Wednesday, February 14, 2007

COP SHOW PITCH: "THE ONES THAT GOT-AWAY"

TV--I hate cop shows. I know, hard to believe, but don't they have that "better you than me, asshole!" quality to them? They engender a hatred among working-class people for each other that basically-sucks. Where are the white-collar crime shows? Forget America's Most Wanted--I want a show about the guys who got-away (like John Dillinger, Klaus Barbie, and Joseph Mengele). Cop shows spread the lie that "crime doesn't pay", which is untrue. Crime pays, and it pays well if the stakes are high enough to pay-off the "guardians of justice." Ahem.

Abel Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant" was a tourist-trip, and Police corruption has a long and storied history in America. The first cops in NYC were hired as thugs to keep desperately poor people from robbing bank couriers and the idle-rich. I say share the love if there's inequality. No, it's not an appeal to break-the-law, it's just time to share the love. Either share the wealth, or get robbed, accosted, or even killed. Complainers. All the cops do is contain the poor and the rest of us. Law and order are for people without any power, the schmucks, the law and order dopes. Well, "schmucks" to the wealthiest and all the other sundry criminals, and myself.

It would be a statistical-error to have a show that presented what I suggest, because cop shows are about conditioning all of us to respect the absolute rights of property. No, not your stupid CD-collection or your stereo, but luxury-items like food, shelter, energy to heat a home, etc. For those who do what they gotta do to survive, I salute you! You're not half-as-stupid as the American Middle Class--or what's left of it. Finally, I would love to see a show about "Bad Cops." No brotherhood of silence here, let's open the curtains. Some of the biggest criminals are "respectable", and law and order are subjective phantasms with little substance in these United States of America.

About the Bad Lieutenant again: why are the Police unions so afraid of any portrayal of Police corruption in a motion picture? The movie wasn't about Police corruption, it was about the last-act of redemption of a man who is doomed. Ferrara wanted to explore what would happen to someone from witnessing death and mayhem, day-after-day, for years. If anything, The Bad Lieutenant was sympathetic to the problems faced by cops who have been on the job for too-long. It's healthy to know that corruption exists in the modern world, and portrayals of them are justified on by the common good they can provide. It's better to know, it really is.

4 comments:

  1. hey matt- you might be interested in this for some material for your blog:

    the South Bend Police Dept. holds its Citzen's Police Academy March 13-June 5. (Tuesdays 6-830pm)

    its free and they ask that you commit to attending at least 10 of 13 classes.

    a friend of mine went through a class like this in boston and then wrote about police issues (including his citizen's police academy 'education') from a radical/anarchist perspective for a local paper...

    im planning on attending.

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  2. Sounds cool, thanks Karl. When do you have to register?

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  3. not sure about a 'register by' date - if you google search 'south bend citizen's police academy' or similar i think it provides some info- otherwise i have a name/phone of the officer in charge of it that i can pass along to you via email if you're interested.

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