Using Cops in Comic & Animation

ToxicRamen 2020-08-04 22:19:31 UTC #1

I don't want to be political about this but I was curious if I should use cops as characters for my comics or not due to BLM & the constant incidents of police brutality. I mean the long running reality show Cops is now cancelled after 35 years and an artist that I follow on Twitter changed one of their characters from a cop to a private investigator. I mean people are actually getting mad that Toph from Avatar the Last Airbender became a cop in the sequel spin-off The Legend of Korra.

In one of my comics, I have an idea for space cops who protect the universe from various threats. But I'm afraid people would call me out on supporting corrupt cops and police brutality even though it's a webcomic and not real.

But what's your stance on having cops in webcomics or other media now?

CommanderMarty 2020-08-04 22:21:17 UTC #2

People who get mad over that are just looking for something to be mad at. I would say you are fine.

DiegoPalacios 2020-08-04 22:28:25 UTC #3

Should people stop showing teachers in media because of some cases of teachers commiting sexual abuse?

Should we stop showing politicians because some are extremely corrupt and abusive?

If we kept this train of tought we would be extremely limiting on media, specially the stories that focus on law enforcement or seek to denounce police brutality.

My thought is, if you wanna put cops in your story, do it. If they whine (because complaining about a profesion you dont like being in a fictional story is whining) that is their problem.

rainbowolfe 2020-08-04 22:33:40 UTC #4

Unless your comic goes out of it's way to depict police brutality as a good and positive thing, no one's going to bat an eye about the depiction of cops in your comic. If you want to include space cops, feel free, but some people just aren't going to read your comic for that reason. And that's fine. No one comic appeals to everyone. But no one's going to "cancel" you for depicting some form of law enforcement.

Cops was cancelled because it was pro-brutality propaganda finding the most wild, outlandish crimes to try to justify every other instance of police being too rough with potential criminals. The cops on that show were also encouraged to instigate conflict for content.
Saying people are "mad" about Toph becoming a cop is a bit of an exaggeration. People are frustrated because it's so out of character for Toph to up and become a cop.

KRWright 2020-08-04 22:39:09 UTC #5

Are they based on the current police force or a future one? Are you going to build your fictional police force taking into account the 'defund the police' models (i.e. where police only deal with serious crimes) or the current model? If you're going to use the current model, are you going to use it to critique the current police force, or present it without comment?

I think that's what you need to think about most. Not whether or not to portray police, but what policing might look like in the future.

((I have an FBI agent as a main character in my Premium series and presented the 'Fairy Bureau of Investigation' as a progressive bureau and an idealised version of what the police would be, including critique of what actually leads to serious crime regarding social issues. Haven't had any negative feedback yet on it.)

HGohwell 2020-08-04 22:45:42 UTC #6

I get where some people are coming from with this. I saw it one twitter quite a lot in fandom communities, you've have people retweeting BLM content and condemning police brutality and generally getting very angry about the systematic failures ect and then in the next breath "hey wouldn't it be sexy if character X was a cop and character Y was arrested and then...sexy times!" you get the idea. Mixed messages at best.

I don't think people were really saying get rid of all cop characters and all cop characters are evil. I don't think people are looking at things like SVU and saying they're evil, especially given how hard that show in particular tries to be careful and not shy away from realities, but I do think there is an element of let's be careful on how we're doing this. We're all aware of, particularly kids shows, were police are idolised and can do no wrong because they're The Law. And there was, it's mostly faded now, a period were rouge cops who beat up suspects and disobey orders were cool and trendy because they're so badass and the system that wants to protect people and do it by the books just holds them back, which came and went in cycles as we looked at the "old fashioned" police work as brutal and now we're all CSI and then it sorta came back again because we want more action and beating up bad guys is cool and torture always works.

But I think that applies to anything. I made a thread a while back on why do people say Snape is unrealistic and "you can ask any teacher and they'd be appalled and call it unprofessional and abusive" and yet almost everyone has at least one story where teachers have been like that and other teachers are complicit in that by ignoring kids when they do complain. Does that mean, as someone said above, teachers should only be portrayed as Snapes or shouldn't be portrayed at all?

Alternatively, skip police and just move onto a hard boiled private detective/detective agency. Same role in plot but less political baggage and in many cases less chances for some nerd to come along and tell you you've got procedure wrong actually.

ToxicRamen 2020-08-04 22:55:13 UTC #7

The idea I had is based on the superheroes in space comics like The Green Lantern Corps, Guardians of the Galaxy, and even the cartoon Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.

foxnflames 2020-08-04 22:57:14 UTC #8

There isn’t anything inherently wrong with having cops in your story but if you think that it will get impeded by your audience due to “controversy”, then you haven’t really thought through what your cops in your story will represent. As said, if you use them for social commentary or show them in an ideal way, then you should be fine.

And not everyone who is with BLM, ACAB, and for defunding the police will automatically jump down your throat for featuring cops. Give your potential audience some credit to actually see what you’re presenting them.

NickRowler 2020-08-04 22:58:21 UTC #9

It depends on if you are smart about it. I think how you show the cops and racism is something you need to be aware of. I've seen media address the issue and I've seen media avoid the issue. If you want to make your cop racist and corrupt yet the hero who saves the day, I would probably tell you no, don't do that.

I know some people are very sensitive and I think it is important to be mindful however, they also have the option to not read your comic if they don't want to.

Also going to point out, COPS was highly criticized of being unethical before it was cancelled. I think the recent movement just reenforced why it was problematic.

CommanderMarty 2020-08-04 22:59:30 UTC #10

What if the point of them being racist and corrupt is for a starting point for a character arc?

KRWright 2020-08-04 23:01:14 UTC #11

Some of those aren't really police forces. I mean, you could also look at Star Trek for inspiration there. Military command structure in a world where war is meant to be a thing of the past and humankind has risen above a lot of the social issues that plagued us. The utopian vision of what the future would be - but still using what people see as an anachronistic command structure with Captains etc. and a focus on exploration rather than domination.

One thing that I'd be wary of is setting up your police force as arbiters of justice. Guardians of the Galaxy works because it's a bunch of bad people essentially doing the right thing but outside formal command structures or without a sense that they are doing what's right because they have a totalitarian/authoritarian idea of right and wrong. They're a ragtag crew and they do the right thing sometimes because it's the right thing, sometimes for selfish reasons, sometimes because of a vendetta etc.

You basically want to avoid your police force being a Watchmen style force as well. No one likes Ozymandias (and you're not meant to like Rorschach either even though I know he's a fan favourite!).

TAMAnnoying 2020-08-04 23:01:33 UTC #12

Hey so long as you do your research on how investigations are meant to be handled, most sane people will be happy I remember watching Knifes Out and seeming how incompetent the police are even tho their are plenty of routines they have to do in order to make any kind of claim of death. Was eye rolling. same goes for shows like batwomen where police are not people but just props to be used in the set.

Just gotta rememeber that there are the good and bad in every profession. As someone who used to work in the food industry I can tell you a lot of horror stories of the good associates and bad associates doing things that could potentially harm costomers cause they just dgaf.

Just make them well written and invest time an energy into research just like every other part of your writing and people (the sane ones) will be happy

DiegoPalacios 2020-08-04 23:02:34 UTC #13

Some people got mad about Paw Patrol having a police dog.......i would not be surprised someone unironically gets mad about Toph being a cop......just because of cops.....

That argument seems to make more sense. On one side, she doesnt seem to be interested in keeping order , but on the other side, she enjoys a good battle and dealing with criminals who bend all kind of elements seems like a way to get that thrill. I would expect her to participate in a combat oriented bending sport, but pro-bending seems to have too many limitations for her enjoyment.

Never underestimate human's capability of nonsense.

Yeah, the popularization of the loose cannon that doesnt follow the rules backfired. Maybe is time to try more creative angles to make cops following the rules look cool.....

HGohwell 2020-08-04 23:05:03 UTC #14

I've actually seen this done really well, not with cops but with a racist main character in the military and getting to see him grow was really satisfying. It helped that his racism stemmed from being half Japanese half American and was very much a product of his own self hatred and issues with his identity, but you don't know that at the start. You just know he's a racist dick who was so bad people refused to work with him and I wanted to see our main heroine bitch slap him so hard (she didn't but she did the verbal equivalent so it was still satisfying). And the trick there was to have the rest of the cast around him be incredibly strong, to set it up as conflict and to make sure it was shown as a flaw. There's nothing wrong with having terrible people n fiction, after all, or seeing them grown as long as it's not being said yeah he's fine let's ignore those flaws.

NickRowler 2020-08-04 23:05:10 UTC #15

Um, isn't this mostly a meme spread by a rumor and most people were not advocating to remove him. Same with the Legos drama, it was all fake.

TAMAnnoying 2020-08-04 23:05:10 UTC #16

This is actually something I wish people had more guts to try and approach with good story telling. The only time I remember seeing it was in The movie CRASH Which was hard to watch cause i personally thought the movie was a bit too much of a mess passing wise to get any real authenticity out of character “arcs”

HGohwell 2020-08-04 23:06:24 UTC #17

You're very right, I have seen the stupidity of the internet and I should know better by now. I don't think most people are saying get rid of all cop characters.

KRWright 2020-08-04 23:06:47 UTC #18

Also booping in that you'll have to consider the history of your police force as well. Why were they established? You need to avoid some of the issues that modern police forces have regarding their history. For example most police forces in the US were established as slave catchers, then continuous and consequtive laws were passed to specifically target BIPOC. In the UK, they were an authoritarian force that was born out of suppression of the Irish. So I think whatever history you have for your police force in your world will dictate their command structure and philosophy to a degree.

I recommend watching The 13th documentary so that you're familiar with the history of the laws and stuff so that you can see why interpretations of the police have moved towards this way and research how police were instituted across the globe so you can avoid some of the more problematic tropes.

PaulieBlade 2020-08-04 23:10:03 UTC #19

I'd say people are overthinking this. If your story needs cops then have cops.

TAMAnnoying 2020-08-04 23:17:44 UTC #20

This is actually a very good point to when your cops should be “props” and when they should be part of the actual plot or be actual people. If you have no real reason to have cops in your story then why have them in other then to be preachy or because you like the uniform?

If you are writing a murder mystery or a cop drama on the other hand you need to make sure that the world your making is “alive” in the sense that the cops do in fact have a place and rules that they follow or at least or meant to follow and they should only follow or break rules if it is consistent with their character. For example if you have a cop character who likes to pick on speeders- they should have a reason for picking on speeders for some reason- it can be as drastic as someone they loved died in a car accident due to a speeding driver, or as petty as their ex wife was a speeder and they still have some issues to sort out. Just so long as you remember to make them internally consistent with themselves