In one sequence, then-Mayor Emanuel fails to quell student protesters fighting a police academy training project on the West Side. Throughout “City So Real” another story emerges, that of a city in which half the power structure and citizenry wonders what happened to the old guard and the niceties, while the other half pushes ahead with different agendas. (At one point one of them relays a stunningly heartless police shooting joke.) Elsewhere in that footage one of the men, not identified on screen, starts an anecdote with a casual: “I know a guy that shot a guy.” In the space of maybe a minute, James captures the bone-deep bitterness so many in law enforcement feel about the judicial system - as well as the bone-deep fear of police so many Chicagoans cannot shake. In Bridgeport, meanwhile, three regulars stop in for some doughnuts and a little retired-cop humor.
