I have been making this argument for years about cop shows like BAU normalizing the casual violation of rights as being necessary to catch suspects. It is a fascist ideology
I don't regularly watch Law & Order but I've seen multiple instances of the suspect giving a monologue to the cops about why they did what they did, and I will sit there fully agreeing with them and being like "oh shit, good nuance," only for the cops to all respond with disgust and "get this asshole out of my sight" and the music plays and that's a wrap.
The trick they pull on a lot of folks is we the audience usually knows who the bad guy is and the show is the cops working to prove it. Implying that the pesky law is getting in the way of justice. Or its a mystery but when they find the bad guy its obvious and they might be saved by a loophole...which is usually not even real e.g they claimed insanity or religious exemption.
If our cops get it wrong its usually the fault of the bad guy framing an innocent but never the cops fault for going outside the law.
Those shows really push the "the ends justifies the means"
There'd not be much of a show if the bad guy lawyers ip before admitting to anything and literally stays quiet, while the lawyer gets all the inadmissable evidence thrown out because always angry LL Cool J decided to break into a home without a warrant.
I remember there being one episode of SVU (I think?) where a psychiatrist pulls a cop's gun to shoot and kill a child with anti-social personality disorder because "he'll just grow up and become even more evil," and the episode kinda frames it as this terrible but ultimately necessary thing to do. It's just.... so horrible on so many levels.
There is something darkly comical about Kyle Maclachlan murdering a child out of revenge, but the overall way the episode treats the subject matter just feels deeply unethical.
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u/thatweirdguyted 19h ago
I have been making this argument for years about cop shows like BAU normalizing the casual violation of rights as being necessary to catch suspects. It is a fascist ideology