If you needed any further proof that Hollywood wouldn't know an original idea if it slapped them in the face, here's Exhibit D.
Fox is developing a drama project inspired by the story of Cathy Lanier, the newly appointed chief of police of Washington, DC.Never mind the fact that this story has essentially already been told before (anyone remember CBS' ill-fated "The District"?). This "rich idea" will undoubtedly include lots of emasculating of Charles Ramsey, the black chief who proceeded Lanier and was unceremoniously dumped new DC Mayor Adrian Fenty earlier this year to pave the way for Lanier. It will probably be some variation of the ever-popular "all-knowing white guy/chick saves the savage Negroes from themselves" genre like Finding Forrester, Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, Take The Lead, Hardball, The Substitute, and any other flick that just makes black people look too dumb to solve their own problems without outside intervention. It will probably portray the black officers who sexually harassed Lanier (she won a court ruling) during her early days as a cop as crotch-grabbing primates. It will probably portray Lanier as magically turning around a violent city by simply "caring more and inspiring others". And it will inevitably end up as the
Lanier, a 39-year-old white single mother who dropped out of high school after getting pregnant at 14, became D.C.'s first female police chief and one of the youngest heads of the 3,800-member department dominated by black male officers. In addition to dealing with the city's high crime rate, Lanier also has to deal with about 100 other law enforcement agencies operating in D.C.
"Here's a white woman in a man's world and an African-American world, working with agency after agency in a complicated jurisdiction like Washington, D.C., and she's a single mom," said Bob Cooper, who will produce the untitled project. "This seemed like a rich area to look at.
Seriously, what other angle could such a movie take other than to discredit blacks who have tried for years and years to turn the city around while making Lanier seem like Mother Teresa? Never mind the fact that the real life Cathy Lanier has only been on the job 10 months, has alienated many residents by demoting several highly regarded black lieutenants, and has seen the city's murder rate escalate in recent weeks, capped by the bizarre police shooting of an unarmed 14 year old. Also, never mind the fact Fenty obviously hired Lanier (who to her credit was qualified, but wasn't considered a known candidate) to put a whiter face on an ailing department (he made a similar appointment for Superintendent of schools) in hopes of continuing to spur the influx of gentrifiers to what was once Chocolate City. Because we all feel much safer and secure when someone white is in charge.
This might surprise you, but I don't hold any of this against Lanier. I don't live in DC, but I spend enough time there to hope that she can genuinely turn things around. Still, by trumpeting her arrival as the consummate Great White Hope story before she's even given the opportunity to be deemed successful just shows why Hollywood stays losing. And to think, Negroes can't even get a quality black drama on network TV, but the freakin' GEICO Cavemen have a show.
Amazing, but hardly surprising.
Fox on tale of D.C. top cop [Reuters]
