'Law and Order SVU' Season 22: Will George Floyd protests and police brutality be part of NBC crime drama?
"I don't mind a flawed cop at the center, but a flawed cop with a tendency to violence that's glorified, to me, is a real recipe for legitimizing police brutality. That's what I see the most that disturbs me," said 'Law And Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU)' showrunner Warren Leight. Him saying this back in June, four months before the release of SVU Season 22, makes us wonder if the newest episodes are going to profile police brutality.
Leight also stated that the series might reflect on George Floyd protests that rocked American cities post the killing of the 46-year-old Black man. "It has to come up," he mentioned as reported by USA Today. "And it will. It'll come up when we arrest somebody ... The second the cops on the street arrest someone now, the cameras are out, and we've played that beat a number of times. And what does that capture?"
Floyd was killed by a White police officer after he was kneeled by the cop for more than eight minutes that choked him on the streets of Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. His fatal death saw severe backlash and public outrage against police brutality. Soon racism became one of the pivotal issues in presidential elections too. The matter kept flaring up whenever social media and news outlets reported incidents of violence under cops.
Now as the longest-running scripted crime drama ‘Law And Order: SVU’ is making a return and hints are dropping in reflecting on racial injustice protests, one can expect that the portrayal of cops can change. The show can depict that the cops are malleable. They can rise above mere glorification and may appear to break the mold of the truism. Leight underscored that the cops might face certain challenges in the upcoming series. "We will find our ways in to tell the story, and presumably our cops will still be trying to do the right thing, but it's gonna be harder for them, and they're gonna understand why it's harder for them."
So will the morality and ethics of police come under the scanner? The episode one, Season 22 synopsis of the NBC series reveals that the elite NYPD squad who solves heinous crimes and is the crusader of justice might face some troubles. “When the squad tries to solve an assault in Central Park, they are hampered by their own blind spots and a community that is losing trust in the police,” reads the synopsis. This brief about the episode indicates that there is some scope for the cops to get a reality check.
And why not factor in racism and police brutality? Especially when some staggering statistics and facts have triggered the public's distrust in police. From killings of Blacks like Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice to violence against women and a backlog of untested rape kits to demands to defund or abolish the police, this time it might be difficult for the SVU series to escape the wave of resentment for its lionized detectives - Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and her teammates.
What would be worth watching is how these issues are factored in and where the arc of morality tilts in the world of procedural crime drama. Moreover, one can expect Season 22 to be more realistic. It can clear if ‘Law and Order: SVU’ is a series building our enchantment with an already existing "just" world or what it should be but it isn’t! Will fiction ensue faith in the minds of the distrustful section of the public? One can only wait with bated breath to witness such an interesting wired series.
'Law & Order: SVU' Season 22 will premiere on NBC on Thursday, November 12, at 9/8c.