After watching The Thin Blue Line (1988), I felt that the director, Errol Morris, wanted to send a message about the moral line that police agencies come close to when assessing cases of murder and other serious offenses. In case with the Dallas County Police Department, they wanted to pin down someone for the murder 1982 murder of a police officer. Since they didn’t have much evidence at the start, they kept pressuring Randall Adams to falsely admit to a crime he didn’t commit, as well as threatening him to comply. As the documentary went on, it seems that the police department was more focused on getting Adams to be guilty because they wanted someone to take the blame, since the case was getting longer than usual and more expensive. But based on Harris’ friends accounts, I think Harris is the one who shot the officer, as one friend stated that he bragged about killing a police officer when he was hanging out with him. Maybe the police didn’t try him before because they assume a 16-year old (at the time) wouldn’t commit such crimes, but I have a strong feeling they arrested Randall, because he was a guy who wouldn’t raise much suspicion from others if they claimed he killed an officer.
