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The Shield Enters its Fourth Season of Twisted Police Stories |
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November 7, 2005
By Sarah Clark
sarah.clark@educationfactor.org
Education Factor Column
If police work is anything like the hit FX series The Shield, police have a tough job to do, especially in tough urban areas of Los Angeles, where the show is staged and where all manner of criminals get mixed up in a swirl of crime that consistently shocks.
Vic Mackey is a tough-as-nails detective who's seen it all and is afraid of no one. He follows a weight training schedule, cultivating a body that's as intimidating as his sharp gaze. Vic's not afraid to cross the line between right and wrong to get a confession from a sex offender or protect his informant on the street. How close is the rough and tumble world of Vic Mackey to jobs of real LAPD police officers and detectives?
Is Art Reflecting Life?
According to Judith Grant, an associate professor at the University of Ohio, a string of real police corruption scandals have paved the way for a show like The Shield to be embraced by a wider audience. Grant says that "people seem to have significantly lowered their standards for law enforcement officers, and have accepted these kinds of portrayals [such as The Shield] as entertainment."
A Tough Police Job
Entertainment critics and industry professionals have even suggested that The Shield closely resembles the 1998 LAPD scandal that went down at the Rampart Station. There, police officers and detectives allegedly employed questionable police tactics, such as stealing cocaine stored as evidence to resell it for personal gain. That would suggest that events and characters in The Shield reflect what real LAPD cops encounter in their training and on the job. Those who are interested in law enforcement as a career will have to be prepared to deal with corruption, whether it be from outside criminals or from inside the police force.
Sources:
Picturing Justice: the Online Journal of Law and Popular Culture
About the Author
Sarah Clark is a freelance writer based in Arlington, Virginia.
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