Yup.
https://qz.com/1872176/half-of-us-network-tv-dramas-are-about-cops
The biggest factors in the delta between what cops actually do, and white white folk incorrectly think they do:
1) Copaganda TV shows
2) Framing by newspapers and TV news
Without this sustained disinformation campaign against Black people, white folk would not accept this level of racism.🤷🏿♂️
I'll use a white lady as an example, because white ladies are easier for y'all to empathize with.🤷🏿♂️
This woman was accused of a crime that she could not possibly have committed. She was 100% innocent.
She still spent 6 months in jail, lost her home, had her credit destroyed, and went into debt.
Now understand that most people in jail in the US are not convicted criminals. Most people in jail in the US, are poor people in jail pre-trial, just like this woman.
They're disproportionately Black. Many are 100% innocent.
Most of what cops do, is fine/arrest poor Black people, for minor charges.
Cops don't care if the person is really innocent or guilty.
Cops don't care if many innocent people plead guilty two crimes that they could not possibly have done, just so that they won't be in jail for 6 months to a year and lose everything.
Back to our white lady.
We talked about how CECOT was a torture prison, because they put people in solitary confinement for 23 hrs a day.
And we talk about how slave labor camps are bad.
Prison guards can require this white lady to do free labor, using an exception to US anti-slavery laws.
This white lady could say, "Look, I'm innocent! This is all a big mistake! I just want to sit in my cell and mind my own business until the public defender can get this all sorted out! I don't want to make auto parts, or pick cotton on the prison farm!"
She can be sent to solitary for refusing.
Every police "use of force" policy is in place for a very good reason. But cop shows present them as obstacles that get in the way of justice being done.
In real life Detective Stabler is Derek Chauvin, and DA Jack McCoy is the DA that let Kalief Browder be abused in jail for 3 years while innocent.
There are so many Law and Order SVU fans. They believe that the police force spends a lot of its time and resources on solving sex crimes or crimes against children.
The reality is that after spending *billions* on policing, cops have the audacity to pretend that "Rape kit backlog" is a real thing.
When I tell y'all how many people work for the NYPD, and that their budget ($12B/yr) is greater than the military budget of almost every country on earth, people think I'm exaggerating.
I'm not.
So when they say that they "Don't have enough resources," to pursue all the sex crimes or thefts? They are lying.
Copaganda convinces you that most of these people are running around being Detective Stabler, protecting women and children from abusers.
The reality is that most of them are arresting poor Black people for no reason, causing those Black folk to lose their jobs, housing, and custody of their kids.
I'll let you look up the increase in probability of a child being sexually assaulted once they enter the foster care system. Because again, if I told you how much more likely it is, you would not believe me.
Cops are not protecting kids from abuse. They're putting millions more kids in harm's way.
But many people believe that cops are protecting kids rather than causing more kids to be hurt, because they believe the disinformation of copaganda shows on news framing, more than they believe Black people or the police's own data, or their own "lying eyes."🤷🏿♂️
And in case anyone thinks I'm being hyperbolic about the wide gap between how Law and Order: SVU presents the world, and the reality of policing, read thia article.
Gift Link from the writer, Nina Metz of the Chicago Tribune:
@mekkaokereke Are we talking about the "Inspired by Linda "still thinks the Central Park 5 are guilty" Fairstein" Law & Order:SVU?
The show where Dick Wolf bemoaned how "overpaid" DAs got "criminals off" against the little guy prosecution offices?
Last summer, federal prosecutors announced an investigation into the New York Police Department’s special victims division and its handling of sex abuse cases. The allegations include a decad…
@mekkaokereke
"All of the sympathetic, clearly innocent people are answering all our questions, but Pedophile McMurderer is 'lawyering up (exercising his constitutional rights)!' Now we'll never save Little Timmy from getting eaten by alligators in McMurderer's torture basement in time!"
"Damnit... Don't worry, I'm a loose cannon (criminal) who doesn't care about the rules (laws) and I'll rough this creep up (torture him) and kick down his door (illegally search his house). Thankfully, I'll end up being right which makes everything okay."
"Thank god. Aren't you worried about Internal Affairs getting on your ass?"
"Big time. Their single-minded obsession with arresting their fellow cops is totally a real thing that happens."
@mekkaokereke There was *at least one* electrocution device floating around the NYPD for torture purposes in the 80s and 90s, IIRC.
I heard a long description of how the Revolutionary Army of Iran made itself so entrenched in their society, and it very much reminded me of histories I've read of *multiple* municipal police forces. It's just what they do.
@OrionKidder @mekkaokereke Ask folks in Chicago how the cops there work. Hell, CPD had a series of undocumented "detention" sites, like the ones the CIA used to run post-9/11, dating back to the 1970s! The only major difference sometimes with places like Iran is we believe Iranians when they say Iran's security forces have secret torture prisons, but not our fellow citizens who say the same about US cops.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/06/15/chicago-bad-cop-police-reform-318955
@klausfiend @[email protected] @[email protected] don't even get me started on "#BlackSites"…
@mekkaokereke Lately, there have been media reports of people accused of crimes because a traffic camera recorded their license plate while travelling through an area. One woman had to collect evidence that she wasn't who they were looking for because the cops refused to investigate what she had told them.
It's rather scary and getting scarier as this surveillance crap misidentifies people and lazy or overworked police forces don't care.
@mekkaokereke Here are examples of the license plate thing:
"Woman Wrongfully Accused by a License Plate-Reading Camera - Then Exonerated By Camera-Equipped Car"
https://article.wn.com/view/2025/11/02/Woman_Wrongfully_Accused_by_a_License_PlateReading_Camera_Th/
Woman accused of a drive-by shooting. She deserved more, but at least got some restitution.
https://www.the-sun.com/motors/13938097/woman-wrongful-detention-license-plate/
Accused of car theft.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/license-plate-readers-alpr-mistakes/
And in Ontario:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/windsor/article/automated-license-plate-readers-leads-to-arrest-in-chatham/
CBS News investigates what happened when police thought they'd tracked down a "porch pirate" who'd stolen a package — and accused an innocent woman. "You know why I'm here," the police sergeant tells Chrisanna Elser. "You know we have cameras in that town..." "It went right into, 'we have video of you stealing a package,'" Elser said... "Can I see the video?" Elser asked. "If you go to court, you can," the officer replied. "If you're going to deny it, I'm not going to extend you any
I have to remind myself sometimes how many people think Serpico is the bad guy.
All we have to do is stand back and let Jack Bauer hit people repeatedly in the face while screaming, "WHO DO YOU WORK FOR??" over and over again until everything is solved.
I live in one of the farthest left cities in one of the farthest left states in the US
I was seriously worried about a situation with some (white) neighbor kids, including physical abuse and their dad shooting up in front of them
My mom put me in touch with a friend who had worked for foster services
The friend asked me a lot of details, and then told me frankly that foster care would be worse, that they were better with parents who loved them, even though the environment was far from ideal
The greatest rap video ever:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T5ZqYc1CZiw&pp=ygUUYmFybmV5IHdpdGggYXR0aXR1ZGU%3D
The ~$6B number doesn't include pensions, budgets, and overtime.
Shows that feature protagonists as police is propaganda. All of them. No exceptions. Even Dark Winds, the Navaho police show.
Or better called: Copaganda.
@crankylinuxuser @mekkaokereke
"CURSES: He's lawyered up"
"CURSES: He's hung up the phone before the minimum 2 minutes to trace their location!"
"Ok, ok, this is OFF THE RECORD, you can tell me"
@n_dimension @crankylinuxuser @mekkaokereke
"We have circumstantial evidence that implicates you in some petty crime, but we will ignore it if you just tell us what you know about this HARDENED CRIMINAL"
@boomfish @n_dimension @mekkaokereke
Your ONLY answer should be
"I reserve the right to remain silent and will only speak after conferring with my attorney"
And you fucking repeat that.
I didn't fucking stutter.
ALL COP SHOWS ARE COPAGANDA.
You just got suckered that theres that 1 good cop who'll shield the public against the rest. This is false. Was always false, and will always be false.
You have fell for the copaganda. Hook, line, sinker, gutting, fillet, grill.
@mekkaokereke Forced labor for folks pending trial is NOT constitutional. The 13th amendment carveout explicitly states this: "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted". The requirement is having been convicted, not just being held pending trial.
This doesn't mean jailers don't apply it unconstitutionally anyway, but the text is abundantly clear.
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