Wolf replaced the grit and smell of courtrooms and death with silk stockinged lawyers from Ivy League schools working as prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers. That’s just not Chicago.
If you’ve ever been in a Cook County Criminal Court the first thing you notice is the lawyers, especially the males dress down. They for the most part attended the local law schools like DePaul, John Marshall and ITT Chicago Kent. These schools are more affordable but the alumni find that their job offers are limited. Let me make it clear that many terrific and dedicated lawyers attend these schools.
Dick Wolf’s legal offices and courtroom settings all have new, polished and tasteful décor. That’s just not Cook County! Wolf’s TV lawyers are what you’d see in civil cases where millions of dollars are at stake and they dress the part.
Chicago’s criminal lawyers are local lads that attend Cubs games, eat hotdogs and drink beer. These lawyers are not known for their expensive suit labels but far from it. There are of course the occasional mob lawyers or white-collar crime specialists that fit inside Dick Wolf’s legal world.
The files handled by Chicago criminal lawyers are almost all in in tattered folders. Plea agreements are cut in the hallways or even local watering holes where the lawyers meet after work. Very few criminal cases are actually tried before a judge or jury. It may not look pretty but at least its real.
Chicago crimes are despicable as are most of the defendants. In Cook County the vast majority of defendants are African-American, angry and poor. Frankly they actually have a foul odor about them. They hate their public defenders as well as the whole world. You can’t put lipstick on this pig and then make this kind of thing believable.
A better title might have been Chicago Injustice. If the public really knew what goes on in Chicago Criminal Courts, they’d be shocked. Political decisions have replaced concerns for public safety.
Chicago’s politicians would go out of their way to destroy Wolf’s Chicago Franchise if he refused to sanitize the much darker reality.
I’m convinced if I were writing and producing Chicago PD, Chicago Fire and Chicago Justice it would get worldwide attention.
I auditioned for Chicago Justice. The show was cancelled before I could get any consideration. Frankly the show was a clinker. Here is my audition that I also wrote. I’m a felony review supervisor explaining to a young cop’s mother why I let three thugs go that are suspected of critically wounding her son. The implied hint is that this was more about race relations and politics than justice.
It would have been nice for you to be able to break through the rose-colored fog of political correctness, of political expediency and to call a spade a spade, but you have to understand that the democrats own Cook County, own the Public Sector unions the cops belong to, and they've got it going just the way they want it going. They don't care about cops' Mothers not understanding why the people who will kill her cop son any chance they get, and her, too, get a walk. It isn't about crafting a better world, Paul. It's about crafting a better world for themselves; it's about them maintaining political power and control. And if Chicago has to follow Detroit down the toilet, so be it, as long as they remain in power. Frankly, I don't see that changing. There is a huge wave of out-migration hitting Illinois. There is insurmountable debt--constitutionally-protected insurmountable debt. They couldn't pay it even if they wanted to. That debt, alone, is sufficient to consume Illinois. And what do the Public sector unions do? They demand more: 'Give Us MORE'! I worked for Cook County for many years, the Cook County Treasurer's Office; we had a couple of 'Ghost Payrollers'. One of them came in one day to complain that coming in every other Friday, to pick up his no-show paycheck, was too much bother. He wanted to know if someone could just mail it to him. I'm not kidding. And he collects a pension; thankfully, they do direct deposit that, for him.
ReplyDeleteToo realistic for the discerning public watching TV. They want entertainment, not truth,
ReplyDeleteThe show you want was produced. 2011's "The Chicago Code" with Jennifer Beals as the police superintendent. Her character took the position aided by corruption, but she was a trojan horse, instead leading the attacks against deal-making, corrupt judges, corrupt prosecutors, corrupt cops, corrupt bureaucrats, and especially corrupt politicians.
ReplyDeleteThe show was cancelled after 13 episodes, go figure, even though the ratings were good.
Very nicely done. It would be interesting to film this for a show using a white felony review supervisor and either a black or Hispanic mother for the Officer. That would make the scene very realistic, as long as the perpetrators remained accurate to statistics too.
ReplyDelete