Judge, Jury and Executioner Voyeurism and Vigilantism in Alex Roberts and Daniel Leclair’s The Meddler
When German Cabrera narrates his life in The Meddler (Alex Roberts & Daniel Leclair, 2020), he posits himself as a man on a mission. He may be a dumpy middle-aged mechanic in a polo shirt, fishing vest and dad cap – a father of five from a rundown neighbourhood in Guatemala City – but, in his mind, he’s a virtuous vigilante, the crusading hero of his own story. ‘They call me The Meddler,’ he says – so named, supposedly, for going into ‘places where he doesn’t belong’.
Cabrera is essentially a pro bono stringer for news networks, an ambulance chaser and real-life Nightcrawler1 who comes running, video camera in hand, when the police scanner reports on violent crime. That’s a near-nightly occurrence in a city in which life is cheap, corruption is rife and police are a mixture of clueless, powerless, paid off and scared. It’s a Guatemalan Gotham (‘In 2013, there were 2100 recorded homicides in Guatemala City,’ an opening title card reads. ‘98% of these crimes were unprosecuted. It was the 12th most violent city in the world’), and The Meddler is the hero twenty-four-hour news networks deserve.
‘I believe God has put me on this Earth for a reason. To shine a light on our injustice. To stop the violence before it arrives at my family’s door,’ Cabrera states, seeming, at times, as if he’s
