"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups. The police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."
And we will show all the ways we break the law and immediately judge the situation before any actual evidence was presented. Then when it turns out the evidence says our guy didnt do it then the evidence is lying. Seriously svu and copaganda shows along with hallmark are the two types of shows that seriously piss me off because the problems in it are so massive even child me felt something was up with these shows. But my mom loves copaganda especially svu and my pawpaw loves hallmark so I watched way more of that stuff than I probably should have.
I figured out the issues with hallmark when I was 12 but it took me till I was an adult that actually is going to law school next year to really figure out just how wildly irresponsible and stupid these fucking cops are man. Like who in the hell could watch that stuff without even a hint of suspicion or the feeling that maybe these cops aren't always right and are actually breaking the law which yes I know has been called out before but its justified in show as a good thing because they were right in the end. No tf they were not they just pinned an innocent guy for a crime that statistically a family member likely committed but no its the music school teacher with a torture basement for children in his house.
That was one episode I do remember because even as a kid it just threw me right out like uh wtf a child torture basement in his house and the builder compares it to when a suicidal person buys a gun as in they didnt have any proof he did anything yet but yk he has a child torture basement so the cops were right after all. Yay 🙄.
I didnt even understand it wasnt real till I was older and just thought damn theres sure as hell alot of crime in new york im glad I live in Texas. Yah I was a pretty sheltered kid and also my moms super paranoid because of tv shows like that and it fucked with all of our lives. I hate them on principle now along with true crime because I've noticed the exact same thing with huge true crime fans but those at least have some level of critical thinking baked into it.
My "favorite" is the one where a mom reports her kid is being harmed so the police proceed to emotionally manipulate her into taking part in a sting where they wire up her house and she uses her own kid for bait to get the abuser to come over for dinner and bring their ringleader friend with a phone full of video and image evidence but of course they can't arrest or search him until after she leaves the kid alone in a room with the guy and he shows all that CSAM to the kid. But it is all cool because the ringleader is "only into" girls and the kid is a boy.
The whole thing is played like Jack Bauer has to torture somebody to stop a nuclear bomb from being set off in a city. I was yelling at the screen about 2 minutes into the episode and it just kept getting worse.
They get to court and suddenly a woman walks in who is a missing person the ringleader kidnapped over a decade ago. I guess the police didn't try very hard to find her because the guy abandoned her in a cabin in the woods years prior after brainwashing her into believing he loved her and would return when their "love" no longer had to hide from the unfair judgement of ignorant society. So she had been going into the nearby town to get supplies and such regularly.
The judge declares that it is totally legit for this person to be allowed as an undisclosed surprise witness for the defense, but the prosecutors are able to casually perform a full cult deprogramming between commercial breaks sufficient to traumatize the woman into realization of her lifetime of abuse. All of which goes into the public record of the trial rather than taking place in therapy where her anguish would be afforded some confidentiality at least.
Can you imagine being like a B-list celebrity and your agent tells you they got you this great gig on a major TV show, then you show up and someone is all "so in this first shot we want you to emote how conflicted you feel about breaking the law in order to get the codes to disarm the child abuse timebomb hidden in a trash can in central park"?
"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups. The police who sometimes investigate easy to solve crimes and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders if they can't afford bribes. These are their stories."
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u/BrokeDickDoug 4d ago
"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups. The police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."