‘Tommy’ Season 1 Episode 8: Chief stands tall and fights against persisting racism within police department
When Abigail Thomas became the first female to be the chief Los Angeles Police Department, she came with the promise of upholding law and order, and justice. She vowed to take care of not only the city but also save those within her department from every social issue that could be plaguing the city and its people, including her very own.
Episode 8 saw her standing up against two racist cops.
Kate, Tommy’s daughter, got arrested only because she was defending another student of the school she works at, who also happened to be harassed by the police, without any reason.
Even after informing to the cop on duty about her relation to Tommy, they refused to believe her, only because she is “black” and her mother is “white”. Abner Diaz, Tommy’s chief security officer somehow managed to get her out. Strangely, even he needed to answer a lot of questions despite his position. But wait, there’s more!
The student at Kate’s school, who got arrested on the grounds that he had no ID on him, also happens to be an African-American teenager. He was not only arrested but also kept in a cell with a felon charged with murder. The school kid gets beaten up badly and Tommy finally takes matters in her own hands.
Whether he is a good kid, an honors student, and comes from a promising background, didn’t matter to the police, who seemed to have taken their decision based on how he looked. The same goes for officer Diaz and Kate.
In her words, it took the department 30 years to abolish this kind of behavior of cops towards the citizens. As the most woke leader of the city’s police and a protector of its people, Tommy takes the responsibility of stopping such instances that upset social order and toys with people’s peace.
But that’s not all. All this comes at a critical time, when Tommy and her team is already dealing with a major cyber crime and social threat.
While trying to solve the case of the day, she encountered an online swatter who kept harassing female gamers, particularly one who beat him at every game. This led to him seeking revenge by doxxing the girl and faking a complaint to 911 and getting her innocent father killed in a police raid that followed. As revealed later, it was only because he was frustrated by his defeats from a girl.
So far, the show has addressed all major social and political issues that have been a major concern lately. And in ‘The Swatting Game’, Tommy faced both challenges of racism and misogyny at the same time.
Fortunately, the evil gamer gets caught, but unfortunately, the racist cops got away with their misdemeanor, under the protective shelter of the union.
Can Tommy bring about the fairness and inclusion that she found missing in her department?
‘Tommy’ airs every Thursday night, 10 pm/9 c, only on CBS.
