Cops. To see how they just pummel people to the ground or pull their guns for the smallest of things is unsettling to watch. Also, the treatment of female officers.
The progression of COPS was really wild. It technically started in 1989 but the early episodes were a pretty far departure from the version you’re correctly calling out. They were a lot more visceral - I remember one episode where the officers showed up to a suicide. The guy used a shotgun in a pickup truck and the back windshield was blown out with blood and brains like dripping from it, and this is what the cameraman zooms in on for a solid 30 seconds.
It was just a lot more gritty and unrefined. That’s the interesting part for me, this show changed to the version you described where they only showed DV and beating up crackheads. They chose that; they went in that direction on purpose.
The one that always stuck with me was when they harassed a dude just walking down the street because he was in drag. But it was in, like, Plano, TX or something so that made it “suspicious.”
Another one I can’t remember was on COPS or just some bodycam footage of a gay teen who was beaten by his parents and kicked out getting arrested becsuse they claimed he assaulted them; despite being the only one completely battered and bruised and the neighbors defending the kid having witnessed him getting beaten by his father.
I guess when I responded to the original question, I was thinking about the 2000’s era COPS show and how it seemed to celebrate violence against others. So, by current standards, the old episodes really don’t hold up well in that it’s really not OK to be promoting this.
I’ve noticed similar changes to other police drama shows, like NCIS vs something like Tracker. In NCIS, the bad guy is usually taken down in a shootout. In newer shows, like Tracker, most of the time the bad guy is arrested. Hopefully this is a reflection on society changing.
A ton of COPS was filmed in pierce county Washington, where I grew up, I still think about how that undoubtedly changed my life in likely imperceptible ways to this day
Cops. To see how they just pummel people to the ground or pull their guns for the smallest of things is unsettling to watch. Also, the treatment of female officers.
The progression of COPS was really wild. It technically started in 1989 but the early episodes were a pretty far departure from the version you’re correctly calling out. They were a lot more visceral - I remember one episode where the officers showed up to a suicide. The guy used a shotgun in a pickup truck and the back windshield was blown out with blood and brains like dripping from it, and this is what the cameraman zooms in on for a solid 30 seconds.
It was just a lot more gritty and unrefined. That’s the interesting part for me, this show changed to the version you described where they only showed DV and beating up crackheads. They chose that; they went in that direction on purpose.
The one that always stuck with me was when they harassed a dude just walking down the street because he was in drag. But it was in, like, Plano, TX or something so that made it “suspicious.”
Another one I can’t remember was on COPS or just some bodycam footage of a gay teen who was beaten by his parents and kicked out getting arrested becsuse they claimed he assaulted them; despite being the only one completely battered and bruised and the neighbors defending the kid having witnessed him getting beaten by his father.
I guess when I responded to the original question, I was thinking about the 2000’s era COPS show and how it seemed to celebrate violence against others. So, by current standards, the old episodes really don’t hold up well in that it’s really not OK to be promoting this.
I’ve noticed similar changes to other police drama shows, like NCIS vs something like Tracker. In NCIS, the bad guy is usually taken down in a shootout. In newer shows, like Tracker, most of the time the bad guy is arrested. Hopefully this is a reflection on society changing.
A ton of COPS was filmed in pierce county Washington, where I grew up, I still think about how that undoubtedly changed my life in likely imperceptible ways to this day