Rating: ****
Better this World is a rather disingenuous title. On the one hand, it is about young
people trying to make the world a better place, but on the other it’s about how
those ideals can be betrayed by a paranoid government, a opportunistic
informant, and two young guys from George W. Bush country in Texas who pave
their own road to hell with good intentions. Against the background of the
madness and protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, MN, David McKay
and Bradley Crowder found themselves in a world of trouble, just by following
their passion and fighting for what’s right.
The story starts in Texas, where David
and Brad meet up in Midland and bond over their shared convictions in social justice and
opposition to the war. The meet a charismatic activist named Brandon Darby, who
had just come off months of helping survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans keep
their homes and rebuild their lives. In the summer of 2008, Darby invited David
and Brad to join him in Minneapolis as part of the Republican Welcoming Committee, helping to disrupt
the GOP’s activities in the Twin Cities.
What Brad, David, or anyone that was part
of their group didn’t realized was that Darby was an FBI informant, who, while
helping to organize disruption activities with his group, was actually narcing
on them as well. David and Brad were arrested and put on trial in Federal
Court. They tried to argue entrapment, and that Darby, while acting as an agent
of the government, convinced good people to plan violent acts so that he could
report them and have them arrested as terrorists.
Directors Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de
la Vega tell the story in a very straight-forward manner, but with incredible
access to family, friends and associates of David and Brad, as well as members
of law enforcement that were involved in the case. Everyone tells their story
plainly, and what’s interesting is that there is a lot of agreement on the
details. Where people disagree is the intent of the investigation. Both David
and Brad admit that they probably would have committed to their plan to bomb a
jumbotron with Molotov cocktails without being egged on by Darby. But if Darby
hadn’t been leading them by the wrists, so to speak, up to that point, would
they have taken their activism that far?
Better This World has a lot to say about the legal process, the definition of entrapment,
the nature of government obsessed with security and stretching those
definitions to near ridiculous degrees. Interestingly, while the convictions of
David and Brad seem as strong as ever, Darby has forsaken community organizing
for fleeting fame on right-wing radio. Trying to portray himself as a patriot
to the very people he was fighting against just a few years ago? I guess the
first casualty of war protests, in Darby’s case, is your convictions.
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