RB> The definite overwhelming message of the media is that, as you all
 RB> say, "while  there are a few bad apples, we have the best police force
 RB> in the world, blah  blah." Shows like Real Stories glorify cops and
 RB> demonize criminals, even down  to those "re-enactments" with some of
 RB> the worst acting ever, where the cop is a  beefy John Wayne and the
 RB> criminal is some low-life white trash drunk.
We probably do have the best police forces in the world, and the bad apples
are few and far between. Tremendous resources are expended when that bad
apple is identified, and it is usually other cops who heat up the charcoal
for the grilling of the bad one. I'm not familiar with "Real Stories", unless
you are talking about some department's version of Crime Stoppers or some
similar program. We have re-enactments here every week, and the participants
are not actors. We don't have the money in these volunteer programs to hire
actors or use high quality motion picture equipment to make the program. We
simply do the best we can with what we have to use. At least in our case, I
would disagree with your stereotype of the participants. The cops used may be
women, smaller officers, or whoever we can get to volunteer. The criminal
used is as close as we can get to the description of the witnesses. So the
criminal portrayed may be black, white, red, drunk, sober, etc., whatever the
case may involve. Regardless of the quality of the acting, our re-enactments
result in a ton of arrests, recovery of stolen property, getting dope off of
the street, etc. Just one question, do you feel that criminals should be
glorified instead of demonized? Are the criminals actually the good guys?
Tom Rightmer - A Victims' Rights Advocate
... Avoid reality at all costs.
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