A Brief Summary Of Above Suspicion

In Canada, we have had our fair share or serial killers, and the main way that we learn about them is through media. The documentary Above Suspicion covers the story of Colonel Russell Williams and his fall from grace, as he is revealed as a rapist and killer on two counts and a perpetrator of home break-ins on 82 counts. The story covers testimonies made by victim’s families and former coworkers and friends of Williams, as well as a narration of the whole story. The story is told from a third person perspective and dramatizes the crimes that Williams committed. This documentary offers a shocking presentation of how crime is seen in Canada. In Canada, the military and others in power are seen as saints, and when someone commits a crime, it

First of all, Russell Williams is a Colonel in the army, he is educated and to top it all off, he is white; which means he is nothing like what we would traditionally expect a criminal to be. Criminals from what we know based on stereotypes, which means that they come from poor neighborhoods, they don’t have jobs and they engage in dangerous behaviors (Entman & Gross, 2008). The other thing that contrasts a lot with what we stereotypically think of criminals, is that Williams is white. It has been shown in research that Blacks and Latinos are also more likely to be in news coverage, especially when it is a violent crime (Entman & Gross, 2008). So the fact that Williams is white, and he preyed on victims in a middle class neighborhood is a shocking story. This is especially important because Williams was someone that no one ever expected to commit these crimes, and the media uses this to it’s advantage to point out how rare an even like this is. The film even uses Williams’ best friend to highlight this when he says that these crimes committed by Williams was nothing like his personality at all; maybe because he was a white, middle class man with a high ranking job in the army, and we perceived him to be

The testimony from the Commanding Officer of Canada’s Air force, Angus Watt clearly states that Williams “was unusually calm, very logical, very rational” (McKeown, 2010) which add to the overall creepy sensation of the film, but also suggests that there could be something psychologically wrong. This comment also helps to illustrate how powerful of a figure Russell Williams is. To contrast with this, the media additionally uses the “ideal victim” in popular stories to draw the most attention. The ideal victim is a person that easily gets the “complete and legitimate status of being a victim” after being subject to an act of crime (Davies, Francis & Greer, 2008). These people are usually young children and elderly women, which is what this film focuses on to ensure that we really sympathize with the victims. In the film, families disclose how their young daughter’s undergarments were stolen; as well as how older women, while not yet elderly, were beaten and sexually abused. This helps the viewers to identify with the vulnerable and defenseless, and direct our compassion towards them (Davies, Francis & Greer, 2008), and direct our anger at