Celebrating police brutality

Last night on Law & Order SVU, Detective Elliot Stabler nearly killed a suspect by strangling him, in a child molestation case because he thought the man was hurting small kids. Turns out, the man was innocent, in spite of an earlier conviction and ten-year sentence for child rape. The real molester was the boy's father, who later in the show Detective Stabler nearly hit over the head with a metal chair.


The message of such shows? Cops are hard working, caring people who will do anything, including assault suspects, to achieve justice for crime victims, especially the most vulnerable of all (innocent children).


In reality, officers cannot put their hands on suspects in custody, and certainly not during an interrogation. In real life, Stabler would have been fired and his department sued for millions. Yet, on the show, literally nothing happened to him.

Given that normal citizens never see a real police interrogation, this creates major misconceptions about what happens behind closed doors, as well as what is permissible by the law (never mind the misconception about how common is police brutality).