WEBVTT - Copaganda 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.240 On theme is a production of iHeartRadio and fair Weather 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:12.880 Friends Media. You Are. 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:31.800 Lights Camera. For decades, Hollywood has been setting the stage 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:34.440 for a real life horror show playing out in our cities. 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:38.839 With each heroic cop character, each criminal taken down in 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:42.080 a blaze of glory, the silver screen has reinforced a 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.279 dangerous myth that police can do no wrong, that they 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.400 are the infallible protectors we need more of on our streets. 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:52.479 From Beverly Hills Cop to Bad Boys Rush Hour to 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:56.360 Ride Along, a fictionalized narrative of noble warriors waging an 0:00:56.400 --> 0:01:00.000 endless war on crime has been burned into our collective psyche. 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:05.760 But now the curtain is being pulled back on this 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:10.720 decade's long propaganda campaign we call copaganda. As communities rally 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:14.520 against the construction of urban police facilities like Atlanta's Cop City, 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:17.120 we can trace the roots of public acceptance for the 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:20.720 very concept back to our favorite TV shows in Blockbuster films. 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:25.399 On this episode Copaganda City, we'll examine how copaganda has 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:29.880 manufactured consent for the rapid expansion and militarization of law 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:33.880 enforcement across America. How the blurring of entertainment and reality 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:35.920 has led us to this dangerous crossroads. 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:37.880 I'm Katie and I'm Eves. 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:40.600 You'll never look at your favorite cop drama the same 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:41.120 way again. 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:42.679 You know. 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:45.200 I love to define terms so that we're all on 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:47.960 the same page. How would you define copaganda? 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:52.160 Uh? I found a definition from Francesca Willow that I 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:55.080 think really nailed it. Francesca is a blogger who writes 0:01:55.080 --> 0:02:00.720 about sustainability and racial justice. So Francesco says, copaganda is 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:03.920 any form of media, news coverage, or social media content 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:06.720 that portrays police in law enforcement in favorable ways to 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.840 the public. The image of policing it creates often serves 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:13.440 to shield police from accountability and skeptical coverage. It boots 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:16.200 public relations of police departments and portrays a version of 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:21.160 policing that is dramatically different from reality, especially when it's 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:23.880 regarding the working class and other marginalized communities. 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:28.160 Okay, so copaganda can be in the news, movies, TV, 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:30.680 or even on Twitter and other social media. 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:34.640 Yeah, it's abundant, But that wasn't always the case. Before 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:37.560 the nineteen fifties, cops were often portrayed as bumbling fools 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:40.760 who couldn't do anything right, and that was aligned with 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.120 the public's perception of cops at the time. Take Charlie 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.359 Chaplin's nineteen seventeen Easy Street, for example, it was all 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:49.080 about the police failing to maintain law and order. But 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.760 TV shows like the nineteen fifties Dragnet established a formula 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:56.960 of depicting heroic white police officers defeating criminals who are 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:00.080 more often than not black or Latino. The LAPD. We 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.400 even reviewed Dragnet scripts before airy and required changes if 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:06.519 they disapproved of any elements ensuring it portrayed police favorably. 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:08.800 Okay, So they didn't even try to be subtle. 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:13.480 And now we have black copaganda. So I thought I'd 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.119 break down some common copaganda tropes we use seeing black 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.000 people and connect the trope back to its real world implications. 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:20.920 Sound good, Yeah, I'm cool with that. 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:27.160 Okay. So the first trope the woke cop. That sounds 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:31.400 oxymeronic to me. So the woke cop aims to portray 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.680 the pigs as enlightened allies who understand and empathize with 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:37.680 the struggles of the black community against systemic racism and 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:40.520 police brutality. Maybe they themselves have been the victim of 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:44.040 racism by other cops. Take, for example, Terry Cruise's character 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:47.280 in Brooklyn ninety nine. In season four, episode sixteen, Terry 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:51.320 Cruz's character, who is also named Terry, is racially profiled 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:53.160 while walking around his neighborhood after dark. 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:55.960 I was just walking down the street. 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:58.240 There's nothing suspicious or illegal about that. 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.640 Okay, you and I both you don't exactly look like 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:02.840 you belonged in that neighborhood. 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.480 I lived there. Terry goes to his boss, another black 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:11.200 and openly gay man, and Terry wants to file a complaint, 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:14.000 but his boss, Captain Holk, gives him this advice, the 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:16.279 most powerful action you can take is the rise through 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:18.400 the ranks so that you can make large scale changes. 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:22.120 Captain Holt convinces Terry to not file a report. So, 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:26.640 despite having firsthand knowledge of how cops unfairly target black folks, 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:30.120 their solution is to keep on keeping on. And that's 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.920 the problem with the woke cop. The woke cop never 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:37.480 actually takes meaningful action to dismantle the systemic racism. They acknowledge. 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.200 Their words are just empty rhetoric meant to placate viewers 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:43.320 and perpetuate the illusion of reform from within the system. 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.480 In the real world, this trope is insidious because it 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:49.440 creates the false impression that having more black officers who 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:53.800 get it is a solution. Rather than implementing comprehensive policy 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:57.600 changes and accountability measures. It reduces a systemic issue to 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:02.360 merely one of representation. Cop trope allows copaganda to pay 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:05.400 superficial tribute to the need for police reform without truly 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:09.440 challenging the rampant abuse of power, militarization, the lack of 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:13.520 transparency that plays law enforcement. It's a smoke screen that 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.280 preserves the racist status quo under the guise of understanding 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:20.640 the problems with policing. So, while seeming progressive on the surface, 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:24.240 this trope actually undermines radical change by perpetuating the myth 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:27.960 that enlightened individuals can fix these issues, issues that require 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.720 dismantling oppressive structures and holding police accountable. 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:34.080 Yeah, how wo can you get as a cop on 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:34.760 a TV show? 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:38.719 Like what is the peak of wokeness? What can a 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:39.160 cop do? 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:41.480 I think that's the thing. All it is is talk 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:44.560 like they can acknowledge, like oh this really messed up, 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:47.599 Like even they did this to me and I'm a cop, 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.719 Like you know what happened to the blue brotherhood. 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:53.159 They can't go any farther than that. 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:55.479 I don't think so. And I think we see this 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:59.640 in reality too. You know, you'll have people running as 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:03.719 the per agressive prosecutor, Like, you know, how how progressive 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:05.440 can you be if your job is locking eggs up? 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:07.560 Girl? 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:10.279 It's so interesting to me when you see people this 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:12.599 isn't in media, but in real life, speaking of real life, 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:15.400 who were like in the civil rights movement and like 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:19.800 literally fought fist fought cops and like turned into cops 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:22.799 later on, especially for like huge departments like the NYPD. 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.559 I just wonder, like what happened between then and now. 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:29.520 I know it's different for everybody, but I think if 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:32.480 there is a fictional account like that, could that person 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:35.000 be more of a woke cop because they were kind 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:37.200 of like woke before they were a cop. 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:38.040 What do you think about that? 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:41.720 No, Okay, I think it kind of goes to the 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.120 like bad apples, Like, oh, it's just like the bad 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:46.520 apples that we need to get rid of and then 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:48.880 everything will be good. But I think the system itself 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:50.760 is corrupting. So I do think there are people that 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:53.600 go into law enforcement thinking that they're going to make 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:55.560 a difference, they're going to be like officer friendly and 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:58.200 like everyone's going to love them. But we just see 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.200 like it's a systemic issue. So you could be a 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:03.800 good person in your heart, but one good person is 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:08.480 not going to change this, you know, decades long institution. 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:12.440 So like when you see like Terry Creuse's character, for example, 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:14.680 like wanting to say something, but his boss kind of 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:17.600 encouraging him to, you know, not make a fuss, And 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:21.360 it's really indicative of what you see in the real world, 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:23.880 the blue code of silence. I know in twenty twenty, 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:26.560 when a lot of people were talking about police brutality 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:29.200 in Atlanta, they called out with the blue flu like, 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:31.000 oh you don't want cops, Well, we're not going to 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:35.080 answer any emergency services. So like people are saying, hey, 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:37.680 stop killing black people, and your responses, well, that's my 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:39.440 whole job, so I'm gonna call out. I'm not going 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:41.880 to do anything. So I think it's a really interesting 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:44.720 interplay between the TV and the real world. 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:47.960 Do you mean that these cops are being affected by 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:50.080 propaganda that's spreading on social media? 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:53.080 What you mean in the instance you used. 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:55.880 Where there's a cop like saying, oh, y'all, y'all are 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:58.400 saying this, and I just won't. We'll just not show 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:00.440 up for the day. Like, do you think think part 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.280 of that is them being affected by like rhetoric that 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:08.480 they may misunderstand by being too deep into social media. 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:11.240 I don't think they misunderstand it. I think they understand 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.280 that first and foremost there are allegiance is with being 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:16.880 a cop, like when they say blue lives matter, like 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:18.800 there's no such thing as a blue life. Like you 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:22.640 are a human being, but you identify so much with 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.920 your job that you are willing to not do your 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:29.680 job if someone's saying, y'all aren't doing it correctly, you're 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:32.000 killing us, and we would like you to stop. And 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:34.680 that is so offensive to them because they identify so 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:35.840 much with this corrupt system. 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:38.440 Yeah, and they will often go into it under this 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:40.880 guise of like I'm helping people, I'm doing this for 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:43.719 a greater cause, and then tell on themselves when they 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:46.480 can't even handle being criticized, which is like, if there 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:51.160 is any position that you should be criticized, and it's 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:55.719 in it's one in which your motto or your supposed 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:58.439 guiding principle is to protect and serve. 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:02.080 I think they do. You protect and serve certain communities, 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:06.640 certain property owning communities. I think that's the true nature 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:10.760 of the police, is protecting property first and people third 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:16.280 or fourth, if at all, But black folks not on 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:20.520 their protect and serve list. Unfortunately, after the break, we're 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:32.240 debunking more copaganda, so stay with us. Before the break, 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:36.200 we broke down the woke cop found in copaganda. So, Katie, 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:40.280 what trope is next? Troupe number two, the delinquent turned 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:44.760 law enforcer. Have you noticed this in TV and movies? 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:48.480 Yes, I have noticed that in TV and movies, and 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:51.240 I've also noticed that in the like person who turns 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:55.319 into a life coach route. In the real world, it's 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:57.040 the cop that used to be in the streets but 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:01.199 eventually saw the light and now protects and serves exactly. 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:04.240 The delinquent turned law enforcer is a former troubled youth 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:06.760 or even ex criminal who was able to turn their 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:09.480 life around and find redemption by joining the police force. 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:13.319 We see characters like Officer Marcus Burnett in Bad Boys films, 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.120 who is portrayed as a former troublemaker from the streets 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:18.240 before joining the Miami PD or. 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.360 Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop played by Eddie Murphy. 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:25.240 The former Delinquence Abound. On the Beverly Hills Cop movie 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:28.480 fan page, Axel Foley's biography reads. Axel was born on 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:31.560 August twenty fifth, nineteen fifty seven, in Detroit, Michigan. He 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:35.040 attended Mumford High School and became a small time juvenile hoodlum, 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:37.760 but after a few years in which he was unemployed, 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:41.040 fully joined the Detroit Police Department in nineteen eighty three. 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:44.760 A talented policeman, Axel is also known to bend the rules, 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:47.720 which annoys his boss, Inspector Todd Hm. 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:50.120 Bending the rules interesting quality of a cop. 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:54.079 Yeah, so, the delinquent turned enforcer portrays black cops to 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:58.200 someone who understands the criminal element because they were once 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:01.520 a part of it. In reality, this trope reinforces racist 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:05.920 stereotypes that associates blackness with criminality from an early age. 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:09.160 It implies that black youth are inherently delinquent and need 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:12.520 harsh disciplining from law enforcement to get on the right path. 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:15.319 You might hear one of these characters say I used 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:18.480 to run the streets. Now I'm taking down punks just 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:19.480 like my whole self. 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:23.360 Yeah, or they'll say, growing up, I was headed down 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:24.400 a bad path. 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.040 Until the police gave me a wake up call. Now 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:28.040 I'm paying it forward. 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:35.120 Oh my god. This coppaganda can then attempt to justify 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:39.520 their use of excessive force or unethical tactics. It's okay 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:42.120 because it's root of an experience and understanding of the 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:45.600 delinquent environment, Like we have to beat up these kids 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:47.880 standing on the corner. It's the only way to inspire 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:49.440 the use to change. 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:49.360 Like me. 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:52.719 This trope validates oppressive policing methods under the guise of 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:57.560 officers having street smarts and personal redemption narratives. Yeah, I 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:02.920 hate this one, and particularly why because it's giving trader 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:06.600 like you came from the streets. Yeah, now you've beaten 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:10.760 up talking about you know, like be sofferal right now. 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:14.040 We saw this over the summer in Atlanta at Emory 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.440 and across the United States with college kids, you know, 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:23.439 protesting Israel's genocide in Palestine. They were whooping their asses 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:25.400 and I can just see I can just see them like, 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:27.000 oh yeah, I'm from the streets, like I didn't get 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:29.400 to go to college, and they're wasting their opportunities. So 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:33.440 it's like you're seeing the same tactics the idf uses 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:37.640 being used on college campuses in the United States, in 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:41.040 cities where they're trying to build cop cities where they 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:45.040 would train more Israelis to kill Palestinians and train mo 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:47.520 niggas to kill niggas. It's just like it's just such 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:51.320 a mind fuck to see the layers and how like 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:54.280 the copaganda just like keeps perpetuating itself, because like we said, 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:58.200 it's not just it's not just fictional narratives, it's the news, 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:02.600 it's social media. I've seen a lot of like TikTok 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:06.400 pages of the friendly cops and the friendly soldier like 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:09.360 get ready with me as I get ready for work 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.400 and I don't think like a hot cop. Yeah, and 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:14.480 it's like, oh I'm on the beat, come right with me, 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:16.480 and people in the ciments like oh I got arrest 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.000 me missed the officer, like stand up. So yeah, just 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:23.880 seeing like the impact that like not only these fictional narratives, 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:29.840 but these nonfictional real world narratives like play into each other, 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:32.560 like they're feeding each other. The movies and the TV shows, 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:36.920 you know, influence the watchers and then they grow up 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:39.079 like idolizing the cops and then become cops and then 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.600 you know, have this whole good guy narrative in their head, 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:45.840 even if they're beating up a college kid about the 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:48.040 head for protesting a genocide. 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:52.160 Yeah, and this one is particularly good for visual storytelling though, 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.400 because you get that perfect arc of a person going 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.600 for some you go from quote unquote bad to quote 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:02.040 unquote good. It's like you there is a really easy end, 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.240 a really easy character to try to show someone who's 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:08.680 really completely did a one eighty and turned their life around, 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:13.600 because you've gone from supposedly being the bad guy and 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:18.120 harming others, like maybe without you know, thought about it, 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:22.440 and then you've gone to this person who's supposedly selfless 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:24.800 in their service to others. 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:25.240 You know. 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:27.640 I mean, I feel like that's another element of it, 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:30.360 because an easy way that cops can use to justify 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:34.000 it because they don't get paid a lot that they 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:34.480 can be like. 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:36.240 Oh, well, you know I'm doing this. 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:38.160 I'm not even making a lot of money, so they 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.160 can really make it look like they're doing it for 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:41.240 a higher purpose. 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:43.560 But you know what, on the money tip they get, 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:45.320 so many perks do you know, if a cop like 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:47.360 lives in an apartment, they don't pay for that apartment 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:50.640 because they're like police cards out there and they're like security. 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:53.040 I've heard that. And also there's the other thing of 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:55.040 like they get so much paid leave. 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:58.160 And when they fuck up, like when I'm in New York, 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:00.320 like it'll be like eight cops coming out too, like 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:02.360 a small smoothie chop and they're supposed to be like 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:06.040 getting the stuff for free, or they like won't protect 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:06.720 the smoothe chop. 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:11.040 Yeah, I feel like just also private businesses offer law enforcement. 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:14.560 Yeah, like y'all are fine. But also like going back 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:17.520 to your like narrative arc, it's interesting too because like 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:19.640 if you have a brain, the narrative arc just does 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:20.280 not work. 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:21.560 Talk about that more. 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:24.680 Because you're you're the bad guy, right, You're you know, 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:29.280 selling drugs, you know, presumably to people who want them, 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:33.320 and then you become a cop and you're like harming 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:36.760 these communities, so you're still like inflicting harm, but it's 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:39.840 like what's behind the harm is seen as good. 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:43.280 Yeah, I would say that those people aren't thinking about 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:45.320 the works that the cops are doing as harm. 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:47.880 Yeah, they show it. They'll be like, I solve this 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:52.040 case by beating up a homeless man who had the 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:59.080 knowledge but would not say anything. It's like, Okay, it's 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:01.920 like they show, but it's like it's still not clicking 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:03.480 to them. 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:05.600 There's another part to this where you have this arc 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.000 of going from a quote unquote bad guy to a 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:11.720 quote unquote good guy, is that the actual work or 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:15.280 field work that the cops are doing is like good work. 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:17.960 You know, like in reality, there are so many cops 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:20.240 who don't know what the hell they're doing. In general, 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:24.200 in film and television, there's a lot of things that 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.040 you have to play up for the craft itself, and 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:30.560 that stuff, I think can also plan to this propagandistic 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.480 narratives to where I remember back in I don't know 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:35.320 this was when we were going through some or other 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:38.320 reckoning in the United States when it comes to race 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:43.560 and police lynchings. People would say things like why didn't 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:45.760 they just like shoot them in the leg or something 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.280 like that. Joe Biden said that whoever said it, A 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:50.520 bunch of people said stuff like that, And I think 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:53.600 there's so much misrepresentation of violence that we've just gotten 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:56.720 so used to, you know, people walking into rooms and 0:16:56.760 --> 0:16:59.160 not having their guns already racked is something that they 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:03.240 do in film and television that like somebody who's ready 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:07.080 to shoot somebody wouldn't do, or like having incredible aim 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:10.440 at moving targets the cops might in a show, or 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:13.800 having presence of mind like so many cops don't have 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.439 when they're in stressful situations. As we've seen time and 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:19.440 time again, there are so many things that they portray 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:22.120 with good cops that are not actually the truth because 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:25.480 cops are obviously fallible, you know, they are flawed. 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.080 They do a lot of fucked up stuff. 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:32.600 So as part of that trope and the propaganda, it's 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:37.200 also the elements of craft that are inserted, I think 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:42.040 in some ways sincere way for the craft itself, but 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:44.640 also still kind of a thoughtless way of doing things, 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:48.399 because it does perpetuate certain misinformation about the way that 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:52.439 law enforcement works, in the way that shooting works, in 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:55.000 the way that violence works, in the way that human 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:58.680 responses when you know your sympathetic nervous system is a 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:01.159 light works. There are so many things like that that 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:06.360 are misrepresented in fiction that leads into that propagandistic thinking too. 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.600 Yeah, because we saw in Uvaldi when there was an 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.200 active shooter in the elementary school. Cops were there for 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:15.560 so long, just standing outside, knew the person was in there, 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.240 knew they were shooting kids, and did not do anything. 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:21.440 A mom came to get her kids out. She came, 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.320 They handcuffed her, She got out the handcuffs, jumped a fence, 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:26.240 and then broke into the school to get her kids 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:28.000 while the shooter were still in there. You'd expect the 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:30.160 cops to do something like that. Yeah, it's a bunch 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.200 of y'all. Y'all got all this gear, but let a 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.080 nigga use a counterfeit twenty dollars bill, then it's on 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:37.560 and popping. They'd be on this stuff They like don't matter, 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:40.840 Like something that's not a threat, something that's not killing kids. 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:42.880 They're all about it. You know, there was this man 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:47.040 on the subway who was getting stabbed and there were 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:49.320 cops in the other car. But you know, you can 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:52.480 move across the cars in the subway. The cops was 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:54.440 just looking. They did not try to help this man, 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:56.040 and so he sued them saying like, oh, you should 0:18:56.040 --> 0:18:57.359 have helped me. In the Supreme Court is like, oh, 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.359 they don't have the obligation to help you. So what 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:00.879 are you here for? 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:03.359 Yeah, to shoot? 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:07.119 Yeah, it's like they don't have the obligation to help you, 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.960 but there's good Samaritan laws around being protected. 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:12.480 If a normal citizen. 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.160 Yeah something with who probably doesn't have a gun, who 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:17.840 probably doesn't have training on what to do in this situation. 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:21.280 But the cops, who presumably do, they chilling. 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:24.480 Another thing that I was thinking about this is in 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:29.360 terms of storytelling, is that often you're talking about exceptional situations, 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:35.720 exceptional people, and exceptional experiences. So of course the story 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:39.280 that they're going to tell about this good cop at 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:42.840 the end of this narrative arc is going to be 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.439 someone who is larger than life and who has like 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:51.520 these perfect qualities. Because of that, and because that's kind 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:54.480 of how storytelling has to work, Like most of the time, 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:57.920 most people don't want regular stories. 0:19:58.000 --> 0:19:59.960 They want stories about exceptionalism. 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.760 The cop who don't care and gets off, Yeah, hides 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:03.760 in the parking lot. 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:08.199 Hides in the parking lot, plants the drugs. That's that's 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:09.440 one of the accurate examples. 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:14.840 Yeah. So by nature of a cop appearing in a. 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:17.760 Show, I mean, it feels to be doing the most. 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:19.320 They have to be doing the most and that also 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:22.080 means that, like the propaganda's got to be there from 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:22.680 the beginning. 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:27.320 Yeah, but other jobs like don't have that, you know, Yeah, 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:28.600 like teachers. 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:30.120 I was thinking teachers. 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:33.560 Some of them are portrayed as like, oh, they're so great, 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:38.480 like what was that one? Freedom writers. Some of them 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:40.240 are portrayed that way. But some of them, I think 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:43.280 most of them are portrayed as just like regular ancillary 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:46.159 characters like you know, we have Abbot elementary, but they 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:50.160 are not, you know, saving the hood, not all of them. 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:53.280 The cop is more often the lead, yeah, not the 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:56.119 sub supporting character. I mean, they do have supporting characters, 0:20:56.119 --> 0:21:06.080 but there are frequently cop leads shows. 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:08.760 Okay, Katie, bring it home. 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:12.320 What's the last copaganda trope that we have to develop? 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:16.840 An oldie but goody trope number three, the internal affairs cop. 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:20.800 Okay, I'm intrigued. 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:23.800