Bakersfield, California, which is represented by McCarthy, saw a record number of homicides in recent years.
www.newsweek.com
Former
NFL player Colin Kaepernick is making an example of House Speaker
Kevin McCarthy and the city of Bakersfield that he represents in
Congress.
A new multi-part documentary coming to
Hulu on February 3 called
Killing County includes first-person interviews with Bakersfield and Kern County individuals and families plagued by
gun violence, officer-involved homicides and other crimes.
Kaepernick, an executive producer on the project, says in the trailer that it "is one of the most powerful projects I've ever been involved with." In a tweet promoting the documentary, he mentions Bakersfield's high homicide and crime rates—calling it a "thriller set in Kevin McCarthy's district."
The trailer includes gunshots, 911 calls, a former police officer, and interviewed individuals calling the city a "violent place." There are mentions of the city being home to the deadliest law enforcement per capita, and the most officer-involved deaths in the U.S.
Ben Meiselas, a Kaepernick Publishing executive producer and business partner of Kaepernick, told
Newsweek the pair inked a deal about two years ago with
Disney.
Meiselas was previously a litigator and knew Bakerfield-area families and shared a lot of time with them dating back to 2013. He met Kaepernick, who grew up north of Bakersfield in Turlock, around 2016 through his work as a civil rights attorney.
"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."
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.
There were also 27,890 property crimes in Bakersfield in 2020, including 3,658 burglaries, 13,995 larcenies, and 7,537 motor thefts. The total of 3,106 offenses per 100,000 people was higher than the national average of 2,008.2.