The prosecutor who secured Jeffrey Dahmer’s conviction isn’t buying the Netflix spin suggesting Milwaukee police officers may have intentionally ignored clues in the case because the victims were black or gay.
According to an article posted by entertainment website TMZ early on Wednesday, former Milwaukee County District Attorney Michael McCann fired back after Netflix’s series appeared to suggest that racism and homophobia may have led police officers to slow-walk parts of the investigation into the notorious serial killer.
McCann reportedly told the outlet that “the notion that MPD officers turned a blind eye to Dahmer’s victims because of their race or sexual orientation is ludicrous, despite what ‘Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’ portrays.”
The former district attorney said that he had not yet watched the Netflix offering — but that he had heard enough about it to know that the producers had adopted an anti-police approach and were framing officers as being racist and homophobic.
McCann insisted that Dahmer’s modus operandi (MO) relied on protecting his privacy and leaving very few — if any — traces that could have led police to him at an earlier date. He went on to reiterate that “neither race nor sexual orientation had influenced how police investigated Dahmer.”
The Netflix show has also received a fair amount of criticism from others as well. The family of one of Dahmer’s victims called it “cruel” and “retraumatizing,” asking why there even needed to be another retelling of Dahmer’s story.
“I’m not telling anyone what to watch, I know true crime media is huge rn, but if you’re actually curious about the victims, my family (the Isbell’s) are pissed about this show. It’s retraumatizing over and over again, and for what? How many movies/shows/documentaries do we need?” Eric Perry tweeted, adding, “Like recreating my cousin having an emotional breakdown in court in the face of the man who tortured and murdered her brother is WILD. WIIIIIILD.”
Like recreating my cousin having an emotional breakdown in court in the face of the man who tortured and murdered her brother is WILD. WIIIIIILD.
— eric. (@ericthulhu) September 22, 2022
Despite the fact that Dahmer was gay and the series’ effort to portray police as homophobic, more complaints came from social media and members of the LGBTQ community — many of whom argued, “This is not the representation we’re looking for.” The backlash led Netflix to remove the “LGBTQ” tag from the streaming platform, classifying the show as “Crime TV Shows” and “Social Issue Drama” instead.