Against Miguel’s suggestion, I watched the new Fox show Deputy on Hulu.
What they did at the beginning of one episode was so bad and dangerous I couldn’t let it go.
One young black male deputy is playing basketball with his buddy on a public court when two LAPD officers show up. The buddy is a suspect in the murder of a drug dealer.
The buddy takes off on foot. One LAPD officer chases him, the other stays with the deputy.
The deputy says “I’m a sheriff’s deputy, let me show you my badge” and then goes towards his gym bag. The LAPD officer draws his gun and makes the deputy go down with his hands on his head.
The whole thing is played off as racism and the young black deputy later launches into a speech about standing up to racism and blah, blah, blah.
What utter horseshit.
Let’s take a look at this from the cop’s point of view.
They are there to execute a warrant against a suspected murderer with a record of drug dealing, and the suspect takes off on foot.
The guy he’s playing ball with then wants to go rummaging around in his gym bag.
Sure he says he a sheriff’s deputy, but that might just be a cock and bull story, and the entire time, he’s advancing towards his gym bag.
Making the guy go face down with his hands on his head until the contents of the bag are secured and his identity is verified isn’t just not racist, it’s proper police procedure.
What would have happened if the deputy unzipped his bag and the first thing the cop saw was his gun?
I’m not sure why the deputy didn’t get that.
His response should have been: “I’m a sheriff’s deputy. My badge and service weapon are in my gym bag. You can go in it and see for yourself.”
This is the kind of bullshit that happens when you are desperate to shoehorn “the police are racist” into your story whenever possible.
I’m not a cop, but this is sort of thing that you are forced to think about when you conceal carry. What do you do if you are forced to interact with police when armed.
The procedure I was taught was to say:
“Officer, I have a concealed carry permit. My firearm is [location, e.g., on my hip, ankle, in my glove], My ID and permit are [location, e.g., in my wallet in my right hip pocket]. How would you like me to proceed?”
Always start with the announcement of the permit, to let them know you are law-abiding. Then make it clear they are the ones in charge of the situation.
I actually had a cop who taught one my CCW courses say “police are like wild animals, they will get aggressive if they are startled.”
I’ve only had to do this once. I was pulled over, it was for expired tags if I remember correctly. But my gun was IWB strong side and my wallet was in my right hip pocket.
The cop had me get out of the truck with my hands on my head, he took my gun and held onto it while I got out my wallet and showed him my ID and permit. When it was all over, he handed me back my unloaded gun and it was done.
I didn’t feel like this was an assault on my honor and I lived, which is the important thing.
Rightly or wrongly, a cop will never put your dignity over the chance that he will get shot.
It’s getting ridiculous how these shows are pushing the narrative that any minor affront to the black character’s dignity is far worse than the black character doing something that the cop could interpret as a threat.
Now – compare that to “Justified” – Raylan would have put two in the deputy’s head and gotten a half hearted warning from Art, and smiling compliment from my favorite character, Tim ‘Sniper’ Gutterson.
“Deputy” plays the ‘boo-hoo, Ima poor minority’ thing pretty heavily. And the show’s stance on illegal aliens makes me puke (the show, like most tv shows, supports illegals, most likely because illegals don’t do script writing, grip work or act in Hollywood. If they ever do, expect a massive blowback (especially on the writing or acting part) from The Industry.
I’m giving it one or two more episodes before I shut it off. It’s already pissing me off over the above mentioned things. Any more and it can go the way of most tv these days.
Don’t know how the channel that brought back Tim Allen’s “Last Man Standing” can be so… stupid.
I mean, just flip over to A&E’s “Live PD” where we get to see stupid people of all color and make do stupid things while Law Enforcement holds their tongues and doesn’t do stupid things. (The show and it’s spinoffs are rapidly making A&E become A$E.)
Between “Cops”, “The First 48”, “Live PD”, and all of the police live reality reenactment shows, it is obvious to most thinking people that, no, it’s not the cops who are mostly behaving badly, but the people the cops are copping.