Too good to be true?
Many cops enjoy the show Blue Bloods which is the portrayal of an Irish, Catholic family living in New York. Each member of the family either is, or was in some branch of Law Enforcement: Grandpa, Henry, is the retired Commissioner of Police; Frank, his son, is the current Commissioner of Police; Danny, the oldest son, is a Detective; Joe - never seen except pictures - was a cop but was murdered on the job before the series began; Erin, the only daughter, is an Assistant District Attorney; Jamie, the youngest son, went to Harvard for Law but after graduating decided to join the NYPD.
I've been one of those living under a rock and had not seen the show until recently. I've been watching both the most recent episodes and the old ones on DVD. Full disclosure: I have not seen all the episodes.
I've been one of those living under a rock and had not seen the show until recently. I've been watching both the most recent episodes and the old ones on DVD. Full disclosure: I have not seen all the episodes.
But what do I mean by the blog title? Issues about the Reagan (the family name) 'mob' running New York aside, the question is: overall is the series good for law enforcement's image or does it portray such an unrealistic picture to skew the general public's view to an even greater degree than it already is?
Let's take a look at a couple examples and I'll start with Danny. Danny is the oldest son, has been on the force for more than 15 years and is a detective. Sounds like a good start; but the problems start in how Danny conducts himself: in different episodes he's seen "water boarding" a suspect, in a toilet, to get a confession; he's thrown a tire iron at a witness; threatened another with a blow torch to the eye; slammed suspect's heads into tables; started fist fights with others; punched prisoners; and I think that's just season 1.
Needless to say but this is not only unrealistic - at least in my dept. any rumor of any one of these types of behavior and I.A. would be sniffing around, and Danny seems to get a pass every time - it's also a horrible image. The vast majority of cops would never even dream of doing these things. The vast majority of investigations are completed in a totally professional manner: more Law and Order, less Dirty Harry. This day and age, we cannot afford one more show with cops slapping suspects around, breaking laws to get arrests and threatening witnesses.
Many in the public think this is still how we handle business and we don't need or want that stereotype reinforced. We went through that period in Law Enforcement history - just read the circumstances around why we have the Miranda ruling - but the reality today is very different.
Another example to consider in our question 'Is Blue Bloods Good or Bad for Law Enforcement?' is the Patriarch of the family: Frank. Frank is the Commissioner. He worked his way up from Patrol to Detective to a Brass position and finally to Commissioner. Frank is a strait laced and by-the-book as they come - it helps also that the "book" he's by is the Good One. Frank's morals and integrity are completely solid and he doesn't change them from the family dinner table to his desk. He's every Patrol Officer's dream supervisor: he actually remembers what it's like to be a Patrolman and makes decisions that way and not based on money or expediency. He keeps his moral compass on track by keeping his faith strong too: attending Mass every Sunday (and other days as well), going to confession every other week (can only manage every other month); and prays regularly about decisions he needs to make. The only impropriety he's ever shown being involved in is the implication of having a sexual relationship with a reporter - this is tempered by the fact that Frank is a widower, and thankfully he dumps her in episode 2 or 3 of season 1.
But does Frank being so good actually play against us in Law Enforcement? Let's think of a supervisor... ANY supervisor. How many make decisions based off of morals and not money? When's the last time your Chief, Commissioner or Sheriff told the Mayor / Governor / County Exec to pound sand when the Mayor / Governor / County Exec suggested not giving raises in the next budget?
Case and point: Frank gets approached by a State Senator and friend asking Frank to quash a citation for the Senator's secretary. Turns out the secretary got pegged for Operating While Intoxicated, 1st Offense. The main reason for the request is the Senator was in the car with the secretary, late at night. The report mentions the names of all occupants - they were the only two in the vehicle - and the Senator fears that if the ticket goes through, the press would pick up on this and imply that the Senator was having an affair. When Frank refuses to make the ticket go away, the Senator threatens to reveal a situation in Frank's professional career that could prove to be embarrassing to him. Frank's response? No. In his words, "I will not let a Patrol Officer know that I can be bought."
In the series, I thought this was excellent. What left a very bad taste in my mouth was not that Frank upheld his morals and convictions in the face of adversity, it is my own experience with Chiefs / Sheriffs / Commissioners: I knew one who cited himself for causing an accident. Great! Exemplary! The press got a hold of it the next day - I'm not sure how or who tipped them. It made a big splash that he cited himself. The article called him 'honest' and so forth. The day after the headlines, he quashed his own citation..........................................................................
The most unrealistic portrayal, though, of Frank is that he didn't want to be P.C. but was chosen to be P.C. because of his merits. Even though he didn't want it, he took the job out of a sense of Duty, and responsibility. You ever meet a head of dept that didn't angle to get it? Yeah, me neither.
There's Jamie, the youngest and a Beat Cop. He, like Frank, is steeped in honesty and integrity. The only difference between Jamie and Frank is Jamie has a law degree from Harvard and tends towards the "that's not technically legal" attitude rather than "this is what's right."
Then there's Erin who is a A.D.A. Besides her occasional comments that Law Enforcement tends to go over the line, she doesn't factor into our discussion much.
Henry, the retired P.C., is definitely Old School. Early on he's the one who occasionally pulls Danny aside and tells him who to ruff up and who to threaten to get the job done. But later in the series he seems to be more of a mentor to all of them, but especially to Frank since their lives are so similar (they're both P.C.'s, and widowers). Henry, on occasion, even reminds Frank, in later episodes, to hold to his morals and trust in God for the outcome - something unheard of just about anywhere else on T.V. where 'God' is either merely the prefix to 'damn it' or suffix to 'oh my'.
I'm split. I'm still watching the series and I think, for a T.V. show, it's well made, the acting is very good, the premise is very unique and the writing keeps me entertained.
Viewing it from the eyes of a cop, I'll just list why I think it's both good and bad.
It's bad for Law Enforcement because it doesn't do much to fight the image of cops out of control and going over the line to get a conviction. The show so unrealistically portrays the P.C. holding his morals and integrity that I fear no brass will ever try to be like him. I didn't address the unrealistic nature of some of the situations (Danny's in a shoot-out every other week but never seems to need to do paperwork on it; Jamie gets pulled into a deep, undercover sting of a Mob family but is never taken off Patrol; Frank makes decisions of discipline on both Jamie and Danny without so much as a peep from the media about bias;) Those bug me a little, but that sort of thing is in every cop show.
The show is good for Law Enforcement because it, generally, shows cops as heroes again. It shows a wholesome, Christian (Catholic) family of cops that - for the most part - do not leave their morals at home; they do the job not because of some power trip, but out of love of family, honor and desire to make a difference. This embodies what Lt. Col. Dave Grossman said about cops and 9/11: most of us have that secret desire to want to be there; that maybe we could have made a difference even though it may have cost us our lives.
Finally, I think the show is good for Law Enforcement because of the portrayal of Frank as P.C. It's a two-edged sword. Yes it's unrealistic. So are the portrayals of Aragorn as a king, Foyal as a detective, and Superman. But they're Archetypes of what we should strive to be. So, maybe there's someone out there who's on the 'fast track' or 'golden touched' who looks at Frank and says to themselves, "That's the type of supervisor I want to be." Yeah, it's unrealistic to expect every administrator to change his / her ways.... but maybe one....
I'll leave it up to you in blue (and brown, and green) out there to figure out for yourselves whether or not 'Blue Bloods' is good or bad for L.E. Let me know what you think.
Stay Safe, Happy Hunting and God's Speed,
The Blue Crucifix
Let's take a look at a couple examples and I'll start with Danny. Danny is the oldest son, has been on the force for more than 15 years and is a detective. Sounds like a good start; but the problems start in how Danny conducts himself: in different episodes he's seen "water boarding" a suspect, in a toilet, to get a confession; he's thrown a tire iron at a witness; threatened another with a blow torch to the eye; slammed suspect's heads into tables; started fist fights with others; punched prisoners; and I think that's just season 1.
Needless to say but this is not only unrealistic - at least in my dept. any rumor of any one of these types of behavior and I.A. would be sniffing around, and Danny seems to get a pass every time - it's also a horrible image. The vast majority of cops would never even dream of doing these things. The vast majority of investigations are completed in a totally professional manner: more Law and Order, less Dirty Harry. This day and age, we cannot afford one more show with cops slapping suspects around, breaking laws to get arrests and threatening witnesses.
Many in the public think this is still how we handle business and we don't need or want that stereotype reinforced. We went through that period in Law Enforcement history - just read the circumstances around why we have the Miranda ruling - but the reality today is very different.
Another example to consider in our question 'Is Blue Bloods Good or Bad for Law Enforcement?' is the Patriarch of the family: Frank. Frank is the Commissioner. He worked his way up from Patrol to Detective to a Brass position and finally to Commissioner. Frank is a strait laced and by-the-book as they come - it helps also that the "book" he's by is the Good One. Frank's morals and integrity are completely solid and he doesn't change them from the family dinner table to his desk. He's every Patrol Officer's dream supervisor: he actually remembers what it's like to be a Patrolman and makes decisions that way and not based on money or expediency. He keeps his moral compass on track by keeping his faith strong too: attending Mass every Sunday (and other days as well), going to confession every other week (can only manage every other month); and prays regularly about decisions he needs to make. The only impropriety he's ever shown being involved in is the implication of having a sexual relationship with a reporter - this is tempered by the fact that Frank is a widower, and thankfully he dumps her in episode 2 or 3 of season 1.
But does Frank being so good actually play against us in Law Enforcement? Let's think of a supervisor... ANY supervisor. How many make decisions based off of morals and not money? When's the last time your Chief, Commissioner or Sheriff told the Mayor / Governor / County Exec to pound sand when the Mayor / Governor / County Exec suggested not giving raises in the next budget?
Case and point: Frank gets approached by a State Senator and friend asking Frank to quash a citation for the Senator's secretary. Turns out the secretary got pegged for Operating While Intoxicated, 1st Offense. The main reason for the request is the Senator was in the car with the secretary, late at night. The report mentions the names of all occupants - they were the only two in the vehicle - and the Senator fears that if the ticket goes through, the press would pick up on this and imply that the Senator was having an affair. When Frank refuses to make the ticket go away, the Senator threatens to reveal a situation in Frank's professional career that could prove to be embarrassing to him. Frank's response? No. In his words, "I will not let a Patrol Officer know that I can be bought."
In the series, I thought this was excellent. What left a very bad taste in my mouth was not that Frank upheld his morals and convictions in the face of adversity, it is my own experience with Chiefs / Sheriffs / Commissioners: I knew one who cited himself for causing an accident. Great! Exemplary! The press got a hold of it the next day - I'm not sure how or who tipped them. It made a big splash that he cited himself. The article called him 'honest' and so forth. The day after the headlines, he quashed his own citation..........................................................................
The most unrealistic portrayal, though, of Frank is that he didn't want to be P.C. but was chosen to be P.C. because of his merits. Even though he didn't want it, he took the job out of a sense of Duty, and responsibility. You ever meet a head of dept that didn't angle to get it? Yeah, me neither.
There's Jamie, the youngest and a Beat Cop. He, like Frank, is steeped in honesty and integrity. The only difference between Jamie and Frank is Jamie has a law degree from Harvard and tends towards the "that's not technically legal" attitude rather than "this is what's right."
Then there's Erin who is a A.D.A. Besides her occasional comments that Law Enforcement tends to go over the line, she doesn't factor into our discussion much.
Henry, the retired P.C., is definitely Old School. Early on he's the one who occasionally pulls Danny aside and tells him who to ruff up and who to threaten to get the job done. But later in the series he seems to be more of a mentor to all of them, but especially to Frank since their lives are so similar (they're both P.C.'s, and widowers). Henry, on occasion, even reminds Frank, in later episodes, to hold to his morals and trust in God for the outcome - something unheard of just about anywhere else on T.V. where 'God' is either merely the prefix to 'damn it' or suffix to 'oh my'.
I'm split. I'm still watching the series and I think, for a T.V. show, it's well made, the acting is very good, the premise is very unique and the writing keeps me entertained.
Viewing it from the eyes of a cop, I'll just list why I think it's both good and bad.
It's bad for Law Enforcement because it doesn't do much to fight the image of cops out of control and going over the line to get a conviction. The show so unrealistically portrays the P.C. holding his morals and integrity that I fear no brass will ever try to be like him. I didn't address the unrealistic nature of some of the situations (Danny's in a shoot-out every other week but never seems to need to do paperwork on it; Jamie gets pulled into a deep, undercover sting of a Mob family but is never taken off Patrol; Frank makes decisions of discipline on both Jamie and Danny without so much as a peep from the media about bias;) Those bug me a little, but that sort of thing is in every cop show.
The show is good for Law Enforcement because it, generally, shows cops as heroes again. It shows a wholesome, Christian (Catholic) family of cops that - for the most part - do not leave their morals at home; they do the job not because of some power trip, but out of love of family, honor and desire to make a difference. This embodies what Lt. Col. Dave Grossman said about cops and 9/11: most of us have that secret desire to want to be there; that maybe we could have made a difference even though it may have cost us our lives.
Finally, I think the show is good for Law Enforcement because of the portrayal of Frank as P.C. It's a two-edged sword. Yes it's unrealistic. So are the portrayals of Aragorn as a king, Foyal as a detective, and Superman. But they're Archetypes of what we should strive to be. So, maybe there's someone out there who's on the 'fast track' or 'golden touched' who looks at Frank and says to themselves, "That's the type of supervisor I want to be." Yeah, it's unrealistic to expect every administrator to change his / her ways.... but maybe one....
I'll leave it up to you in blue (and brown, and green) out there to figure out for yourselves whether or not 'Blue Bloods' is good or bad for L.E. Let me know what you think.
Stay Safe, Happy Hunting and God's Speed,
The Blue Crucifix
