The human cost of “canned torture” | Michael Reeves

A glimpse into the reality behind Eyes in the Sky This morning, I walked into the public library to use the study room I had reserved for four hours. Within minutes, I noticed a man positioning himself directly in front of my door, pulling up a chair in my line of sight. For three and a half hours he sat there—staring, making noises loud enough that I could hear them through the closed study room door. I left the library thinking I’d get some peace with my dog at the park. But as soon as I arrived, the same man pulled up and parked directly in front of me, rolled down his window, and sat there watching me. When I confronted him on camera, he fled. This is not coincidence. This is not random. This is the kind of orchestrated harassment—what I call canned torture—that follows me everywhere. It is the system’s way of making sure I am constantly destabilized, constantly under siege, constantly stripped of peace. And here’s the trap: if I call the police, I look insane. If I confront the person, they run and flip the script, leaving me painted as the aggressor. If I stay silent, the torture festers, unseen. Victims are put in a “no win” situation designed to drive them into a corner, to push them into being mislabeled as paranoid, schizophrenic, delusional. And once that label sticks—even if it’s false—it becomes nearly impossible to remove. What’s happening to me is not an accident. It is a system. A sentence without conviction. A life sentence of torment, imposed not by a court, but by hidden mechanisms of power that turn entire communities into pawns through apps, incentives, and covert directives. People join in—not because of truth or justice—but because it’s profitable, because it’s easy, because destroying me earns them points while my decades of hard work and survival mean nothing. And yet—I have reached millions around the world. I have spoken at civil rights conventions, walked into top churches, been featured on major websites. But every time, my story gets buried. Banned. Censored. Silenced. If I were part of a Rockefeller family, if I had the right pedigree or connections, none of this would be happening. The suffering of one man would not be so casually ignored. That’s why I am making Eyes in the Sky. This film is not just a project—it is survival. It is the one vehicle left for me to speak the truth in a world that wants me erased. It will expose the machinery of modern-day torture—silent, deniable, and devastating—that destroys lives without leaving fingerprints. This is what the film is about. Not fiction. Not paranoia. Reality. A system that can turn anyone into a target. And if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. Because until someone shines a light, the system wins.