Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is producing a new documentary that focuses on the California city that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy represents, Newsweek reports.
The documentary called Killing County includes first-person interviews with Bakersfield and Kern County residents plagued by gun violence, officer-involved homicides, and other crimes.
Ben Meiselas, who is the co-founder of the left-leaning super PAC MeidasTouch and Kaepernick’s business partner, told Newsweek the pair inked a deal about two years ago with Disney.
“It was important for us to produce this very impactful content,” Meiselas said. “This project, based on all the kinds of stories and experiences in Bakersfield, was a very unique and harrowing way to shed light on what was taking place there through this prism of the true crime format and genre. It’s an area that likes to say it’s law and order, but when you dig a little beneath the surface, it’s really about breaking the law and complete disorder and chaos.”
From Newsweek: “There were 6,216 violent crime offenses in Bakersfield in 2020, according to uniform crime report data compiled by the FBI. That amounted to approximately 692.3 offenses per 100,000 residents, compared to a national rate of 390.2 similar offenses that same calendar year. It represented an uptick in Bakersfield’s violent crime compared to the year 2019, when 5,567 such crimes were committed. There were increases in murders, robberies and aggravated assaults. Rapes decreased compared to the two previous years.”
Source: https://www.rawstory.com/colin-kaepernick-2659314067/
