Good Cop > Bad Cop
by Patrice Lockert Anthony
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| The Big Easy (Image source: morefilms.de) |
In 1987 Columbia Pictures released a Jim McBride film
called, The Big Easy. The screenplay was written by Daniel Petrie, Jr, and
starred Dennis Quaid (Detective Lt. Remy McSwain) and Ellen Barkin (A.D.A. Anne
Osbourne). It was filmed on location in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Remy McSwain sees himself as an honest cop. He arrests the
bad guys. He serves the community. He also, with the participation of other
cops on the squad, helps himself to monies from the “widows and orphans” fund.
This is okay for him because he uses it to pay for his kid brother’s college
tuition.
After he’s caught (on tape) accepting a bribe for
protection; he is exonerated after some of his fellow cops arrange to magnetically
erase the evidence being held in the evidence room. He’s happy about the
outcome.
Remy doesn’t think any better because this is how it’s
always been. His father, and other relatives before him, now, and probably
future generations of McSwains would have been "innocently” on the take if
not for a state assistant district attorney.
Enter Anne Osbourne. There’s some powerful chemistry here.
They feel the tug of attraction, but Ms. Osbourne is there to expose corrupt
cops. Cops on the take. Cops who murder. She’s after bad cops. She wants them
gone (investigated, charged, and doing time). Problem. The "good” cops
aren’t helping her do her job.
Unfortunately for their mutual attraction; Anne is the
prosecutor when Remy is caught with his hand in the cookie jar. She is dismayed
on account of the attraction, but also certain of the conviction. She has an
eye witness, and the tape. Too bad that’s not enough.
After the trial, Remy’s family throws a party for him.
Everyone is celebrating. Remy has his uncle (a cop) all but kidnap Anne to
bring her to the party. Remy hasn’t figured out yet that Anne isn’t
amused. She informs him, “You still
don’t get it, do you? Why don't you just face it, Remy; you’re not one of the
good guys anymore?”
Why am I sharing this movie plot with you, my readers? It’s
because there is a larger lesson to be learned . . . by real life cops.
Precincts are tight places. Everybody knows other folks’ business. This is true
because in a precinct, you are your brother’s (and sister’s) keeper. Cops have
to support each other. They need to know they have each other’s backs. When
that support spreads to knowing who’s corrupt, however, who’s racist (and
commits racist acts, or any of the other isms), who bullies, and bashes, who
uses excessive force; it is no longer having your fellow cop’s back. It is
corruption. When a cop fails to come forward, or find some way of shining a
light on what is wrong in the ranks; that cop becomes complicit in any
wrongdoing, any crime committed. A cop who knows, yet fails to shine that light
is also guilty.
Cops everywhere hate it when people (witnesses) refuse to
come forward. It makes their job more difficult and feeds into a frustration
that makes it all but impossible to serve the community well.
Community members who witness crimes should, in whatever way
possible, endeavor to shine a light on the problem and help the police solve
the crime, and help make the community a safer place.
This is just as true, if not more so, for cops. Cops carry
guns, mace, sticks, and the badge of authority to bend people to their will.
That means the members of the community have to place their trust in them to do
what’s right.
Too often that trust is violated. And every time it is
violated; it is because someone on the force knew better, or at least
suspected, and yet refused to shine the light. Edmund Burke said that, “The
only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” We
don’t need any more facile explanations, or defensive posturing. No more
ignoring the problem, or dismissing the painfully obvious. No more deflecting.
No more lying. If you’re not participating in the solution . . . if you refuse
to shine a light on what is wrong at the precinct . . . if you are still in
lock-step with allowing the corruption, and enjoying the privilege and power of
the badge, well . . . “Why don’t you just face it . . . you’re not one of the
good guys anymore?”
In faith~
THE DECOLONIZER
December 2015
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