The Death and Life of Marsha P Johnson PDF

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Official Summary of the film The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson...

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The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson Summary The documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson deals with the theme of crime a punishment in a few ways. In one way, the members of the LGBTQ+ Community demand to know the truth about Marsha’s death because, though the police ruled the cause of death as suicide, few people believe it (France 00:01). The other way the film refers to crime and punishment is by questioning the categorization of cross-dressing and literally being part of the LGBTQ+ Community in any way as being a crime during the 1960s, an era that is in our-not-sorecent past. During that time, Transgender people were thrown in jail simply for expressing their identity. Because of this categorization, in the ‘90s, at the time Marsha P. Johnson was alive, there was immense amounts of leftover police brutality directed towards the LGBTQ+ community, especially Trans women. It is these two concepts that lead us to Victoria Cruz at the New York City Anti-Violence Project. Cruz, a Crime Victim Advocate, explains to the audience that there have been high numbers of Transgender women murdered whose cases have gone cold because law enforcement and the justice system does not care about them. Victoria believes that, because of Marsha’s prominence in the struggle for Gay Rights in the U.S. and even around the globe to an extent, justice for her might mean justice for all those other women who suffered the same fate (France 00:02). The first obstacle Cruz faces is the attempt to procure Marsha’s medical records from the state of New York. When she calls, the operator tells her that she needs Marsha’s family to sign a statement of release for the records. Cruz bounces all over Marsha’s old community and interviews many, if not all of, the surviving people who were the closest to Marsha when she was alive. Randy Wicker, Marsha’s roommate, says that it’s an “insult to the family” (France 00:10) for the police to have claimed suicide as the cause of death, and because of this he suspected foul play as much as Cruz, and many of Marsha’s other close confidants, did. It is here where Randy gives Cruz a list of his biggest leads (France 00:12). Cruz also interviews Sylvia Rivera, Marsha’s partner in crime and another leader of the Gay Rights Movement. Sylvia and Cruz became close friends through Marsha, and Sylvia gives Cruz as much information as possible in terms of Marsha’s death. Sylvia also emphasizes all of the work her and Marsha did when they were younger in advocating for everyone’s rights and taking people in off the street just for identifying a particular way. It is here in the film that the audience experiences intense juxtaposition because we have been told that these women were considered criminals at the time, yet all they were doing was trying to help themselves and others out in a society where they had been deemed worthless. Therefore, the U.S. was criminalizing, and often still does yet in more covert ways, people because they did not necessarily fit into the social norms that have been constructed for society. Cruz continues with her investigation into Marsha’s death and, when she is finally able to contact one of the retired police officers who were involved with Marsha’s “investigation”, he aggressively denies her invitation to meet and warns Cruz “not to play detective” (France 00:26). This does not deter Cruz, however, and next we meet Kitty, Marsha’s friend, who is in a

correctional facility in NY. She tells Cruz that she saw Marsha the day of the 4th of July, two days before her body was found washed up on a riverbank, and Kitty watched Marsha get into a van with 4 men who were allegedly seen beating Transgender women and assumed to be affiliated with the Mob (France 00:31). Kitty says she never saw Marsha again after that, but the police precinct that dealt with Marsha’s death brushed off her possible entanglement with the Mob. In addition, there was more evidence that the Mob might be behind Marsha’s death because Randy, her roommate, was heavily criticizing the group for their takeover of the Christopher Street Festival on the day of the Pride Parade (France 00:56). Finally, Cruz and the Anti-Violence Project find a record of a call after Marsha’s death that was a death threat to Randy. The message said that if Randy did not lay off of the Christopher St. Festival issue, he would be killed just like Marsha (France 01:01). In addition, Cruz received evidence that someone had seen Marsha on the 5th of July looking terrified while being chased by two men. All of the evidence pointed to the fact that Marsha did not commit suicide and that foul play had in fact been involved, but when Cruz talks to the Cold Case Squad investigator who had investigated Marsha’s case two years prior to Cruz, he found no evidence of murder (France 01:05). However, when Cruz finally received Marsha’s medical records, a professional examiner said that, though there was no evidence of a violent murder, if Marsha getting chased was the reason she fell into the water and drowned, then the men chasing her should have still been charged with homicide, or murder. The police, however, dropped the case and lied about the cause of death because law enforcement viewed Transgender women as “’throw aways’ rather than ‘runaways’” (France 00:44). Ultimately, the documentary emphasizes that the lack of justice for Marsha continues to represent the lack of justice for other Transgender women. The outcome of Islan Nettles, a Transgender woman beaten to death years after Marsha’s death, exemplifies the continuity of discrimination against Transgender women in the U.S. criminal justice system to this day. The perpetrator in her case was let off with a sentence of twelve years rather than twenty-five years, the maximum possible for the case. This case, among various others, is an intense issue of discrimination and oppression against a minority in America by the U.S. government itself and should be carefully scrutinized going forward....