Part 2: Copaganda
Read all about Military Propaganda in Hollywood here
Apart from being influenced in inherently political spaces, even the distractions you turn to to escape weighty topics can influence your politics. Especially the most mind numbing, formulaic content has the power to reach and change the opinion of the broad population. When it comes to long form content, Hollywood is the standard for the creation of formulaic, empty shows and movies alike. What people fail to consider while these movies and shows are being exported all around the globe, is the strong financial link and codependency between Hollywood productions and companies as well as governmental institutions aiming to push their agenda.
Propaganda comes in many forms. From inherently political sources like news channels or political figures, to memes and children’s shows, any medium can push a political agenda. When a political motivation causes information to be withheld, emotional manipulation of public perception, or the spreading of false narratives, it is safe to say that we are dealing with propaganda.
While military propaganda finds its way onto our screens in high-budget action movies, police propaganda or “Copaganda” is most prevalent in TV shows. Long running, overtly popular shows about the lives of policemen and -women exist in abundance. Each episode in the never ending run of renewed seasons deals with a new obstacle to overcome and criminal to bring behind bars. You may think of titles such as Law & Order, CSI, Brooklyn 99 or other, even less creative names. Within their unoriginality and formulaic structure, you can find multiple character archetypes that incorporate dangerous ideas about the role of police action in their repetitive manners.
As the heroes of the stories on screen, the fictional police force can do no wrong. In favor of viewer satisfaction, our heroes take down the villainous criminals with wit, efficiency, physical strength and occasionally by twisting the rules in their favor, which is perceived as merely a sign of their admirable dedication. The origin of the “cop show” as we know it today offers an insight into why it portrays the police in such an unbridled positive light.
Dragnet was first aired in 1967 and became the founding father of the modern police show. Contrary to previous comical portrayals of the police, Dragnet aimed to portray the police as heroes in thrilling stories, which the show branded as “truthful”. The creators of Dragnet struck deals with the police in exchange for real-life stories as the basis for their scripts. Furthermore, a good relationship with the police was favorable to attain permits for public filming and to keep Hollywood stars’ criminal activities under covers. The police had full control over the way they were presented in Dragnet’s scripts, granting them the power to turn Dragnet into the original myth of the police force as America’s heroes. Modern police shows abide by the same formula as Dragnet, maintaining the positive public perception even without police intervention in their scripts. Cooperation is nonetheless not uncommon, as producers require the same permits and still draw inspiration from police testimonials. Viewers of police shows are statistically more inclined to believe that the police are effective in reducing crime, use force only when necessary, and that misconduct usually does not result in false confessions.
In reality, the American police force is far from heroic. Since the Black Lives Matter movement gained worldwide traction in 2020, following the brutal murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police officers; the police are much more commonly known as corrupt, racist and prone to violence. Despite social awareness increasing, in 2024, more fatal police shootings have been reported than in any other year in the past decade. In police shows, killings at the hands of the police force are mostly presented as justified, rationally being the last resort when they face an unavoidable, deathly threat, which occurs most commonly when they are threatened with a gun.
The reality looks quite different. Out of the 1.252 victims of police killings in the USA in 2024, only 669 were even armed with a gun, and even less were enacting threatening behavior, wherefore a different de-escalation approach would have been plausible and appropriate. In total, 64% of killings by American police in 2024 happened during traffic stops, while the victim was experiencing a mental health crisis, or in situations where the victim reportedly was not threatening anyone with a gun. Examining the racial bias of the police, black individuals were overall more likely to be killed, more likely to be unarmed and less likely to be threatening someone when killed. As a matter of fact, about 1 in every 1000 black men in the USA can expect to be killed by the police. It is safe to say that the police-force is very quick to pull the trigger, especially when facing a Person of Color.
This inclination to enact unprovoked violence also makes its way onto our screens. Out of all the police-civilian interactions in police shows, 50% display police using physical force. In 79% of these cases, the behavior of the police is perceived or presented as justified. In the eye of the public, this on-screen presentation consequentially justifies, obscures and trivializes the brutality of real-life police violence, which seldom had a reasonable cause and is often motivated by bigotry or malice.
Following the arrest of a perpetrator or detaining of a subject, real-life police investigations as well as crime shows move into the interrogation room. The interrogation techniques the US-police employs can border on torture and brainwashing. With a confession being seen as the most conclusive evidence that can be used for prosecution, interrogators will do anything in order to force one out of the suspect. The average length of an interrogation in the USA is 16 hours, while it is fully legal to keep the suspect in the same chair for days on end. The consequences of exhaustion and sleep deprivation can gravely impact the suspects state of mind and the clarity of their responses. Furthermore, the interrogation room critically lacks supervision and regulation. It is not obligatory to document interrogations, despite many incidences of police violence having taken place in interrogation rooms.
Apart from direct violence, the most manipulative tactic detectives may utilize is the distortion of facts. A police officer is legally allowed to lie to a subject about evidence, present them with fake evidence, assure them that their fingerprints were on the murder weapon, that someone saw them commit the crime or even tell them to their face “I am not allowed to lie to you about evidence”.
Crumbling under the pressure of the mentally exhausting circumstances, suspects can start to question their own reality. This is especially efficient when targeting the most vulnerable subjects such as mentally ill or underage individuals. Out of all the exonerated people who previously falsely confessed, 34% were under the age of 18 and 69% were either mentally ill or disabled. Overall, false confession cases make up 29% of all past convictions who were exonerated due to new DNA testing.
While the television cops always catch the “right guy”, despite lacking evidence and using manipulative tactics, in reality, the “guilty until proven innocent” approach much more commonly leads to false convictions, police violence and harms citizens instead of helping them.
When you find yourself at the receiving end of such oppression, manipulation and corruption, the only authority standing between you and rotting away in prison is your defense lawyer. The role of the defense lawyer is an indispensable part of the judicial system. Only with a truthful representation of both sides in a court of law, the prosecution of criminals can be considered as democratic in any sense.
Police shows seek out to undermine this principle of democracy as well, with the demonization of defense lawyers being a trope in its own right. They are included and degraded in the black and white worldview of the narrative – the heroic police and persecutors vs the villainous offenders and defense lawyers. Even shows that highlight the importance of lawyers for the justice system such as Law and Order, arguably the biggest police show franchise to date, view the employment of defense attorneys not as a safeguard for democracy, but an annoying or even dangerous obstacle to overcome.
In the field of television productions inside the courtroom, pre-Law & Order, defense attorneys were much more commonly portrayed as the heroes. Law & Order creator Dick Wolf disagreed with that narrative. He believed prosecutors to be the real heroes, as defense attorneys were “getting these scumbags of” according to his perception. In general, Dick Wolf is very open about being “unabashedly pro law enforcement” and avoids addressing systemic issues of discrimination and violence as he refuses to portray the stories of a “few bad apples” in the police force. His portrayal of law enforcement is so excessively and unrealistically positive, it essentially qualifies as an unmarked ad. Wolf himself has called his shows the “best recruitment poster”.
Whether the intention is to create a more palpable narrative about a profession that attracts a lot of viewership, or to directly counteract the heavy public criticism of the inequalities and unjust violence enacted by law enforcement, Hollywood’s portrayal of the police unequivocally distorts reality. The creators knowingly censor narratives that expose the systemic issues of the police and instead spread misinformation of the police’s efficiency and humanity. Within their black and white characterization, they employ propaganda techniques that heavily influence the public perception. Thus, they trivialize unruly and corrupt behavior as well as the use of unnecessary violence and teach apathy for anyone with a criminal record.
Europe is of course no stranger to police brutality either. While the USA is the developed nation with the highest percentage of police violence deaths, almost every country in the European Union has been experiencing issues as well. Per 10 million citizens, the USA reports 33 deaths at the hands of the police force per year, followed by Luxembourg with 17 and the Netherlands with 14. While Greece doesn’t even find itself on most of the lists evaluating police brutality in Europe, the oppressive, sadistic actions of the police force here are blatantly abhorrent. More than half of people who have been detained by Greek police-officers report having witnessed or being subjected to police violence during arrest or in custody. Out of those who experienced violence, 82% identified with an ethnicity other than Greek.
The police in every country have grown to become not a part of the democratic system, but an oppressor of the politically powerless, a tool of intimidation and suppression that harbors a culture of violence, racism and sexism. Even with a 100% success rate, as it is portrayed in media, it is questionable whether such a thing as a heroic police officer can ever exist in an inherently corrupt system. Whether the creators of police shows and movies intend to impose a personal conviction, maintain a favorable relationship with law enforcement or feed us easy to swallow, soulless entertainment – Hollywood knowingly skews the public perception, blinding US- and EU-citizens alike to this force that is undermining our democracy.
