I did not approach Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop objectively. I am originally from NYC. I still follow the news from my hometown, which includes the 2008 acquittal of a NYPD cop who raped a drunk woman that he was supposed to help in her East Village apartment and the 2011 acquittal of a NYPD officer who raped an Inwood schoolteacher on her way to work at gunpoint- there were even witnesses. When I heard about the Cannibal Cop, it was just another examples of the few bad apples sucking up all the leeway that should only be going to the good cops in ambiguous situations. His eventual release, while shocking, was unsurprising in light of these other cases.
Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop really tried to convince me that he actually didn’t do anything wrong in the real world-it was just fantasy albeit a repulsive one. Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop minimized his use of official computerized records and equated it with a Google search. My intellectual self understands their point, particularly with respect to sentencing. Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop tried to humanize the perp by showing him at home COOKING and EATING with his mom so at least the documentary had a sense of humor as it asked at what point do words and thoughts expressed on the internet become a crime. Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop takes a mild stab at the complexity of sexuality and origins of untraditional to aberrant proclivities, but it is cursory and superficial. I am super sad that Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop couldn’t get Park Dietz to elaborate on his conclusion that the perpetrator was not a threat since he has worked on quite a few cases and usually is a witness for the prosecution.
Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop only works on a superficial voyeuristic level. It gave the viewer an opportunity to gawk at the perpetrator’s obsessive chats and his current rationalizations. Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop is not a must see because it strives to be something more. It doesn’t fully embrace the tabloid nature, work as an intellectual exploration of the definition of a crime or fully examine the dark recesses of human sexuality. Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop needed more time to cook and become satisfying.