It appears that the Black Lives Matter protests are now extending to remove the depiction of “good cops” from television, and children’s shows are no exception. In fact, it appears that the protesters are attempting to get the popular children’s cartoon Paw Patrol off the air.
As revealed by The New York Times, it looks like people are particularly upset by Chase, a German Shepard dog that holds a position as a police officer. It seems that this positive portrayal of a police officer is deemed bad by protesters and they’ve targeted Paw Patrol as a result. As they’ve explained:
“As the protests against racist police violence enter their third week, the charges are mounting against fictional cops, too. Even big-hearted cartoon police dogs — or maybe especially big-hearted cartoon police dogs — are on notice. The effort to publicize police brutality also means banishing the good-cop archetype, which reigns on both television and in viral videos of the protests themselves. “Paw Patrol” seems harmless enough, and that’s the point: The movement rests on understanding that cops do plenty of harm.”
In solidarity of #amplifymelanatedvoices we will be muting our content until June 7th to give access for Black voices to be heard so we can continue to listen and further our learning. #amplifyblackvoices pic.twitter.com/NO2KeQjpHM
— PAW Patrol (@pawpatrol) June 2, 2020
It seems that this movement is all part of a massive effort to target all on-screen interpretations of the police, something which we’ve already seen succeed since A&E and Paramount took both Live PD and Cops off the air. While it’s understandable for those types of shows to be removed, it seems a little more far-fetched to target a show like Paw Patrol – especially by posting comments like “euthanize the police dog” as one protester demanded.
Most people on Twitter seem to be against the idea of cancelling the show. Here’s a sample:
Not PAW PATROL! That’s overkill. Other than that, we can cut back a little on the 31 Flavors of Cop shows to maybe 15 Flavors. Right? Cops have to be held to higher standard and having them be assholes every week and every other show, is why we are here. https://t.co/mRA6CjEm8r
— Ice Cube (@icecube) June 11, 2020
I think they forgot that Chase is the good cop working with the black mayor while the bad cop is a pussy controlled by a white guy. Just saying #PawPatrol pic.twitter.com/kEVi1OYXmg
— DocRavo (@RavoDoc) June 11, 2020
Never thought I’d be fighting for Paw Patrol… pic.twitter.com/X6LEVMAITv
— Cop With Attitude (@CopWithAttitude) June 12, 2020
Remove CHASE FROM PAW PATROL? You fucking moronic twits
— Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) June 12, 2020
Y’all come at my boy Chase.. we throwing hands. This is the ONLY way I get Laney to sleep at night.
Paw Patrol, Paw Patrol, we’ll be there on the doubleeeee. pic.twitter.com/rShAFJDdOY
— Uh, LeeHaw. (@leehawOG) June 12, 2020
Poor Chase😥
He is a good cop but the left doesn’t believe children should be taught there are good cops out there. #PawPatrol pic.twitter.com/n2fZygJV1w— Clint R (@Clintsnotez) June 12, 2020
Yea let’s go after paw patrol a show that teaches kids to help others but no one goes after SpongeBob who is inappropriate alot of the time and shows bullying. Yall also want to take away Elmer Fudds gun but allow your kids to play grand theft auto smh#IStandWithPawPatrol pic.twitter.com/l4YP2blflr
— Jenna Blanton (@blanton_jenna) June 12, 2020
Imagine being so woke you see this as the great evil of our day. #PawPatrol pic.twitter.com/fYxvIxOp1J
— Mayor Nick Isgro (@MaineMayorNick) June 12, 2020
Nevertheless, perhaps there is a solid point to be made. Maybe there is something overwhelmingly narrow-minded about feeding kids different types of television programming that solely focuses on the likes of police officers being objectively good in every possible portrayal. One can only wait to see what will happen to the series and what might be the best route for these types of shows in the future. And who knows what or who will be targeted next?