Filmmakers Visit UB to Screen and Discuss a Powerful New Documentary

Us / Them.

Good guys / Bad guys.

Police / Gang members.

These bitter divisions shatter our communities, dehumanize people perceived as “other,” and perpetuate a destructive cycle of violence and retribution.

This is the powerful argument at the heart of a new documentary, Us vs Them, which examines the chronic conflict between police and the communities they patrol. 

The filmmakers argue that a paradigm of confrontation masks an ironic mirroring effect that links the organizational structure and attitudinal posture of police officers and gang members.  If we could reconfigure our mental maps, the film suggests, we could not only defuse some of the tension on city streets, but we could also see the potential for reformed criminals to serve as police officers.

Us vs Them was conceived by Charlie Grady.  Grady served for 35 years as a state and federal law enforcement officer, but during this time, he says, he became uncomfortable with the “Us vs Them” narrative that characterized the mentality of too many of his fellow officers.  In retirement, he has devoted his considerable energies to supporting formerly incarcerated people and working with communities to promote dialogue and empathy.  He is the founder and CEO of Hang Time, an organization that hosts community meetings in Bridgeport, New Haven, and Waterbury dedicated to reintegrating ex-offenders back into their communities.  He has also founded the Connecticut Hall of Change, a public forum dedicated to recognizing the accomplishments of justice-involved individuals and to sharing their powerful stories of self-transformation and redemption. 

Charlie Grady, at the screening with Dr. Cassidy Haigh, Assistant Professor and Graduate Program Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice and Human Security

 The film project Us vs Them is an outgrowth of these efforts, foregrounding the voices and stories of several ex-offenders whose personal histories provide them with unique insight into the dynamics of criminality.  In effect, their stories serve as a bridge between “us” and “them,” knitting our social reality together and revealing the degree to which our common humanity vastly outweighs the stereotypes and categories that function to divide us. 

Most of the stories told in Us vs Them take place in New Haven, and the film features several shots of dramatic drone footage of the city’s streets and the surrounding landscape.  The stories told in vivid detail by the formerly incarcerated interviewees provide an even more dramatic window into the life of the city, often on a very granular level. 

Gordon Lyde describes the destruction of his Rockview neighborhood by the ’80s crack epidemic, his own descent into addiction, and hitting bottom in Room 216 of the Regal Inn on Whalley Avenue. William “Juneboy” Outlaw explains how moving from the Quinnipiac neighborhood to Newhallville as a young person introduced him to a culture of seductive and empowering criminality.  He describes selling drugs right around the corner from the Union Avenue NHPD headquarters and even monitoring the activities of the police officers, writing down the license plates of their personal cars, surveilling their girlfriends and families, and occasionally pulling up alongside off-duty cops to make threatening remarks. 

At the screening

Over the course of a tense 40 minutes, Lyde, Outlaw, and several other individuals describe the social and economic circumstances that led them into criminality, the transformative experiences that reoriented their perspective, and their living commitment to repairing the harm they’ve done and speaking out to advocate for humane policing, public discourse, and second chances.

Us vs Them leads up to the argument that formerly incarcerated people who have turned their life around not only deserve a chance to reintegrate into the community, but also that they should be allowed to become law enforcement officers.  The film proposes that nobody is more qualified to practice empathetic, humane, and community-oriented policing than people who have seen the system from the other side of the binary.

Us vs Them was recently screened at the University of Bridgeport, followed by a discussion with the filmmakers.  The screening was attended by State Senator Herron Keyon Gaston, who remarked that the film resonated with him and the concerns he has heard from his constituents about racial equity in policing.  Mr. Grady remarked that the film is intended to be the beginning of a conversation rather than the final word, and UB students responded to this invitation with a robust series of thoughtful questions and remarks for Grady and his fellow filmmakers.

Charlie Grady and CT State Senator Herron Keyon Gaston, at the screening

One of the formerly incarcerated individuals in the film, Robert Lustyk, tells the story of how he went from being a decorated law enforcement officer fueled by an Us-versus-Them mentality to serving 5 years in prison for conspiracy to obstruct justice.  He explains that “It took my incarceration to realize there’s no Us versus Them.  It’s We.”

Us vs Them is a powerful film that challenges audiences to find a way toward acknowledging our membership in the higher-order category of this “We.” 

Charlie Grady, Director Alex Vishnu, and cast member Professor Lorenzo Boyd discuss the film

The Us vs. Them screening event was held as an installment of the University of Bridgeport's Necessary Voices lecture series. The series is coordinated by UB's English Department, and its mission is to provide UB students with opportunities to hear from thought-leaders and scholars representing a variety of backgrounds, disciplines, and perspectives.