Speaking of Canadians and Americans…
February 1, 2007 8:20 pm canada, tv, usaLaura and I are watching To Serve and Protect, the Canadian version of COPS. When compared against its southern counterpart, it’s comically dull. There’s no wrestling, tasering, or footchases. It’s basically just cops (in mustaches) picking up drunks and pot smokers. And everyone (the busted and the busters) is polite with each other. 
February 2nd, 2007 at 6:28 am
YAWN!!
February 2nd, 2007 at 7:25 am
I … want that. I TiVoed COPS for a short period of time because it was one show I knew was (morbidly) interesting. I had seen a handful of them and felt that as far as “reality TV” went, it was, you know, ‘pretty real’–yes, the guy with the camera means the cop is on his best behavior (no “doing the Rodney”) and, yeah, they edit out all the stuff that’ll reflect badly anyway (everyone gets caught).
But still: it was a depressing parade of the worst of humanity. Even the guys in the blue uniforms didn’t come off looking so much like knights as (mostly) moderately eithical people with very, very little empathy for the people they dealt with (there were notable exceptions–and I liked what little I saw of *that*).
I’m not surprised, from what I saw, that a rape victim in Tampa was jailed when it was discovered she failed to pay a court-ordered restitution fine … while she was reporting her assault and rape.
I stoped recording it. I feel better for it.
-Marco