John Oliver lobbed harsh criticism in opposition to Dick Wolf on Sunday’s episode of “Last Week Tonight,” arguing the producer’s long-running TV collection “Law & Order” was extra curious about mythologizing the felony justice system than mentioning its corruption.
Oliver stated the collection “makes a lot of choices that significantly distort the big picture of police,” like utilizing an countless roster of wealthy white characters the police can abuse with out repercussions. He argued this stealthily normalized police brutality, and famous it was an intentional choice by Wolf.
“Another reason that we have so many rich, white perps is that there are no rich, white guy pressure groups,” Wolf told The Baltimore Sun in 2003. “You can do anything you want to rich, white guys, and nobody cares. Really.”
Oliver stated “Law & Order” basically served as propaganda for the police as a result of “instead of depicting a flawed system riddled with structural racism, the show presents exceptionally competent cops working within a largely fair framework that mostly convicts white people.”
He cited a May 2021 study from Mass Mediated Representations of Crime and Criminality, which concluded that the present’s fictional “offenders were disproportionally White, male, older, and from the middle or upper-classes.”
Oliver stated the collection is “never going to grapple with the reality of policing in a meaningful way.” Wolf himself beforehand admitted he was “unabashedly pro-law enforcement,” as Oliver confirmed in a clip.
He additionally confirmed an interview wherein Wolf stated he didn’t need to use his present to “do Abner Louima,” referring to a Black man who NYPD officers beat and sodomized in 1997. Louima suffered serious injuries and was hospitalized for 2 months. Five officers have been charged for his or her roles within the assault, and two have been despatched to jail, with the precept assailant sentenced to 30 years. (The different three officers had their convictions reversed attributable to inadequate proof). Louima acquired an $8.75 million settlement from the town for the assault.
Wolf dismissed the assault because of “one or two bad apples in a police force of 35,000.”
Oliver stated Wolf had a “close, behind-the-scenes relationship with the NYPD,” which distorted public notion of the group.
“One study found ‘viewers of crime dramas are more likely to believe the police are successful at lowering crime, use force only when necessary, and that misconduct does not typically lead to false confessions,’” stated Oliver. “Which would be great if it were true.”
See extra from Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight” beneath.