It's kind of been a running thing that the only way to make a group of cops the good guys is to have them point out how bad most cops actually are. There's an episode where Terry gets racially profiled and has to sacrifice a promotion so he can get even a little bit of justice. There's an episode where NYPD posters keep getting defaced, and Gina has to point out how most people hate cops for good reasons. The series starts with Holt pointing out the NYPD kept him from getting promoted due to being a gay black man, then promoted him when they thought it would make them look good.
Heck, all of season 8 is spent opposing a police union and trying to stop police corruption.
It's copaganda that desperately didn't want to be copaganda.
Exactly. Literally every other part of law enforcement is vilified, including all precincts other than the 99, federal law enforcement (mail police(?)), lawyers (defence lawyers definitely, I don't remember if prosecutors were really present).
Honestly I don't know if the show had a pro-cop agenda. If it did, it failed to deliver it, but I don't think it even did. I think they just wanted to make a high-energy sitcom about cops, and they didn't want to make the main cast unlikable.
Defence lawyers are only really vilified for opposing the police. After all, they're helping someone the police arrested, and everyone the police arrest are evil, right?
If you just watch it as if this is the one precinct in all of New York with good cops thanks to the command of a fundamentally progressive but strong leader like Holt, you can maintain both your indictment of the greater NYPD and police in general while also seeing how progressive reforms and leadership can actually make a change for the positive in your community. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the law, with enforcing said law or with those who chose to enforce it, so long as law enforcement is held to account and not allowed to be overwhelmed with violent conservatives with authoritarian boners.
In the broad strokes, I absolutely agree, but I think you need a few asterisks in that statement to avoid becoming copaganda yourself.
There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the law*, with enforcing said law** or those who chose to enforce it***
* The law isn't always just, and can be just as rotten as the lawmakers can. It used to be against the law to be gay, and that law IS fundamentally wrong. "Don't murder people" is a just law, though.
** The law isn't always enforced evenly. Some officers only enforce the law when it suits them, letting wealthy people get away with murder while cracking down on minorities for minor offences. If you make sure to treat everyone evenly, you're fine.
In addition, enforcing unjust laws is unjust, and I don't care if you were just following orders.
*** Not everyone chooses to enforce the law for the sake of the law. Many cops became cops because of the status that comes with the badge. They don't care about protecting the innocent. Luckily, even the most ruthless in the 99 is in it to protect people.
Well anarchists disagree with the fundamental premise that the state (generic name for government) should have either the right to create laws that are applied to everyone living in a geographic are or the act of people appointed by the state to enforce it.
The short version of that belief is based on the concept of consensus of consequences, decided and enforced among equals. As opposed to 2 special classes of citizens having special roles, ruling over others, such as senators and police.
Easiest way to see it wasn't based on reality is that they solved crimes, and usually even cared about people. That isn't our reality so it had to be fictitious.
I dunno, but the last season takes a hard left turn with one major character leaving the pd for ethical reasons and the others struggling with their part in the institution. It was definitely informed by current events.
Also the incompetence/laziness of Scully and Hitchcock, and the corruption/politicking of a lot of the cops they encountered outside of Captian Holts command...