How Police Are Portrayed In Animated Pre-School Videos

Edited by Azizi Powell

Animated videos of pre-school songs about helpful traffic policemen are quite different from the ways far too many real life police officers act.

I started to title this post "Whatever Happened To Officer Friendly?". But I found out that there was already a post with that title: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ronda-lee/what-ever-happened-to-officer-friendly-ferguson_b_5692375.html What Ever Happened to 'Officer Friendly' Ferguson? by Ronda Lee.
08/19/2014 11:44 pm EDT Updated: 08/19/2014 11:59 pm EDT

Here's an excerpt from that post:
"...My personal encounters with the police have not been pleasant, especially when "driving while black." It usually takes me using the "attorney card" before I am free to go. I recall visits in grammar school from "Officer Friendly." He would give us tips on how to be safe when walking to and from school. Officer Friendly told us that in an emergency, we should seek out a police officer, because their job was to serve and protect. What ever happened to Officer Friendly?”...

Emmett Till, Sean Bell, Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, Michael Brown, Ezell Ford.... When will it stop?! As a black woman I am fearful of giving birth to a son.... As an attorney, I know that justice is not blind; it is biased. For the same crime, a black person is 30-percent more likely* to end up in prison than a white person. Even when it comes to discipline in schools, black students are given harsher punishment than white students.** It does not matter if people of color are well-dressed or wearing hoodies. There is a societal acceptance of the belief that underneath the suit or hoodie, we are prone to bad behavior."...

*http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/30/770501/study-black-defendants-are-at-least-30-more-likely-to-be-imprisoned-than-white-defendants-for-the-same-crime/

**http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2012/03/13/11351/the-top-10-most-startling-facts-about-people-of-color-and-criminal-justice-in-the-united-states/
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Here's information about "Officer Friendly":
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officer_Friendly
"Officer Friendly is a model program to acquaint children and young adults with law enforcement officials as a part of a community relations campaign. The program was especially popular in the United States from the 1960s to the 1980s, but it continues in some police departments.[1]. Officer Friendly is generally not a specific character, and is in the public domain...

Methods
The Officer Friendly programs most famously involved police officers visiting pre-school and kindergarten classrooms. In many parts of the United States, Officer Friendly coloring books are distributed to children.

Officer Friendly in the media
There have been many parodies of the nearly ubiquitous program. In many cases, the term "Officer Friendly" is used sarcastically to refer to an abusive police officer."...
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The pre-school videos that I watched portray the "Officer Friendly" type of police officers.

Example #1: I'm a Policeman Dressed in Blue (song)



Prizm4Music, Uploaded on Nov 20, 2011

From the Disney storybook The Little Fat Policeman, this is "I'm a Policeman", sung by Larry Groce. For those who remember, enjoy!
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Lyrics: [transcribed from the sound file]
I'm a Policeman dressed in blue
Here are some things I like to do
Direct the traffic in your town
Help to keep you safe and sound

It's my job and I like it fine
No one has a better job than mine

I'm a Policeman dressed in blue
I want to be a friend to you
You can see me everyday
I will wave my hand and say

It's my job and I like it fine
No one has a better job than mine
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"The Little Fat Policeman" was written by Edith Thacher Hurd & Margaret Wise Brown and illustrateed by Alice & Martin Provensen This book was first published in 1950 and was later published in 1976 as a Disney Golden Book & record. The cover drawing of the book that is shown with this sound file is of a little rolly polly White traffic policeman who is pointing sternly at a chicken (who may have crossed the street when the light was red instead of green.) As is the case with the other examples of pre-chool songs in this category, none of the police officers are wearing guns. This may be because at least some of these videos were produced outside of the United States, and police officers don't wear or carry guns in those nations.

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Example #2: I'm a Policeman | Classic Nursery Rhymes | Kid Songs



JINGUKID, Published on Dec 10, 2012
Jingukid | Facebook
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This is another version of the "I'm a Policeman Dressed in Blue" song. This video was produced in India. That fact may accound for the cultural dissonance [for me, a citizen of the United States] of the high pitched female sounding voice purported to come from a policeman. Until I learned where this video was produced [by googling the Jungukid name] I wondered in it was supposed to be a a sarcastic spoof on police officers.

Given the recent news reports about a policeman shooting and killing the Black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, and the subsequent scenes from that city of militarized police officers, as well as other recent and past reports of Black men elsewhere in the United States being shot and choked, and beaten by police officers, I also thought that it was ironic that a Black boy was the only other person who was shown in this animated video. In one scene of that video, that Black boy helpfully gives the policeman a bottle of water (presumably because the policeman is hot from standing outside in the sun directing traffic.)

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Example #3: I'm a policeman



paula houlkerPublished on Nov 6, 2012
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Lyrics: [from the sound file]
I’m a policeman
I’m a policeman
Be a policeman
Just like me.

Look with your eyes [3x]
Just like me.

Listen with your ears [3x]
Just me like me

Sniff with your nose [3x]
Just me like me

Chorus
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Again, the focus of this video is the police officer directing traffic. But unlike the Jungokid's video, in this video the policeman's voice is deep and somewhat gruff.

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There are a number of other animated versions of the "I'm A Policeman Dressed In Blue" song on YouTube. There are also other videos of pre-school songs about police officers and videos of pre-school and kindergarden classrooms and individual children singing "I'm A Policeman Dressed In Blue". But I wonder how Black children who have witnessed incidents of police violence or directly experienced that violence would react to teachers requiring them to learn and sing those songs that describe police officers in terms that are so very different from their real experiences.

And it's not only Black people who have experienced police misconduct. The daily kos diary http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/28/1325341/-Living-While-Black-Police-attack-men-for-sitting-not-resisting-not-walking-pockets and comments to that diary indicates that people of any race who are mentally ill, autistic, or deaf have been victims of police brutality. Commenters to that video also suggested action steps that could be taken to address police misconduct- including suing the police department, increasing voter turnout to help change systemic problems, and petitioning the United States Justice Department to intervene in a specific case.

Reading about these cases that are highlighted in that diary is disturbing and disheartening, particularly if you grew up believing that police officers were "Officer Friendlies".
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Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/08/policeman-dont-beat-me-and-examples-of.html for a pancocojams post on children's rhymes that mention police officers. Unlke the children's songs that are feeatured in this post, those rhymes focus on the control and punishment role of police officers. And some of those rhymes allude to police misconduct, for instance the 1939 version of "Police don't beat me" that has as a second line "i have a wife and family".

And the beat still goes on [Sigh].

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This post is presented for cultural and sociological purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners. And thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

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