Union of Egoists<p>“A Wholly Inaccurate Picture”: Reality Cop Show “The First 48” and the Wrongly Convicted Man</p><p>"Conviction Review Unit attorneys concluded that police and prosecutors became locked into a narrative they did not deviate from. In essence, the unit alleged, instead of the case shaping the show, the show shaped the case.</p><p>“They said, ‘We got the right guy. We got him,’ before they knew or really looked into the existence of Edgar’s alibi,” said Anna McGinn, an attorney for the Great North Innocence Project who represented Barrientos-Quintana. “It’s on TV. I mean, that’s problematic.”</p><p>Barrientos-Quintana’s exoneration may be the first in the country related to the “The First 48,” but it is not the first time the program has found itself embroiled in controversy, though not necessarily because of its conduct. In 2010, for instance, “The First 48” was filming when a Detroit police SWAT-style team raided an apartment and an officer shot and killed 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones. In Miami, a man featured on the show as the prime suspect in a 2009 double murder sat in jail for 19 months before the police finally determined he wasn’t responsible. In both cases, subsequent lawsuits accused the police of shoddy investigations and hasty decision-making in the service of creating good TV. Both cases ended in settlements — $8.25 million in Detroit — paid out by the cities, not “The First 48.”</p><p>“No one cared that my boy was killed, and the cops just rushed it for a damn show,” the father of one of the double murder victims told the Miami New Times."</p><p><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/first-48-reality-tv-police-minneapolis-wrongful-conviction-barrientos-quintana" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">propublica.org/article/first-4</span><span class="invisible">8-reality-tv-police-minneapolis-wrongful-conviction-barrientos-quintana</span></a></p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/acab" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>acab</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/minneapolis" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>minneapolis</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/socialism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>socialism</span></a></p>