Cellphone footage of police brutality made Cops obsolete

The Atlantic

Cops, which was canceled last week after 31 years, became a reliable recruiting tool and a way for police departments to rehab their reputation (like the LAPD in the aftermath of Rodney King beating and the Los Angeles Riots), says Sophie Gilbert. "Cops wasn’t really portraying reality," says Gilbert. "It was propaganda, crystallized and edited into addictive portions, served up without any of the local context or personal information or historical detail that might slow down the rush of seeing so-called criminals taken off the streets. It was the longest-running prime-time show in the United States, and it was always filmed in partnership with local police forces." Gilbert adds: "What seems to have damned the show most of all, and facilitated its overdue end, is actual documentary video—captured not by professionals, but by bystanders with cellphones. If Cops is a simulacrum of American police work, polished and cut and spliced into a hollow replica, the videos of police officers killing Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Keith Lamont Scott, Danny Ray Thomas, Eric Garner, George Floyd, and too, too many others are indubitably real. And in recent weeks, videos depicting officers abusing their power—in response to largely peaceful protests across the country—have flooded the internet. No producers have edited the footage showing officers in Buffalo, New York, pushing 75-year-old Martin Gugino onto the ground with such force that they damaged his brain. No police chief has approved the videos of NYPD cruisers hurtling into crowds, sending protesters literally flying. The era of valorized cops on TV is over."