Current Events > Writing with ethics is hard. **police depiction related**

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I'm working on a fantasy story (who isn't?) and I've just run into an issue: the character out for revenge is an officer of the law.

The character is not American and she is not White. I figure it isn't "copaganda" to depict her in a positive light. However, I never wish to glamorize a police officer acting outside the law. When an action movie depicts a cop laying down their gun and challenging the bad guy to a fight, we're supposed to see it as him or her being tough and sporting. In reality, that means that officer is choosing to beat the suspect/culprit rather than take them in as they're supposed to.

This means I have to rewrite the story so that the character is not a law enforcement officer, rewrite the story so that she leaves the force (which isn't any better than if she'd stayed on -- would you be okay with a police officer turning in their badge to go shoot somebody?), or make her a model example who is willing to put responsibility before personal revenge. Oh, but if her friends are vigilantes, and she turns a blind eye toward their actions, I'm right back in the same boat.

What if I told you that your character does not have to be morally black-and-white, nor overall on the "good" side of the spectrum?

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The person everyone lies most to is themselves. Have your character view themselves as morally upstanding but as shady as you want.

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Trumble posted...

What if I told you that your character does not have to be morally black-and-white, nor overall on the "good" side of the spectrum?

KILBOTz posted...

The person everyone lies most to is themselves. Have your character view themselves as morally upstanding but as shady as you want.

That doesn't always work.

The whole point of Dirty Harry was that he was a bad cop. People thought he was cool, so they made sequels which acted like it was okay for him to be a bigoted antihero who risked the lives of innocent people and did things his way.

Granted, that story's half a century old by this point. It's possible people today would pick up immediately on the fact that the bad cop is, in truth, a bad cop. But I still don't think that's the path I want to take with this story.

There are circumstances surrounding this character for which it would be less than ideal. Besides, themes such as abuse of power and neglected responsibilities are still explored.

FortuneCookie posted...

People thought he was cool, so they made sequels which acted like it was okay for him to be a bigoted antihero who risked the lives of innocent people and did things his way.

And it sounds to me like that's the problem. That he acted bad, but was still depicted as good for it.

One could also argue that, unless you go with the "remove the law enforcement angle altogether" approach, you're instead just pushing the idea that cops don't do anything wrong. At the end of the day - you are never going to be able to please everyone.

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Actually, I've found an out.

I just have to rework the sequences of events within the story. I have a valid reason for her to leave the force. I just need to push that ahead in the story and deal with the revenge subplot later.