Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/10/05/after-weeks-long-cancellation-cops-resumed-filming-in-september.html
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I wonder how much evidence prosecutors could gather and how many police officers they could (theoretically) charge if they could get their hands on the raw footage filmed by COPS camera crews.
I imagine there would be plenty of dull footage where they filmed in case something interesting happened, like a call over the radio, but I’d also imagine there are some pretty disturbing images that never made it onto the air.
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No one is saying cops don’t have a hard job. They are saying they need to be held accountable when they screw up.
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I will say that the danger of their job is vastly overstated compared to other common jobs in America.
When you rank jobs by workplace fatalities, police face lower risk of on-the-job injury and death than loggers, fishing workers, sailors, aircraft pilots, road crews, construction workers, steelworkers, agricultural workers and many others. Even a taxi driver is considerably likelier to be killed on the job than a cop is.
Yet we never give oil derrick workers or farmers or road crews license to kill without consequence just because of the risks they face at work.
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If the raw captured footage was able available to the ACLU and other social justice organizations upon demand, imagine how many alternate versions of COPS that can be produced.
- COPS, The Bad Boys in Blue
- COPS, The Unclean Hands of Prosecution
- COPS, The Prosecutors Omissions
- COPS, Parallel Constructions and Manufactured Pleas
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The statistics say that’s true. I wonder if Taxi Drivers would fare better if they got to wear bullet proof vests.
I think that is a flawed analogy, because most work place accidents are from inanimate objects and machines. A tree isn’t trying to fall on a logger, and a whirling mechanical thing whirls as designed with no malice. Plus, who are they going to kill? Shoot the tractor?
But still, dealing with belligerent, hostile, and even violent people shouldn’t give cops licenses to kill or use excessive force. I think part of it is a cycle as well. people attack and push back against cops because cops are aggressive towards them, which gives them reason to “crack down” harder, which means more open hostility.
Again - accountability. When life changing/ending mistakes are made, there need to be consequences. Nurses who make a fatal mistake are likely to lose their license, job, and possibly face other charges.
Cops need to be held to a way higher standard than they are.
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Note that it is still canceled in the U.S. These new episodes are being produced for some international markets where the producers and distributor were under contract to deliver a certain number of new episodes and hadn’t reached the target number yet. No U.S. outlet is going to show them.
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Did you guys ever see the episode where the shirtless guy wearing cut-off jeans shorts tries to evade to police by running through back yards? Spoiler:That’s every episode!
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Do you have a source for this? I’d love to use it against my boot-licker relatives.
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The one who hid under a kiddie pool?
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I always thought that the show COPS could be Florida’s main economic engine.
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As an afficionado of shaky camera work of panting cops chasing car thieves who peaked in middle school, shirtless men and the screeching women who love them and don’t want to press charges for domestic violence, and drivers who have no clue that everyone can see that, yes, they’re totally high and or drunk, I applaud!
Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf
Table 3 shows the actual rates for law enforcement. You can see that law enforcement didn’t make it onto the list, as it’s safer than the listed.
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Pluto streaming TV has a Cops channel.
Here are a couple, if you look at the numbers you’ll see “fisherman” is WAAAY more dangerous than “cop.”
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Is that the one where the two overweight cops beat the shit out of a drunk guy?
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Thanks!
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Of the injuries listed for Law Enforcement, their number one cause of injuries/fatalities are motor vehicle accidents (all types), and enemy gunfire is very low on the list of job morbidities (compared with all others combined.) Also a peek at 2020 so far (surprise COVID-19 is the top killer).
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