Pro or Anti Police

keith99

sola dosis facit venenum
Jan 16, 2008
22,884
6,556
71
✟318,590.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Single
Put here because I felt it fits best here.

This afternoon I was watching Blue Bloods (an American TV show set in New York, thus American Politics). The NY Fire Department was portrayed as a bunch of Jerks. Next up another episode. Marshals Service is portrayed even worse. I then realized that in a lot of Police and related shows the branch portrayed is portrayed as very very good. BUT almost any other part of the justice system is portrayed as very very bad. NCIS and Jag come to mind. With the interesting twist that they occasionally do crossovers and there is usually mistrust between the 2.

So is such pro or anti police?
 

Sabertooth

Repartee Animal: Quipping the Saints!
Supporter
Jul 25, 2005
10,491
7,061
62
Wisconsin
Visit site
✟952,359.00
Country
United States
Faith
Charismatic
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Others
That happens in a lot of our TV shows, most notably police on private investigator TV shows and vice versa. It just depends on who the protagonist is.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Brightmoon
Upvote 0

Ana the Ist

Aggressively serene!
Feb 21, 2012
37,386
11,317
✟433,395.00
Country
United States
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Married
Put here because I felt it fits best here.

This afternoon I was watching Blue Bloods (an American TV show set in New York, thus American Politics). The NY Fire Department was portrayed as a bunch of Jerks. Next up another episode. Marshals Service is portrayed even worse. I then realized that in a lot of Police and related shows the branch portrayed is portrayed as very very good. BUT almost any other part of the justice system is portrayed as very very bad. NCIS and Jag come to mind. With the interesting twist that they occasionally do crossovers and there is usually mistrust between the 2.

So is such pro or anti police?

I've got no idea what you're asking here. The general portrayal of police on tv?
 
Upvote 0

HTacianas

Well-Known Member
Jul 9, 2018
8,458
8,967
Florida
✟321,765.00
Country
United States
Faith
Eastern Orthodox
Marital Status
Single
Put here because I felt it fits best here.

This afternoon I was watching Blue Bloods (an American TV show set in New York, thus American Politics). The NY Fire Department was portrayed as a bunch of Jerks. Next up another episode. Marshals Service is portrayed even worse. I then realized that in a lot of Police and related shows the branch portrayed is portrayed as very very good. BUT almost any other part of the justice system is portrayed as very very bad. NCIS and Jag come to mind. With the interesting twist that they occasionally do crossovers and there is usually mistrust between the 2.

So is such pro or anti police?

That is a device writers use to "create conflict" in their story. It's a technical aspect of screenwriting. To answer your question, it's neither pro nor anti police, it's just meant to make the story more interesting.
 
Upvote 0

Sabertooth

Repartee Animal: Quipping the Saints!
Supporter
Jul 25, 2005
10,491
7,061
62
Wisconsin
Visit site
✟952,359.00
Country
United States
Faith
Charismatic
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Others
That is a device writers use to "create conflict" in their story. It's a technical aspect of screenwriting.
The conflicting character who is not the antagonist is known as the "foil."
 
  • Informative
Reactions: jacks
Upvote 0

Ana the Ist

Aggressively serene!
Feb 21, 2012
37,386
11,317
✟433,395.00
Country
United States
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Married
That is a device writers use to "create conflict" in their story. It's a technical aspect of screenwriting. To answer your question, it's neither pro nor anti police, it's just meant to make the story more interesting.

Like Chris Tucker in the first half of Rush Hour.....or Chris Tucker in The Fifth Element....or Chris Tucker in Friday.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Sabertooth
Upvote 0

Ada Lovelace

Grateful to scientists and all health care workers
Supporter
Jun 20, 2014
5,316
9,297
California
✟1,002,256.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
In Relationship
Put here because I felt it fits best here.

This afternoon I was watching Blue Bloods (an American TV show set in New York, thus American Politics). The NY Fire Department was portrayed as a bunch of Jerks. Next up another episode. Marshals Service is portrayed even worse. I then realized that in a lot of Police and related shows the branch portrayed is portrayed as very very good. BUT almost any other part of the justice system is portrayed as very very bad. NCIS and Jag come to mind. With the interesting twist that they occasionally do crossovers and there is usually mistrust between the 2.

So is such pro or anti police?

One of the reasons why the book The Hate U Give belongs on the very top of the bookshelf I keep in my heart of the most beloved and meaningful books to me is because it's honest. With the exception of one character none are purely noble or ignoble, villainous or heroic, always competent or inept, but fallible people. The irony of it is that I first picked the book up at the library in early 2018 - before it exploded to the top of the YA bestseller list at a rate so fast it could have only gotten there quicker if launched by SpaceX - because I quite literally judged the book by the cover. It captivated my attention. I don't read the jackets of fictional books I read for leisure because I want to discover everything myself, so I began it with no information but the cover. But the book itself is about the harm caused by metaphorically judging books by their cover. And the book was judged by its cover, not literally by its cover, but because it's about a white police officer who fatally shoots an unarmed black teenage boy he had misjudged as a threat to him, while his childhood friend, Starr (the protagonist of the book) watches helpless and terrified. It was presumed that the book negatively portrayed police officers as violent, racist, predatory on black men. It was presumably presumed this by people who never actually read the whole book for themselves.....

When some high school English classes assigned the book as summer reading last year - which was completely brilliant because it was a book kids were wanting to read anyways, and with the movie coming out in the fall it was an ideal time - there was an uproar. People were furious that "kids were being taught to fear the police" or that the police "were the ones portrayed as "the thugs.'" If the condemners had actually read the book they'd know that one of the heroes of it is a police officer! Not the officer that shoots the kid. That one actually plays a tiny role in the book, despite his actions being the catalyst for the story. He only actually appears on a couple of pages out of the whole book. There's a part where his father is on a national news show defending him in an interview as someone who is a good person, but he doesn't make another appearance. Starr's uncle Carlos is a police officer and a second father to her. He is a pillar to her life. The only time he is violent is when he gets into a fight with another police officer because he's so infuriated that his niece had been treated so roughly - thrown to the grown and handcuffed when she understandably began screaming in horror after her friend is shot in front of her and bleeding out. He's otherwise gentle, caring, unwaveringly decent. In the book even more so than the movie because a pivotal character in the adaptation is omitted. That character is a boy who is a fugitive not from the police but by the ruthless kingpin of the gang that terrorizes the community (and he's the book's one consistent villain), and wants him killed because he'd been initiated and then wanted out - is taken in by Carlos and his wife who live in a nice suburban area a safe distance away. There are scenes of other police officers behaving with unwarranted force and aggression but they are just bit parts in the book, unnamed. And ultimately it's Carlos earning the trust of the boy he takes in who leads to him giving trust to police officers and them taking action that hugely benefits the community. (Again, only in the book, which is exponentially superior to the movie).

The pity of the outcry about the book is that the opportunity it gave for meaningful discussion on "both sides" was overlooked. The book begins with Starr remembering a lesson her parents gave to her at an early age about how to behave towards police officers if they are ever stopped. To be respectful, obedient, keep your hands where they can be seen. It's a lesson that does need to be taught for the benefit of all. Later in the book Carlos explains from his perspective the fear police officers feel about the unknown. I DM'd a local police officer who seemed friendly on Instagram, explained all the above to him, and asked if he'd be willing to come and talk to my little sisters' book club, and he did!

Sorry for not really directly answering your questions. I'm doing one of late-hour my mind unwinds. I did watch an episode of Blue Bloods after you told me about it. In the one I watched the mom who is the ADA, the one adult member of the family of police officers who isn't one, is criticized for her job a bit. I've seen parts of NCIS because my grandparents watch it but I haven't paid enough attention to know anything about it, and I've never heard of the other show you mention. I've watched Chicago Fire, about firefighters, and Chicago PD, about police officers, but just one episode each. They were so boring. In general I don't think I like those types of shows basically for the reason you described, to me they tend to be formulaic and one-dimensional without a lot of complexity. Btw, since I watched your show you should read my book.
 
  • Winner
Reactions: Go Braves
Upvote 0