So there’s a lot of…everything happening and with the everything there has certainly been some changes in the way we consume media. With the rise in publicized violence against mostly unarmed black people at the hands of the police for…reasons there seems to be an unexpected victim in this call for police reform: cop shows.
Now, let’s get one thing straight: I like Live PD. It became a staple of my media diet while watching a marathon of it once during a convention with my best friend and we were instantly taken in by the blatant crimes on television as well as the antics of those involved. It was like COPS but with a lot less of the racism and transphobia. But it’s also blatant copaganda (cop propaganda). Live PD is very focused on all the good cops doing good things and helping people and not shooting innocent unarmed black men and using framing to push a narrative that bad guys are bad, cops are good and drugs are the worst thing on earth while trying to show us the human side of the police with heartwarming stories of danger, “saving” communities and “selfless” behavior.
And I understand that the police do serve a function in society and that they do more for the community than I ever could as a fat, Black, queer writer but as someone who has had personal scary run-ins with the cops because I am Black…I am also very aware of the fact that copaganda is targeted to make all of us feel like there isn’t a fire in the house while the blaze rages.
It started with COPS being canceled in the wake of George Floyd’s murder to which I was mostly shocked COPS was still on but I was a bit shocked that the movement took Live PD with it. So for now, I’m ignoring the story that cops in Austin told Live PD producers to destroy evidence of a shooting of an unarmed black man but we’re just gonna talk about media criticism, copaganda and why these shows may no longer have a place in our lexicon.
I’ve always stated that my opinion on the matter of cops shooting unarmed black men is simple: I am not inherently anti-cop, I am pro-staying alive. And while after the more recent string of watching police in riot gear blatantly break the law is getting me very close to ACAB territory, I do still believe that on a whole the profession does try to be noble and that bad apples exist on a very inherently flawed tree. But the stories of cops coming into black neighborhoods isn’t new, the stories of cops killing innocent black men and women aren’t new, the stories of men and women having their lives ruined thanks to police violence aren’t new. Thanks to social media, though, we all can witness these stories. I can see in real time atrocities, misjustice, murder and fear. I can see my people being killed. I can see journalists being blinded. I can see police cars driving into crowds.
These aren’t legends anymore to scary young black children into behaving, they are realities that are now out for the whole world to witness.
And with those videos so clearly plastered in my mind and all over my social media feed: I don’t have the energy for stories about “nice” cops that helped a kitten out of a tree or see “good community policing”. Sure, there are good cops, but there’s also way too many bad ones for me to even be able to voyeuristically enjoy seeing the good ones stand by and do nothing.
And apparently enough people in this zeitgeist agree with me.
I think copaganda shows will be back. When; I couldn’t tell you, but they will be back. But right now a lot of us can’t breathe and we certainly don’t have the stomach to watch hours of show that makes cops look like the universal good guys when clearly that is just not the reality of the situation.
