incredible access that shows us what's really going on behind the scenes for these brave officers and they tell the story in a very fair way. Everyone needs to watch this.

This series was not at all what I thought it would be like, which is the reason I never watched it, until now. I have always had respect for police and I think we need more "reality" shows like this, not like the other reality crap thats on. Police have gotten a bad rap lately because of a few officers. Thank you to anyone reading this who has been a public servant, who risk their lives everyday to make us safer. I thank you for your service.