CBS’s Blue Bloods season premiere appeared to reject claims that police departments are plagued with systemic racism.
“The December 4 season premiere ‘Triumph Over Trauma’ sees Commissioner Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck) arguing with City Council Speaker Regina Thomas (Whoopi Goldberg) over ‘systemic racism and oppression’ in the police. Rather than roll over and take it like every other network show, Frank stands up for his officers and shows no fear in telling the Speaker to stop disparaging the police,” NewsBusters pointed out on Saturday.
In the episode, Goldberg’s character tells Selleck’s character, “Every cop is wearing the same uniform, so if you get stopped walking while black, how do you know which one is walking up on you?”
“Okay, how’s a cop to know what he’s walking up on? See, that fuse gets lit both ways. At least we can agree on that,” Selleck says.
The scene culminated when Goldberg’s character says, “You have criminals in your ranks.”
Selleck’s character responded, “Boy … Regina, you need to get your head out of your ass.”
“True, Frank himself acknowledges that this wasn’t his best behavior, but considering the weeks of endless capitulation to BLM, this confrontation was sorely needed on television. Perhaps if Black Lives Matter activists didn’t also start arguments claiming all police officers are racist, we would actually get somewhere with police and community reform,” NewsBusters added.
Earlier this year, some television shows about the police announced they would include storylines that addressed the Black Lives Matter movement and perceived systemic racism or even change scripts altogether, including the comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
“We’ve had a lot of somber talks about it and deep conversations, and we hope through this we’re going to make something that will be truly groundbreaking this year. We have an opportunity, and we plan to use it in the best way possible,” Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Terry Crews said in June of the show. “Our showrunner, Dan Goor, they had four episodes all ready to go, and they just threw them in the trash. We have to start over. Right now, we don’t know which direction it’s going to go in.”
Protests and riots broke out across the country this summer following the death of George Floyd and other instances of black people dying during interactions with police. The protests soon evolved into demands from some to defund the police, which has been championed by lawmakers such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
