Oh, the humanity
Live PD is now gone too
Maybe it's a long stretch and because I just heard a seminar on addiction... (and maybe I am generalizing too much) One major topic was that the vast majority of addicts in therapy are the ones who lost connection to others (family, friends, spouse). The other is that what gives people first contact with substances is a shared experience with other people (forming of connection). I could imagine that the when you spend enough time going down the spiral, you end up having multiple encounters with the police. Which leads to stories/experiences (that are shared). To the point your brain starts to form a "connection" to them. You despise them because they get you into troubles but your brain doesn't care where it gets its connection from and for it you have shared experiences. And then they show you a TV show that basically features an abstract interaction between someone representing you and someone representing the police. I don't know. It makes sense to me that people (police and policed) would like that, somehow.
Let's just say that my peer group in High School were not the achievers. Let's also say that appearing on Cops was definitely a badge of honor. Let's also say that Albuquerque was fucked up enough that it wasn't a particularly rare one. Looking at it dispassionately, I think it's fair and accurate to acknowledge that the incompetence and cruelty of the Albuquerque PD was such that no matter how competent they appeared on Cops, everyone had a story about this officer or that one. More than that, the ones who were on the show got to explain the backstory and dispute the edit. It's kinda like "we know they're all fucked, here's an example of how fucked shit is right here on channel 6." I know... five? sound mixers who have done time on Cops. You get about two sentences into the conversation and they bring up the brutality. That's pretty much what stands out to the people who have worked on it. That it's basically Skullcrackers Inc.
Live PD and Live Rescue are both fucking insane shows. "Hey I stopped you over for this busted taillight." two minutes later "So luckily we were able to recover 62 pounds of cocaine with cartel identifiers from this truck"
They also destroy evidence apparently
Too familiar a story. This pains me. A&E didn't bother keeping it because investigators "didn't ask." Investigation concluded, and the story ends there until someone causes enough of a stir to take a second look at what happened when some or all of the evidence is long gone. Good to see ya btw taco.
It's shitty but not at all surprising. The people who work on A&E shows are paid-nothing scrappers who don't hang onto the media and once stuff has aired you recycle the media. If the DA wanted the media they basically needed to grab it on the day because by tomorrow it's been written over unless a whole bunch of conscientious people go "this may get me in real trouble with the cops whom I have seen murdering people, this may get me blackballed from working ever again, this will undoubtedly get me accused of theft, but I'm going to tuck this drive into my pocket and hang onto it in case someone makes a play for justice." I'll say this. That person is a lot more likely to act now than he was in March. It's the shittiest kind of progress.