Police 10-7

Police 10-7 is a text that I think is worth looking at in the context of New Zealand media representations of race relations and racial stereotypes concerning primarily Maori and Pacific Islanders. It has pervaded the landscape of local programming documenting a 'day in the life' aspect of the experiences of New Zealand Police on the frontline and the people they encounter.

Distinguishing ourselves from the people we see on this programme along racial and ethnic lines is a sad but common occurrence in New Zealand. Apart from eliciting an 'I'm glad it's them and not me' response from audiences they also tend to portray negative sytereotypes of primarily Maori and Pacific Islanders which is decoded by audiences therefore serving to reinforce (whether we resist it or not) society's negative assumptions about these ethnic groups. Much like its American counterpart Cops, Police 10-7 shows severly edited, sensationalist accounts of what goes on in our communities and seem to take place mainly in South Auckland and other lower socio-economic areas perpetuating this view that Maori and Pacific Islanders are doing the majority of the offending.

I watched a selection of Police 10-7 clips at random on You Tube and found that an overwhelming number represented only maori, Pacidic Islander or Africans. However, what I found perhaps more disturbing was the amount of comments below that people have posted under the guise of anonymity professing ignorant and simply racist viewpoints with no credible reasoning or anything to go by but what the clip itself depicts. However, I think these kind of comments reflect a wider and very common racial discourse in New Zealand, using these groups as scapegoats for social issues such as crime when in reality these issues are much more complex and deeply rooted in our psyches than we would choose to believe.

Under a clip titled "Drunk Maori" where a highly intoxicated man stumbles around in public before being picked up by police to sober up, one thread of comments reads:

- LOL of course he'd be from Highbury. It's the South Auckland of Palmerston North tvremote1234 1 month ago

- which way to district 9 officer?? i need to score some cat food tha1stmc 2 months ago

- lol typical! jayloize 2 months ago

Under another clip titled "Police 10-7: Go Ryan" the comments expressed are of a similar stance, highlighting racist viewpoints and sentiments towards Maori and Pacific Island groups:

- Hahaha a baby samoan in a cop car. gotta train them early for the lives there gonna lead kumarzane310 2 weeks ago

I would personally like to compare unedited footage of Police 10-7 with the rest of the footage and scenes that are edited out to gauge an understanding of how this show indicates that racial profiling is rife in New Zealand and heightens what Shohat and Stam describe as the "burden of representation" which they describe here:

"What all these instances share is the semiotic principle that something is "standind for" something else, or that some person or group is speaking on behalf of some other persons or groups. On the symbolic battlegrounds of the mass media, the struggle over representation in the simulacral realm homologizes that of the political sphere, where questions of imitation and representation easily slide into issues of delegation and voice"

-Shohat and Stam reading

Instead of viewing Police 10-7 as simply documenting a totalising reality for these groups, that is, tarring all members of these groups with the same brush because of the behaviour and actions of a few individuals is an ignorant mindset in itself and serves to perpetuate institutionalised racism and ideas of "Cultural Flattening" by the media and wider society. Furthermore, Shohat and Stam draw on Memmi's work on:

"The mark of the Plural" [which] projects colonised people as "all the same," any negative behaviour by any member of the oppressed community is instantly generalised as typical, as pointing to a perpetual backsliding toward some presumed negative essence"

- Shohat and Stam reading

We must remember as media students that these are just versions and re-presentations of real life and it is important to keep an open dialogue (such as this blog) and continually think about racial representations in the media by constantly challenging our idle, pre-concieved notions and assumptions about ethnic difference. In other words it is about striving for a deeper level of understanding about these issues, not just settling for what we see on the surface.

Clip: Police 10-7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni3SOYT6iHQ&NR=1

Clip: Police 10-7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09rDyPUW1xQ& feature=related