Cops and Robbers

Matt has been chronicling and rightly condemning the kind of terrifying assumptions that underly TNT's new police procedural show, Dark Blue, a portrait of rogue cops in Los Angeles. But I was watching USA's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit marathon to take a break from the heavy rotation of Vietnam War movies I have on this weekend in preparation for this piece I'm working on, and was reminded how strange the network's tagline for such programming is. USA bills these events as good entertainment for people "who don't mind a little flexibility with constitutional rights." The line's delivered in a very tongue-in-cheek tone, which is in keeping with the network's sarcastic approach to its advertising. Often it's very funny, particularly when the shows' characters cross over in advertising and talk to each other. But the idea that police violations of suspects' constitutional rights is funny is odd to say the least, in particular because while the detectives in the Law & Order franchise don't always behave beautifully, there are usually consequences when they cross the line from aggressive to violent. The "flexibility" line suggests USA thinks brutality is a selling point for viewers, something to be played up, even chuckled at.