Fantasy writers are some of the most creative and imaginative people, yet still can’t imagine worlds without the police. What I mean is that certain aspects of the status quo keep showing up in fantastical media. How is it that people can imagine dragons, men in metal suits, and what not but can’t imagine a world without the police.
To ultimately place this element of the status quo into fantastical stories like “Mortal Kombat” and the MCU is to say that these aspects of reality are normal and shouldn’t be questioned. The point here is that by allowing the police to continue to be prevalent in media such as this, it restricts the imagination of the audience to the status quo. So instead of the fantastical world of “Paw Patrol,” its the real world plus a few mystical things.
Imaginary Boundaries
Furthermore, fictional media is supposed to be the place in society for people to imagine worlds in the future. Fiction gives people the ability to imagine whatever kind of world or society they want. Yet, to continuously place the police in those worlds without critique within the narrative of the story normalizes their presence in the real one, and implicitly justifies their actions. The police are an oppressive force that enforces the way of the world. So, their inclusion within a story, without narrative critique normalizes their presence in the real world.
An example of this would be telling a story about ” crime fighters” where the police in that story are taken at face value, instead of the narrative investigating their role in the maintenance of the status quo. Furthermore, if that story doesn’t address the socio economic factors that largely contribute to crime, then it centers the police as a morally “righteous” figures fighting the morally dubious ” criminals”. This dynamic can be seen in many cop shows that glorify the actions of the police and treat them as both necessary for society, and good for their communities.
“There’s little evidence that police stop crime. Over 50 years of crime data shows only 2% of crimes end in conviction. Police don’t stop crime that has occurred, nor do they prevent it from happening. ” according to Prism Reports.
Moreover, these restrictive boundaries on imagination normalizes the oppressive state of the world. Every time that a person sees an element of policing without the existence of policing in and of itself not being questioned, it becomes normalized. The normalization of policing has major consequences for society. The first is that people forget the real impacts that police have on marginalized communities.
Policing
“Black people, who account for 13 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for 27 percent of those fatally shot and killed by police in 2021, according to Mapping Police Violence, a nonprofit group that tracks police shootings. That means Black people are twice as likely as white people to be shot and killed by police officers,” according to NBC News.
Furthermore, the police are soldiers of the state, that is to say, the enforcers of the status quo. What this means is that the police maintain society and its hierarchies. This can be seen in the aggressive reaction to protestors from the police.
What this means is that the police, in many cases, have the full immunity to do whatever they want whenever they want, for whatever reason. This includes killing Black people disproportionately with very little punishment in return.
Brighter Worlds
Furthermore, maybe one day the writers of the world will create stories without the police or policing more often. Sometimes, its ok to write fantastical stories with worlds that are nothing like the status quo. The reason why is that when when people read fiction, they suspend their disbelief for a moment. In this suspension of disbelief, people are capable of suppressing their distrust for futuristic visions of the world. In the real world, if a person talks to another about the current state of the world they may get shut down.
Yet, stories have the capacity to help people understand complex social issues while also providing possible solutions. For example, the first “Star Wars” trilogy was about the war in Vietnam, and featured a fascist dictatorship. George Lucas was able to write a story where the status quo of imperialism was actively critiqued.
Like so, the writers of the world can do the same with the realities of policing. The police exist in an inherently antagonistic relationship with the marginalized communities of the world. The way that the police operate and harm people isn’t normal and shouldn’t be treated as such.
Opinion by Kenneth Mazerat
Sources:
NBC News: Report: Black people are still killed by police at a higher rate than other groups by Curtis Bunn
NAACP: THE ORIGINS OF MODERN DAY POLICING
Gamer Radar: “Batman is a fascist” – the tragic comic history behind Blue Beetle’s most controversial joke by
PrismReports: Police don’t stop crime, but you wouldn’t know it from the news by
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Nathan Rupert’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
First Inset Image Courtesy of Chad Davis’ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
