I'm repeating myself,but Elliot Stabler from Law & Order is a bad cop.

[hedgehog]

How many times have we seen him beating a suspect upon arrest or during interrogation? But, what about all the other cops who know this is what he does, and cover up for him? On a program that prides itself on being close to reality, this may be the most real aspect.

How many times have we heard a fictional cop yelling "Stop or I'll shoot!" Yet, as far as I know, no one is allowed to shoot a fleeing suspect in real life.

[aikoaiko]

1. Call Dick Wolf, RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!

[jehop61]

2. And don't you just "love"

when the brilliant computer geek back in the office types a few keys on a computer and finds all kinds of private, personal information about a suspect. What, no need for a warrant?

[el_bryanto]

3. Most Cop Shows have an element of right wing fantasy about them

if the main point of them is for the cops to catch "bad guys." I'm watching Hawaii 5-0 (the new one) and while I generally enjoy it, it's hard not to miss the message that Cops should be allowed to do whatever they like (and all military folk are above reproach).

There are exceptions of course, shows in which the point is the cops themselves more than catching bad guys. The Wire and from what I remember of Hill Street Blues were a bit like that.

Bryant

[ScreamingMeemie]

12. Criminal Minds drives me nuts with that. Penelope can type in the most

ridiculous things... (for example: People with blue hair who bought Vespa scooters and own Great Danes who got divorced in 1963 before signing up in the military and buying a 10 acre property with a helicopter landing pad)

and BAM! There's a hit!

[bigwillq]

28. BWAH!

This is hysterical.

[ScreamingMeemie]

29. As much as I have loved the show over the years, those phone calls to Penelope

drive me nuts. I wish they would cut the forced, cutesy "baby girl" stuff as well.

Honestly, who knew you could start out with a whole list of people that pop right up in a computer and narrow it down with the most inane stuff?

Don't get me started on how The Following and The Blacklist make the FBI look like the Keystone Cops.

[bigwillq]

35. I love the "baby girl" stuff

I love the flirty relationship between Garcia and Morgan. Maybe because I love Shemar Moore.

But, yeah, it's a bit unbelievable. lol

Never watched Following or Blacklist.

[ScreamingMeemie]

36. It seems utterly fake and forced to me.

I think Shemar Moore is amazing to look at, but I don't like his character at all.

[bigwillq]

37. One of the few things we disagree on.

I like the Morgan character.

[DrDan]

4. wow - is this not carrying police-outrage a tad far? It is a TV show. One that can be turned off.

[RedCappedBandit]

5. It is a TV show which reflects and informs culture.

[DrDan]

10. it is TV fiction - most can distinguish the difference - his abuse is not glamorized ala Dirty Harry

[hedgehog]

6. The point is that we and the cops are encultured to accept a certain

amount of police brutality. (Not to mention- they always arrest the right guy first time!)

[DrDan]

9. I love Law and Order - and still do not think police brutality should be tolerated even though I

watch the show frequently.

sorry

[RedCappedBandit]

13. Does TV affect social mores?

[DrDan]

25. as does any media and personal interaction - so does that mean we censor anything that "we"

see as disturbing?

[tularetom]

7. I've maintained that for years

Munch and Fin are skeptical, sometimes even hostile toward him but when the shit hits the fan (once in a great while this happens), they all sort of close ranks. Olivia knows too, but her loyalty to her partner makes her turn a blind eye.

I recall one or two episodes where Kragen got his tit in a wringer because of some cowboy shit that Stabler pulled.

IIRC, Stabler was supposed to be the son of a cop with anger issues who abused him. Doesn't excuse his behavior but it might explain it.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

8. Well, Law and Order:SVU is a bad show, so....

I mean, it's atrocious. Horrible. Sensationalistic, melodramatic, poorly written and mediocre acting. The only thing even closely good about that show was Richard Belzer's Munch, and even that was an extremely watered down version of the Munch character that we saw on the infinitely better "Homicide: Life on the Street."

The original "Law and Order" had some value, but the SVU version is complete excrement.

[GeorgeGist]

11. Agreed ...

my wife loves to have it on during 'marathons'. I leave the room.

[msanthrope]

15. Homicide was sooooooo much better. Did I ever tell you how

I was an extra? One of my jobs during college was working at the Baltimore city morgue. I ended up in an episode of Homicide being one of the extras..... a junkie who overdosed on heroin. I have to go look up the episode. it was the first season I remember that.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

16. I once applied to be an extra, actually.

But just after they applied they announced that it was the last season, so never happened for me.

[msanthrope]

20. if you lived in Fells Point or butchers hill you

became an extra by default.....it was a fun time to be living in Baltimore.

[libodem]

17. Total exploitation

Of humankind's morbid curiosity about perverted deviants.

Sex sells, even if the heros are saving the victim, we are still exposed to sick, twisted, illegal sexual exploits. Who wants to go there every effing night of the week in reruns and a new weekly one to boot.

Yuck!

[Savannahmann]

14. That is one of the things I mentioned in another thread a couple weeks ago.

Part of the problem is the perception of the police, which often stems from entertainment media. Think about it, has Elliot Stabler ever beaten an innocent guy? Did the out of control cops on Lethal Weapon ever beat, or shoot a person who was innocent while they were rampaging through the streets of Los Angeles? When Stallone played a cop, even a brutal cop who was a hair short of being an executioner in Cobra ever shoot someone who wasn't a baddie?

That's the thing about entertainment media. The cops break the rules, but they do so for a good reason. They know who is guilty, and act only when they must to protect the innocents. Or they are strict by the book officers who are trained extensively to be professional in all things.

Think about it for a moment. If there is a bad cop, say one of the baddies in the Lethal Weapon franchise, then the other cops are working around the clock to catch him. Or the cop had one moment of weakness in an otherwise long and distinguished career of always doing what's right as in the movie Black Rain. He took the money, that one time, just once. Internal affairs was busy trying to bust him for it, as if they are constantly busy rooting out the bad guys with badges.

So that is about all the interaction that most people have with police with the possible exception of a traffic ticket, or a talk while they were in school about the dangers of drugs. Otherwise they want to believe that the cops in the movies, and on TV are somehow supernaturally gifted with the ability to know who the bad guy is.

Even now, the officers in North Charleston understand that good old Michael got busted. But hey, he has a family and he has a baby on the way, and this could have happened to any of us. He's a great guy, backed me up when I responded to that bar fight, and he made sure nobody bashed me on the head when I was trying to arrest that big biker. The us versus them mentality in short.

So the idea that most cops are good people who might do a bad thing now and then, but only for the right reasons is cemented into the minds of a large number of people. They just don't want to believe that their loved one who is a cop, or their neighbor who is a cop is one of those bad guys.

More people are waking up. More people are starting to realize that the cops aren't the saints we want to believe them to be. Perhaps in another generation, we will start holding the cops responsible for their actions, and demanding more from those who are empowered by the citizenry.

[hedgehog]

38. Waaay more articulate than my OP - Thankyou

[Paladin]

18. What about Donnie Wahlberg's character on "Blue Bloods"?

I didn't see a single episode (back when I occasionally watched the series) where his character, detective Donny Reagan, didn't go violent on a suspect. At least Elliot Stabler appears to be fully human; Donny Reagan doesn't appear to be able to get around without the use of his knuckles.....

[ScreamingMeemie]

30. I have not watched much of the show, but the episodes I have watched

appear to show a range from crooked to upstanding cops within a family and a precinct in "Blue Bloods." I enjoy the show very much, but I'm trying not to become "that girl with the 1100 shows on her DVR.

I agree with you. They still run the show like that too with the odd character-actor cop.

[Paladin]

33. Don't get into a drinking game over "Blue Bloods."

If you have to drink a shot every time Donnie beats the shit out of somebody, you'll be marginally alright. But if you have to down one every time Tom Sellick---30 years and 40 pounds later, 3-piece suit and maybe 3 different severely striped ties in all---gives out one of his loud, through-the-nose sighs about what a burden being the commish is---you'll be gone before the show is half over......

[itcfish]

19. I've seen

Cops beat a guy who was handcuffed and could be no danger to them. I screamed for them to stop and they told be to keep going and mind my own business. This was before cameras on cell phones. I would have filmed them.

Stabler is a sweetheart compared to these guys.

[TreasonousBastard]

21. Stabler's been gone for a while...

He burned out a season or two ago. And while he was around nobody egged him on when he was beating on a suspect-- most of the time they pulled him off.

I never liked Stabler, but I gotta admit the show is one of my guilty pleasures. Of course it's not real, but I don't watch TV for real. I watch it for characters and plot and that Star Trek type of amateur moralizing. All of it in spades in SVU.

Oh, and Casey Novack-- about the hottest ADA of many hot ADA's on TV.

[NuclearDem]

31. He hasn't been on the show in years.

Contract disputes between management and Meloni. They wrote him off at the beginning of season 13 by saying the events of the season 12 finale drove him to retire.

Which is a shame. I liked him.

[aikoaiko]

22. Anti-heroes: someone doing wrong to save you from something worse.

Its a powerful and popular archetype in fiction and nonfiction.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

24. Well, some anti-heroes.

Other anti-heroes are just bad guys amongst other bad guys whom you've grown emotionally attached to as a result of them being the central character. Such as Tony Soprano or Walter White.

[aikoaiko]

26. I would say that Tony and Walter were sympathetic due to their commitment to family.

it doesn't make their behavior good, but I think it their love of their family that made them anti-heroes instead of just bad men.

[SheilaT]

23. The essential problem is that too many people think that what they see on TV shows

accurately represents reality. It's why a lot of people really do think torture works to get accurate information. They watch "24". I know that all too often something is shown on TV that I already know something about, and they've gotten it wrong. Most of the time there's no need to get it wrong, it's not needed for the plot to work. In "24" if the torture didn't work there wouldn't be much of a show. If the cops on TV shows didn't beat up the suspect there wouldn't be much of a show.

Actually, I never watch cop shows, and I didn't get past the first six episodes of the first season of "24", so I'm not much of an expert on such shows. But I do know how rarely many shows -- and movies, let's not forget about them -- get it wrong.

[yeoman6987]

27. I love Law and Order SVU but he did get carried away especially with child molesters

But he was called out on it at times. His character has left the show a while back so justice works even on a fictional show. I forgot how his character left the show.

[stevenleser]

32. You almost have to grade on a curve these days. He never killed anyone or maimed them...

and his acts did not seem to be crimes of bias due to race, religion, orientation, etc.

Compared to some police we see these days, he was doing well.

[Paladin]

34. I think Meloni is a good actor, but he helped his career along with those "Oz" shower scenes.

"Oz" being HBO's prison drama from years ago.