Thread by @kvanaren, for decades tv has been training us to see cops as the [...]

Kathryn VanArendonk

kvanaren

for decades tv has been training us to see cops as the protagonists in american stories https://www.vulture.com/2020/06/tv-cops-are-always-the-main-characters.html">https://www.vulture.com/2020/06/t...

Cops Are Always the Main Characters

TV perfected the cop show, metastasized it, and then franchised it into ubiquity. How does that affect the way audiences think about police?

https://www.vulture.com/2020/06/tv-cops-are-always-the-main-characters.html

when you read and watch coverage of the protests, remember that TV teaches viewers to treat police& #39;s perspective as the default point of view on any event

there& #39;s so much great writing and research on this.

here& #39;s @AlyssaRosenberg& #39;s huge project from 2016 https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/opinions/2016/10/24/how-police-censorship-shaped-hollywood/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/opinio...

How police censorship shaped Hollywood, and how pop culture changed policing

The police story is one of the elemental dramas of American popular culture.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/opinions/2016/10/24/how-police-censorship-shaped-hollywood/

here& #39;s an immense report from january 2020 on the people who actually make these cop shows, and the way the shows themselves depict justice https://hollywood.colorofchange.org/crime-tv-report/">https://hollywood.colorofchange.org/crime-tv-...

Normalizing Injustice - Color of Change Hollywood

A Comprehensive Study of How Television’s Most Popular Genre Excludes Writers of Color, Miseducates People about the Criminal Justice System and Makes Racial Injustice Acceptable

https://hollywood.colorofchange.org/crime-tv-report/

here& #39;s @DearSplenda on Dragnet and the history of cop shows as propaganda machines https://timeline.com/dragnet-lapd-propaganda-cop-bb19d9a5fb6f">https://timeline.com/dragnet-l...

‘Dragnet’ was straight up LAPD propaganda, on national TV for years

The show created the idea of the American cop, but racial rebellions shattered that image

https://timeline.com/dragnet-lapd-propaganda-cop-bb19d9a5fb6f

there& #39;s more and I& #39;ll keep highlighting it, but obviously this is VERY far from being a new idea.

it& #39;s just an idea that& #39;s especially worth remembering right now. the widespread instinct to frame protests as an obstacle for cops to overcome does not happen in a vacuum

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