If you have read my passion blog at all so far, or even if you have not and I tell you that my major is criminology, it would not be unlikely to assume I like criminal type shows. Law and Order Special Victims Unit, Dexter, and Criminal Minds are all my binge-worthy, re-watch countless times, guilty pleasures-as well as any serial killer documentary or horror movie (as long as it’s good and actually scares me). Although I love these types of shows and they are super entertaining to watch (I highly recommend watching them if you haven’t already), how much of them are realistic? The answer, unfortunately, is not a lot of them. Shows like this dramatize the off-duty work and actions, and often skip over a lot of the real legal and investigative work. Which makes sense, because they are producing for entertainment, not to teach people about the law and real police field work, but it still sucks to hear when you idolize a show.

This week, I wanted to branch out a little bit by incorporating my issue brief topic into my passion blog post. For my issue brief, I am discussing drug trafficking and how it relates to immigration policies that are passed. Recently, on the criminal minds episode I just watched, one of the main FBI officers (characters ugh) is arrested in a car chase trying to cross the border from Mexico to the United States. He is found with drugs in his system, and tons on cocaine and heroin in his trunk, and is arrested with the intent to distribute the drugs, while also intending to cross the border with illegal substances. I’m not going to say who it was because I hate spoilers, and if you do too don’t worry, I’m not going to discuss any more of the episode’s scenes. I just thought it was ironic that I picked my topic of drug trafficking, and later this week I watched this episode. I want to talk a bit about how this would relate to real life.

In the show, you don’t really expected the arrested character to actually go to prison. They are an FBI agent, obviously they would be expected to have connections and character witnesses, or a loophole to get them out of the situation unscathed, right? However in the show, they are shown little to no special treatment, despite the efforts of the character’s teammates. This makes me wonder if the show was written this way intentionally, maybe even because I think there are people out there that often speculate and believe that officers are treated more leniently in the system, or that they can get away with things because of a badge. Now this is all hypothetical, and I’m not stating my opinion either way on the matter, but I can’t help but think of similar things currently going on in our society. The upcoming Chauvin trial for example, the officer that shot George Floyd. A lot of people want to see him put away for murder, and I believe it is likely that if he is to receive a different outcome, many people’s opinions will be that the decision was made on the basis of him being an officer and not on the actual case. I honestly cannot say what really goes on in courtrooms during cases like these, but I know I want to become a lawyer and find out.