Years ago, I was the PTA president for my kids' school. One of the items I worked hard to achieve was to bring back the Family Hour on TV.
Back then, with only 5 channels to choose from, there wasn't much available on TV for older kids to watch. Most TV programs were starting to show too much sex and violence (I know, laughable today) and as a mother, I wanted my kids to enjoy wholesome programming like I watched.
We did win that battle. All broadcast TV programs airing between 8:00 and 9:00 are to be rated G or PG. Please note that keyword broadcast.
Now with cable and hundreds of channels, I often wonder how parents today monitor what their kids watch.
More importantly, I am now wondering what the police officers in this country are watching.
My husband brought the subject up one evening while we were watching NCIS. Of course, there was a shoot-out. And of course the suspect was killed.
"Why can't they just aim for a leg or foot?" he asked.
Why indeed?
So I started becoming aware. And just of the shows I watch,( NCIS, NCIS Los Angeles, Criminal Minds, Hawaii 5-0, and Castle,) in every episode someone kicks in a door guns blazing. A fleeing suspect is fired upon, often by more than one cop.
No search warrants- not even probable cause. Most of the time the characters start out only wanting to question the individual. But as soon as he takes off running, the guns come out.
And it's worse in the movies. I watched one movie where between the good guys (cops) and the bad guys almost ten minutes of constant gunfire went off. And nobody was getting killed. Is this what the police on the streets today think is reality? That they can empty their guns and nobody will get hurt?
I spent too many years worrying how what my kids watched will effect their thinking on violence. Now it's so prevalent everywhere, I'm afraid it's become the norm.
How many young kids are watching these shows and saying, "When I grow up, I want to be a cop, so I can shoot the bad guys."
Except, I have always believed that in this country, who the bad guys are is determined in a court of law.
Not by the cop on the street.