🔗 Share this article The Perfect Neighbor Review: Examining a Notorious Incident Via the Perspective of a State Officer's Body-Cam The real-life crime category has a new medium, or perhaps even a whole new language and structure: officer-worn camera recordings. Faces of victims, observers and possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of headlights or flashlights as the police arrive, their expressions and tones eloquent of wariness or fear or indignation or dubiously feigned naivety. And we often catch sight of the faces of the officers themselves, one standing by blankly while the other asks the questions with what occasionally seems like remarkable hesitation – though perhaps this is because they are aware they are being recorded. A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema We have already had the Netflix true-crime documentary American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the slaying of an Instagram influencer by her partner, whose primary focus was body cam footage and in which, as in this film, the police seemed extraordinarily lax with the perpetrator. There is also the acclaimed short film Incident by Bill Morrison, composed entirely of body cam film. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the grim case of a Florida mother in Ocala, Florida, a woman of colour whose children reportedly bothered and antagonized her neighbor, a local resident. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were summoned multiple times, the accused shot Owens dead through her closed front door, when the victim went to the neighbor's residence to confront her about throwing objects at her children. The Police Inquiry and State Laws The arresting officers found proof that the suspect had done online research into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow householders and others to shoot if there is a reasonable belief of threat. The documentary constructs its narrative with the officer recordings captured during the multiple officer calls to the scene before the shooting, and then at the horrific and chaotic incident site itself – prefaced by emergency call recordings of the caller calling the police in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also police cell footage of the individual which has a chilly, queasy fascination. Portrayal of the Accused The documentary does not really imply anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is obviously disturbed, although the kids are heard calling her a derogatory term, an hurtful taunt. The film is showcased as an illustration of how self-defense regulations generate senseless and tragic bloodshed. But the reality of firearm possession and the second amendment (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a deceased pundit notoriously said made gun deaths a necessary cost) is not much highlighted. Officer Questioning and Firearm Norms It is possible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel astonished at how minimal concern the police took in this point. At what time did she purchase the firearm? Did she receive any instruction on handling it? Had she ever had occasion to fire it before? How was the gun kept in her home? Could it have been easily accessible and prepared? The authorities aren’t shown asking any of these surely relevant questions (though they could have inquired in footage that were not included). Or is gun ownership so commonplace it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or bread heaters? Detention and Consequences For what seemed to her local residents a very long time, the suspect was not even taken into custody and indicted, only detained and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another point of comparison, incidentally, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was ultimately officially taken into custody in the detention area, there is an remarkable scene in which the individual simply declines to rise, will not extend her arms for the handcuffs, not hostilely, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose mental health means that she is unable to comply. Had the kid-gloves treatment up until that point encouraged her to think that this could be effective? Final Outcome and Judgment It didn’t; and the jury’s verdict is saved for the closing credits. A very sombre picture of American crime and punishment.