On the one hand you have the ultra conservative Dick Wolf american cop show. In this type of show cops are basically treated as being almost infallible, and that they need their abilities and power expanded to do their jobs. They beat criminals, throw them out of windows, constantly go off the book, etc. Lawyers are the ultimate evil, people are unreasonable when they fear cops and everyone is guilty until proven innocent. “Bad apples” aren’t just cops who abuse their power. Bad apples to them are legit serial killers and anything else is just “Tough decisions.”

But then you have the other side. I can’t think of a lot of cop shows like this, so its basically just The Rookie and Brooklyn 99. As much as I have a soft spot for B99 cause it’s funny, they both have something in common. They both portray cops with this wierd liberal propaganda filter. They don’t have the Gung ho john mclane esque rogue behavior and don’t actively support, yknow, torture. But they have the same throughline of “but da cops are good too, they care about the law and not abusing it and have all of these procedures and stuff.” What I mean is that they portray cops as though they don’t have the problems that everyone rightfully criticizes cops for. Which, idk, I don’t think that’s worse but I feel like its more infuriating. At least with a complete denial seen in shows like Blue Bloods and Law and Order, it feels like they aren’t just straight lying to you. It’s kinda like that Malcolm x quote about white liberals and such.

(I know this doesn’t matter that much, but I like cop shows and watched them a lot before my ideological transformation[yes, i know of “In the Name of the People,” I’ll watch it at some point], and now I’m being reccomended a deluge of cop content for some reason, so wanted to rant for a minute)