‘Law & Order’ & Dick Wolf Slammed by John Oliver Over Portrayal of Police
John Oliver took aim at NBC‘s long-running procedural Law & Order on Sunday’s (September 11) episode of Last Week Tonight, highlighting its portrayal of the police.
The comedian presented a segment about Law & Order and its many spin-offs and how they help sell a positive view of law enforcement. He focused on the show’s creator Dick Wolf and how he was influenced by Dragnet, a series that worked closely with the LAPD. As Oliver pointed out, Wolf similarly has a “close, behind-the-scenes relationship with the NYPD, employing officers as consultants and boasting about the access he had.”
Oliver then cited an interview with a former Law & Order writer, who said that there was a feeling that they couldn’t paint the police in a bad light because then the NYPD would make it difficult for the show to shoot in New York. “Which does make sense, doesn’t it? The NYPD is famously anti-shooting, unless they’re the ones doing it,” Oliver quipped.
He did point out that the show gets certain details right, “like specific laws, jargon, and crime scene procedures,” but that, “crucially, it also makes a lot of choices that significantly distort the big picture of police.” This includes the perpetrator almost always being arrested halfway through the episode and justice being served by the end of the episode. In reality, 97 percent of cases never go to trial due to plea deals.
“Obviously, Law & Order cannot reflect that reality,” Oliver said. “It would be unwatchable. Nobody wants to watch a show where 97 percent of episodes end with two lawyers striking a deal in a windowless room and then you get to watch the defendant serve six months and struggle to get a job at their local Jiffy Lube.”
Oliver went on to reveal that defendants on the show are “disproportionately white, male, older and from the middle or upper classes,” which he said Wolf explained by saying, “There are no rich-white-guy pressure groups. You can do anything to want to rich white guys and nobody cares.”
However, because of this, Oliver argued, “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.”
“Law & Order is never going to grapple with the reality of policing in a meaningful way,” Oliver concluded. “Because fundamentally, the person who is responsible for Law & Order and its brand is Dick Wolf, and he knows exactly what he wants his shows to do and, importantly, not to do.”
Is John Oliver right? Let us know what you think in the comments section, below.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Season 9, Sundays, 11 pm et, HBO
Law & Order–SVU–Organized Crime, Premiere Crossover, Thursday, September 22, 8/7c, NBC
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