Dan Abrams told his Twitter followers on Tuesday night that Live PD, the cable TV show he has hosted for almost four years, would be coming back soon following a brief hiatus related to the nationwide protests of police violence.
To all of you asking whether #LivePD coming back. . .The answer is yes. All of us associated with the show are as committed to it as ever. We are still discussing some specifics but I want to assure the #LivePDNation that we are not abandoning you.
— Dan Abrams (@danabrams) June 10, 2020
The show has since been canceled.
A&E, the cable network which aired the show, released a statement saying, “This is a critical time in our nation’s history and we have made the decision to cease production on Live PD. Going forward, we will determine if there is a clear pathway to tell the stories of both the community and the police officers whose role it is to serve them.”
Why our “critical time” merits no more Live PD was not explained. Apparently, enough people are upset at police that the network doesn’t want to associate itself with that which upsets them.
A&E perhaps meant to lend credence to the notion, as many news reports have framed it, that Live PD glorifies policing, and police don’t deserve glorification at a time like this. I feel rather ambivalent about the “glorifying police” language. It could have proper use, but in these conversations, “glorify” seems to me like a rhetorical tool used to overwhelm the interpreter. Such a weighty word, employed in such a sensitive context, causes someone to presume an undue measure of importance about motive. What does it mean? Does it mean that the show, its producers, and the network are feeding us what they want us to think about police? Does it mean they want us to think everything that police do is acceptable?
The producers and hosts probably do want us to think positively of the police. The show was co-hosted by a current cop and a former cop. I can imagine that those guys wish for people to see cops as a community asset. Sheriff Leon Lott of Richland County, South Carolina, one of the counties where Live PD filmed, said this about the show: “The community response to our involvement in Live PD has been overwhelmingly positive. It has served to humanize deputies and showcase the transparency of our department.”
My question is, if their motive is to humanize deputies, so what? Now seems like the time for that. How does a cable network not get behind that?
A brand has other considerations besides its critics. A&E probably, like HBO and Cops owner Fox, shuttered at the idea that it was associated with something some customers, and potential customers, don’t like. Somehow, A&E justified the show for four years and suddenly can’t justify it. As tragic and unique as was George Floyd’s death, there have been too many others like him, though, whose deaths somehow didn’t cause A&E to forego its show.
