Throughout the 2020-21 television season, Blue Bloods has been the rare network cop show that has refused to kowtow to the woke BLM mob.
The show did it again this week with an episode that called-out politicians and media for condemning cops based on civilian complaints devoid of any context.
In the episode, 'Guardian Angels,' on Friday, April 9, a New York newspaper does a deep dive into every excessive force complaint going back to the 1990s against Lieutenant Sid Gormley (Robert Clohessy), assistant to New York Police Commissioner Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck).
Soon Frank is in the mayor's (Dylan Walsh) office defending his lieutenant against the accusations. The complaints do sound bad, but Frank asks the mayor to look for the broader context behind them.
Frank: Mr. Mayor... You need to look at the context of each complaint.
Mayor Chase: Actually, I don't. I need to look at them the way the public does, the city council does.
Frank: Then you're not doing your job.
Mayor Chase: Nobody's gonna look at them like you do, okay?
Lieutenant Gormley offers to resign to spare Frank anymore hassle from the public, but in a bold move Frank holds a press conference where he reads out civilian complaints leveled against him as an officer in the 1980s.
Frank: "The officer threw me forcefully to the ground and then handcuffed me, wrenching my hands behind my back while I was in great pain and shouting to him that I didn't do it." The man who made this complaint was a serial rapist fleeing an attack. What he describes is textbook procedure for apprehending a suspect in a violent crime. He was found guilty and is serving a life sentence. Not a single witness to his arrest corroborated the allegations of excessive force. Hence the cop in question was cleared of wrongdoing. This complaint, dated July 10th, 1982, was filed against Detective Frank Reagan. And there are more where that came from. Almost every active cop eventually faces accusations. Some of them are substantiated, and that cop is disciplined or terminated. But many times these complaints, like the ones against Lieutenant Gormley, like this one against me are misleading at best and sheer fiction at worst. But if the court order releasing years of civilian complaints means we are judged without context and convicted without a defense, then yes, Lieutenant Gormley will go. If that's what the people want, I will hold the door for him. And then I will follow him out.
Wow, a show that asks the public to see the full picture and try to see the complex and dangerous situations police officers face every day. That is radical in an age when Black Lives Matter torches cities, vilifies officers and demands communities defund police departments.
The show goes further and criticizes New York City's recent insane bail laws. In 2020, a bail reform law took effect that ordered judges to free thousands of arrestees, including flight risks and those charged with violent crimes. Needless to say, this led to an immediate uptick in crime by reoffenders.
In the episode, a thug who sucker punched a police officer is let out under the new no-bail rules. He goes onto to then punch another police officer, Frank's daughter-in-law Eddie Reagan (Vanessa Ray). Later, at the family dinner table, Eddie walks in bruised and Frank's children, Jamie (Will Estes), Danny (Donny Wahlberg) and Erin (Bridget Moynahan), discuss the new bail laws the led to the assailant going free.
Jamie: There was no justice to be found, Dad. He was out on bail for sucker punching another cop.
Danny: Out on bail? Can you explain how the hell that makes any sense?
Erin: It doesn't. And I didn't write the new bail laws, and I certainly don't agree with them.
Such blunt honesty about the damage caused by leftist coddling of criminality is rare on network television nowadays. It is uncertain whether Blue Bloods will return for a 12th season next year. It has yet to be greenlit for the fall.
Blue Bloods is a unique network show with a conservative star in which a close-knit family regularly gathers around the dinner table and says grace before eating. If it is not renewed, network television will mostly be left with woke cops shows that are now prone to seeing the boys in blue as the villains.
