Cops: A Bad Influence 20 Years and Counting

I come from a law enforcement family. I am currently related to a myriad of law enforcement officers from detectives to probation officers to correctional officers to prison maintenance men. My great grandfather was even the chief of the state police during the late 50s (although that apparently didn’t end too well). But even with the influence of the criminal justice system in my family life, I have always known one simple truth: The show “Cops” is terrible.

Now, I don’t mean terrible in the sense that it is of poor quality, such as how “Castle” is a terrible show (returning to ABC September 21!). No, I mean it is bad for the people who watch it. It affects the viewers on a subconscious level and after prolonged exposure makes them into inferior human beings.

For those of you who aren’t in the know, “Cops” is a reality television show that began airing on FOX in 1989. The premise of the show is that a camera crew follows around police officers from different cities and films what their shift is like. Now, the important aspect of the show is that a good portion of it is filmed from a first-person view of the camera operator.

This point of view is important because it allows for an extra depth of submersion. After all, first-person view is how we all see the world, so when we see a show like “Cops” or films like “The Blair Witch Project” and “Cloverfield,” it helps us feel as though we are there. And since the camera operator is working with the police, we feel as though we are there and on the same side as the cops. This means that when the cops to catch a meth head or some other public nuisance, we feel as though we helped in some way. I mean, if your football team wins, then you won, too, right? And how do we feel after we did something good like help arrest some villain? That’s right, we feel good.

But, really, we didn’t do anything to feel good. We sat on a sofa chomping away on snack food while our empty eyes reflected flashes of light from the TV screen. But still, due largely to the camera subjective camera, but also to the entire premise of the show, we have that good, prideful feeling. And that feeling, when unearned, is dangerous.

Let’s shift gears here for a second. Say you reward a child for doing something bad. What happens? You just taught that child that when he or she does something bad, they will get a treat. So, in order to get treats, the child will continue doing bad deeds and eventually turn into a small, impish cretin. That’s behaviorism 101. The same logic goes for John Doe watching “Cops” at home. He sits at home watching “Cops,” which while certainly not evil isn’t exactly a venerable deed, and gets rewarded when the police make their arrest. Mr. Doe likes the feeling of being rewarded (of course, this reward is on a subconscious level) and watches more “Cops.” Before you know it, Mr. Doe has gone from a mediocre individual to an obnoxious, arrogant man whose highest point of the day is watching some guy named Jethro get tackled while running down the mean streets of Maynardville, Tennessee.

In short, “Cops” does nothing but enact a feedback loop to cause elitist people to feel more elitist. It is nothing but sensationalist drivel that is as good for the mind as fast-food is for the arteries. However, since it is also as addictive as fast-food, it’s been around for 20 years and will probably be around for 20 more. And all the while it’ll be working its magic on the public, turning semi-decent folks into pretentious parasites.

Oh well, at least we got a catchy theme song out of the deal.