John Oliver slams ‘Law & Order’ creator Dick Wolf for glorifying NYPD

nypost.com:

“Last Week Tonight.”Oliver noted how Wolf, 75, has a “close, behind-the-scenes relationship with the NYPD, employing officers as consultants and boasting about the access he had.”He then revealed a past interview with an anonymous “Law & Order” writer, who claimed if the series depicted police in a more realistic, critical way, then the NYPD would make it very “difficult” to continue filming in the Big Apple.The chat show host went on to describe that because Wolf’s franchise works closely with the cops, there is much accuracy in how the law is portrayed.

Details such as “specific laws, jargon and crime scene procedures” are illustrated properly, Oliver said.“But crucially it also makes a lot of choices that significantly distort the big picture of police,” he said, adding that the right offender is usually arrested midway through the episode — and justice is done by the end.

However, Oliver explained that this is very unrealistic, as not every court case is solved so quickly and almost “97% of cases” don’t go to trial.“Obviously, ‘Law & Order’ cannot reflect that reality,” Oliver ranted. “It would be unwatchable.”He also said how defendants are usually “disproportionately white, male, older and from the middle or upper classes” and pointed out that Wolf once said that “there are no rich-white-guy pressure groups.

You can do anything to want to rich white guys and nobody cares.”But Oliver questioned this notion, saying that the executive producer “wants people to like [the] good guy cops” and having accusers excessively go after people of color would not do that.“‘Law & Order’ is never going to grapple with the reality of policing in a meaningful way,” Oliver added. “Because fundamentally, the person who is responsible.