[Peace-discuss] Exciting new TV series

[LAURIE SOLOMON]

Well Neil you are correct that not every show glorifies the abuses or
liberties taken by the authorities; but the nature of entertainment is such
that they do tend to want to offer up caricatures in which excitement,
action, etc. are all put into a limited time frame where a realistic
depiction of events in an ordinary day would be boring entertainment.  Most
of the actions by authorities or anyone else can be rationalized and
typically is rationalized by those who take the actions.  There are only a
few instances where rationalizations legitimizing and action is hard to come
by or not offered by the authorities in question.  The problem is that most
if not all the TV shows tend to rationalize and legitimize the abuses and
liberties which the authorities take for those authorities which thereby
suggests that "authority has its privileges" in the form of always being
justified in taking short cuts and working under the premise that the "ends
justify the means" except in very unusual circumstances where the actors are
portrayed as evil. The ends pursue are always portrayed as good and
righteous even if the way they are achieved leave something to be desired;
they never call into question the ends themselves. It is in this way that
shows glorify state authority, while even sometimes condemning the
individual behaviors of the enforcement personnel as individuals or as
groups of people.

 

Barney Miller was probably one of the more accurate portrayals of what
happens within the confines of a police station and of the human qualities
of the personnel - it is funny, it is sad; it shows incompetence and
reasonableness; it shows practical organizational and personal motivations
of the actors  as well as the ideologically generated motivations.  Another
was the British show with Rowan Atkinson, The Thin Blue Line, which was more
a comedy than a drama.  As for what happens on the streets, Hill Street
Blues  and NYPD Blue were probably the most accurate portrayals of normal
policing, although even these shows did not truly show the amount of time
doing paperwork or engaging in boring activities like stakeouts and
patrolling the streets on slow shifts. None of them glorified state
authority or treated abuses and liberties taken by personnel as a routine
everyday matter that makes up the daily work-a-day world of enforcement
agencies and personnel.

 

Like it or not, most typical law enforcement personnel are bureaucrats and
are focused on the practical task of just getting through the day without
making additional work and trouble for themselves in a fashion in which the
perform in socially acceptable (within the organization) and
organizationally satisfactorily ways so as not to become the focus of
political, legal, organizational attention within and outside of the agency
that they work for.  The rouges and cowboys who might engage in the
behaviors that define good TV entertainment frequently do not last long
because they are loose cannons that are unpredictable and unreliable,
self-interested and self-centered players which other officers view as
trouble and dangerous so as not to want to work with them.  If and when they
do manage to survive and thrive, it is often because the agency has put them
together in an isolated special unit where they wind up supporting, feeding,
and encouraging each other to act out.  That is why so many special elite
units tend to get into trouble and  become the center of citizen complaints
and serious organizational  and legal corruption.

From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net
[mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Neil Parthun
Sent: Friday, December 26, 2008 12:50 PM
To: jencart13 at yahoo.com
Cc: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net; LAURIE SOLOMON
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Exciting new TV series

 

While it is tempting to say that the showing of abuses in a new police show
is more of the same, I think it is also important to look at the tenor of
the "liberties" being taken by the authorities in the show.

 

For instance, one of the shows that has grown on me before the series ended
was "The Shield".  Yes, there was rampant corruption, murders being
undertaken by the police and brutal illegalities.  However, the show also
showed the realities as to why certain officers would do things -- for
instance, one officer stole money to help pay for his child's autism
treatments and provide retirement/legacy for their children.

 

The show was not about heroification but all the brutal shades of gray that
are involved in the situations.  Hell, if this show was out to glorify state
authority, they wouldn't have had one of the ignoble cops about to be busted
for the corruption commit a double murder suicide (his child, wife and
himself) as the police were about to arrest him for corruption.

 

While there certainly are pro-torture idiocy propaganda shows out there
**cough 24 cough**, not every show depicting cops is a rah-rah show
promoting the positives of state authority.  We should take these shows on
an individual basis and their own merits rather than trying to lump them all
together.

 

Just my .02

 

Live without dead time,     

     Neil

 

 With the people, for the people, by the people. I crack up when I hear it;
I say, with the handful, for the handful, by the handful because that's what
really happens.

[fannie lou hamer, 1917-1977]

 

Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience...Our
problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of
poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is
that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all
the while the grand thieves are running and robbing the country. That's our
problem.

[howard zinn, 1922-]

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