A Screening Of Kindergarten Cop In Oregon Has Been CANCELED Because It Glorifies Police And That "Traumatizes Children” Or Something
An upcoming screening of the 1990 movie “Kindergarten Cop” has been canceled in Oregon amid concerns about the “current political climate,” according to the Willamette Week. The film was scheduled to kick off the NW Film Center’s Cinema Unbound, a summer-drive-in movie series in Portland, on Thursday.
According to Fox News, backlash grew in recent days after Portland author Lois Leveen criticized the movie on Twitter.
“What’s so funny about School-to-Prison pipeline? Kindergarten Cop-Out: Tell @nwfilmcenter there’s nothing fun in cops traumatizing kids. National reckoning on overpolicing is a weird time to revive ‘Kindergarten Cop.’ IRL, we are trying to end the school-to-prison pipeline,” she tweeted. “There’s nothing entertaining about the presence of police in schools, which feeds the ‘school-to-prison’ pipeline in which African American, Latinx and other kids of color are criminalized rather than educated. Five- and 6-year-olds are handcuffed and hauled off to jail routinely in this country. And this criminalizing of children increases dramatically when cops are assigned to work in schools.”
For the LOVE OF GOD! Now they're coming after Kindergarten Cop. THIS is a tumah.
I understand the climate right now. I know there's major issues in American regarding race and policing. I, like most every person in the nation wants better policing and a justice system that works equally well for all Americans. A system that not only allows but encourages all citizens to feel safe and participate in the American Dream.
Having said all of those things, I would like to take the OPPOSITE position of this woman, Lois Laveen, who originally pushed for this screening to be canceled. Good police officers exist. Good police officers should be glorified even when the example is a movie from 1990. Good police officers are important to the country and extremely valuable. Let's break down the plot of this movie if Officer Kimble wasn't in it.
Act 1:
Scene 1: Powerful, psychopathic and abusive father shows up at his son's school.
Scene 2: Boy's mother arrives at the school as well and tries to intervene. She cries out for help, but nobody is there to help her
Scene 3: Psycho father murders the boy's mom and abducts child.
Scene 4: Child is raised in an abusive home, grows up to be a psychopath just like his father and continues cycle of violence for another generation.
The End. Pretty quick and disturbing movie.
Instead, what we got was a good example of a strong and ethical leading man portraying a police officer whose job is to serve and protect as an undercover cop while teaching a group of precocious youngsters the value of hard work and discipline. The family is safe and the child grows up to be a productive member of society(probably). Those are good lessons. Important lessons. Lessons that shouldn't be demonized or scoffed at.
PS: I know Jerry Thornton also blogged this, but our takes are different and I didn't realize until I was finished writing so my apologies for re-blogging the subject, but this stuff bothers me and it needed to get it off my chest.
Here is the link to his blog if you're so inclined