CBS’s hit drama Blue Bloods, starring Tom Selleck, has (so far) bucked the trend seen on several network TV shows, including NBC’s This Is Us, Law & Order: SVU, and Chicago PD, of boosting Black Lives Matter’s social justice message and painting police in a negative light.
Friday’s episode of Blue Blood begins with the show’s stars faced with a public relations onslaught by a city councilwoman who wants to defund the police and have New York Police Commissioner Reagan (Selleck) fired. But the 11th season debut refuses to accept the “all cops are bad” theme indulged by so many other police, law, and medical dramas debuting this season.
The episode opens with City Council Speaker Regina Thomas (Whoopi Goldberg) railing in a radio interview against the New York Police department and its “systemic racism and oppression.” She tells the radio audience that the NYPD should be defunded, and its budget shifted to community development instead of policing. Commissioner Reagan and his staff sit and listen to the radio broadcast as Speaker Thomas maligns the NYPD setting the stage for a confrontation between Reagan and the speaker.
A few segments later, the pair meet in Commissioner Reagan’s office, where Thomas tells Reagan that the NYPD “is on trial.”
“Well, because you’re putting it on trial. And, by the way, everyone is entitled to a vigorous defense, even my people,” Reagan says of his cops.
Speaker Thomas is aghast that Reagan is not blindly walking down the Black Lives Matter path and accepting the all-cops-are-bad line. Reagan is not ready to roll over and let someone say his cops are racists.
“Every single cop is being painted with the same brush. And when anyone in my rank and file conducts themself in a way that is not worthy of the uniform, they get dealt with,” Reagan replies.
Thomas, though, counters saying, “Every cop is wearing the same uniform, so if you get stopped walking while Black, how do you know which one is walking up on you?”
Again, Reagan defends his officers with a reply rarely seen on TV’s other police dramas. “Okay, how’s a cop to know what he’s walking up on? See, that fuse gets lit both ways. At least we can agree on that,” Reagan replies.
Naturally, the speaker does not agree on that. She calls the NYPD “criminals” who need to be “checked.” That spurs a frustrated Reagan to retort, “Boy, Regina, you need to get your head out of your ass.”
Watch below via MRC:
That is only the first confrontation between Speaker Thomas and Commissioner Reagan. The pair have a bit more fruitful talk later in the episode, but even there, Commissioner Reagan is steadfast in his support for the police.
In the second meeting, Reagan scolds Thomas for claiming that cops are “part of the problem and not part of the solution.” Reagan also points out that another part of the problem is that the Black Lives Matter reactionaries are not trying to fix anything but are instead “yelling past” their opponents.
In the exchange, Commissioner Reagan notes that the Black Lives Matter activists are doing nothing at all to help fix whatever problem they think exists in modern policing.
Watch below via MRC:
Reagan: The fact is, this city is dividing into two camps who are just shouting past each other.
Thomas: Frank, you’ve got to get your guys to deescalate.
Reagan: I think you do, too.
Thomas: Really?
Reagan: Just ’cause you say something doesn’t make it so.
This full-throated defense of the police is a different tactic than the treatment of police brutality in many of the other police and medical shows this season. Opening episodes of Chicago Med, Chicago P.D., SWAT, NCIS: New Orleans, This Is Us, The Neighborhood, and Law & Order: SVU all plied plots far more favorable to the Black Lives Matter accusations that cops are racist, violent, corrupt, and evil.
To note just a few, the opening plot arc for NCIS: New Orleans pits NCIS against the New Orleans Police Department, which is shown to be a racist cabal so powerful, even the city’s black mayor is afraid of it. Next, Law & Order: SVU kicked off its season with the message that white cops are racists and are helping advance the “systemic racism of the NYPD.”
Then, in CBS’s SWAT, a black pop star who needs the SWAT team’s protection is unhappy when a white cop speaks out against the attacks on the police by the Black Lives Matter movement. Naturally, the white cop is scolded for his defense of the police and is told he can’t go around saying such things.
The Chicago series of shows also featured racist cops in their debut episodes. Chicago Med opened with racist cops who would not let a black pregnant prisoner out of her cuffs while being treated. The black convict is portrayed as having been railroaded in her conviction. As to Chicago P.D., that series debuted with the portrayal of a massive inter-departmental conspiracy of racist cops who are so evil that they beat up any cop who tries to expose their racist actions.
Other dramas and comedies also pushed the anti-cop theme including This Is Us, and The Neighborhood. And while The Good Doctor was more interested in pushing coronavirus hysteria, one scene did portray a main character wearing a Back Lives Matter t-shirt.
In fact, not wanting to simply allow its various shows to figure out how to push the leftist line on their own, CBS went so far as to hire a left-wing activist group to “advise” them on how to push Black Lives Matter themes into their dramas this year.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.