is this a bullshit i see before me...?

(Bruno Richard, ex ESDS27, Sexy Polizei)

... after ubiquitious rave-ups in elevated quarters of the UK press, I finally sit to scope some of cop series The Wire. Initially I am digging on this caper, but it shortly (5 hours in) transpires the whole scenario is total garbage-sandwich of uniquely USAmerikkkan "epic" scale: for 90 hours I am expected to assimilate this "support yr local sherrif" hypnoganda.

Sorry kids: the police are not on my xmas list & this thin tissue of horseshit only serves to explain why the blonde monsters are so happy to elect themselves global gendarme #1. Wherefor the ambiguous & complex characterisations I seem to recall reading about? The players here seemed grateful for the beginnings of a second dimension (eg, intimations of the hero's struggle w/ alcoholism or ex-wife grief).

It simply isn't a patch on a generation of Aus cop shows that retailed a genuine & troubled ambivalence about the whole notion of 'law & order': Blue Murder, Police Crop, & near at the pinnacle Scales of Justice. Or even: the A Dog's Ransom storyline of Armchair Thriller for ITV (scarifying chiller of longback, but well-remembered from childhood viewing). I allude to: narratives disturbed by the idea of extra-judicial but legally sanctioned murder, police role as middle-management enforcers of the international drug trade, corruption as a structural norm rather than an isolated anomalous instance, & ultimately the mere fact that these clowns are the agents of social control and repressive by definition.

(Credit where it is due: my local police force do an unobtrusive job of maintaining relative peace in the neighbourhood & this is mostly due to a long-standing & highly scrupulous station chief. But, their actual job of "solving crimes", they comport w/ much less success.)

On available evidence the blonde monsters are a foolish people and simply unable to accomodate the straight-forward notion of "ambiguity". Perhaps alike to the Israelis they are an immature nation & cling to the frontier myths of their founding: blankly-stated good & bad caricatures of the human animal, ie Obama "good emperor", Bush II "evil emperor" (or vice versa - & what does the reflexive polarity of the argument suggest? elucidation on this in a later posting...)

Elsewise: new tom cruise vehicle is portrayal of a 'good nazi' which is an altogether chilling precedent even for the blonde monsters. There is little that was heroic about the July Plot - it was a simple matter of military expedience - a circle of generals sought to remove hitler, negotiate a peace settlement (or even an alliance...) with the western allies, & redouble their efforts killing off eastern 'untermensch'...

In this respect, its refreshing to note that Adam Curtis has acknowledged that the brutal Stalinist purges did indeed support the complete renovation of the Soviet red army - & in which respect they also, further down the track, may have provided the Russians with the military means to turn back the nazi blitzkrieg. Ambiguities don't come very much more brutal than that.