Abstract
Chapter 8 pivots on the aftermath of the events of 9/11 and its reinvigoration of a white male rogue as embodied by Jack Bauer. He became the embodiment of the American response to the War on Terror, sparking intense political and cultural disputes over the show’s depiction of torture—the ends justifying almost any degree of brutality in its routine use of “ticking time bomb” plots. The chapter also profiles three productions that engage the LAPD’s Rampart scandal, including Training Day, Dark Blue, and the TV show, The Shield. Each finds closure for its rogue in telling ways, but only Washington’s Oscar-winning character is shown as unredeemable and in need of killing, suggesting that blackness as threat remains part of the equation.
I love my country … and in the real world, sometimes that means you have to do … terrible things, even unforgivable things, for the sake of your country. But you know all about that, don’t you, brother?
Graem Bauer to Jack Bauer, 24, 2007
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- 1.
“Transcript of President Bush’s Address,” CNN, September 21, 2001. Available online.
- 2.
24, Season 1, episode 24, “11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.,” directed by Stephen Hopkins, aired on May 21, 2002.
- 3.
24, Season 9, episode 12, “Day 9: 10:00 p.m.–11:00 a.m.,” directed by Jon Casser, aired on July 14, 2014.
- 4.
24, Season 4, episode 24, “Day 4: 6:00 a.m.–7:00 a.m.,” directed by Jon Casser, aired on May 23, 2005.
- 5.
24, Season 1, episode 1, “12:00 a.m.–1:00 a.m.,” directed by Stephen Hopkins, aired on November 6, 2001.
- 6.
24, Season 1, episode 4, “3:00 a.m.–4:00 a.m.,” directed by Winrich Kolbe, aired on November 27, 2001.
- 7.
24, Season 2, episode 1, “Day 2: 8:00 a.m.–9:00 a.m.,” directed by Jon Casser, aired on October 29, 2002.
- 8.
24, Season 5, episode 24, “Day 5: 6:00 a.m.–7:00 a.m.,” directed by Jon Casser, aired on May 22, 2006.
- 9.
24, Season 7, episode 18, “Day 7: 1:00 a.m.–2:00 a.m.,” directed by Brad Turner, aired on April 13, 2009.
- 10.
Ibid.
- 11.
Ibid.
- 12.
24, Season 8, episode 19, “Day 8: 10:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m.,” directed by Michael Klick, aired on April 26, 2010.
- 13.
Ibid.
- 14.
24, Season 8, episode 24, “Day 8: 3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m.,” directed by Brad Turner, aired on May 24, 2010.
- 15.
Ibid.
- 16.
Ibid.
- 17.
Ibid.
- 18.
24, Season 4, episode 24.
- 19.
24, Season 7, episode 24, “Day 7: 7:00 a.m.–8:00 a.m.,” directed by Jon Casser, aired on May 18, 2009.
- 20.
Television Academy, “58th Emmy Awards—Nominations and Winners,” 2006, http://www.emmys.com/awards/nominees-winners/2006.
- 21.
Blair Marnell, “15 Years of 24: The Legacy of Jack Bauer,” November 6, 2016. Available online at nerdist.com.
- 22.
24, Season 7, episode 1, “Day 7: 8:00 a.m.–9:00 a.m.,” directed by Jon Casser, aired on November 11, 2009.
- 23.
Ibid.
- 24.
Ibid.
- 25.
Scott Shane, “Terror and Power: Bush Takes a Step Back,” The New York Times, July 12, 2006. Also see the U.S. Supreme Court case, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, on which the article is based. Available online at supremecourt.gov. Also see “Summary of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Their Additional Protocols,” International Humanitarian Law, April 2011. Available at redcross.org.
- 26.
Brendan Dougherty, “What Would Jack Bauer Do?” The American Conservative, March 12, 2007.
- 27.
See youtube.com (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrsQPK-GrDw); and discussed in Mike Dillon, “Bauer Power: 24 and the Making of an American,” Reconstruction, 11, no. 4.
- 28.
Jake Tapper, “Conservative Lovefest for ‘24,’” ABC News, June 23, 2006.
- 29.
“Presidential Candidate Donald Trump at The Family Leadership Summit,” July 18, 2015. Available online at c-span.org, October 28, 2015.
- 30.
Dan Froomkin, “Duped About Torture,” Washington Post, April 21, 2008.
- 31.
Tom Regan, “Does ‘24’ Encourage US Interrogators to ‘Torture’ Detainees?” The Christian Science Monitor, February 12, 2007.
- 32.
Ali Soufan, “I Interrogated the Top Terrorist in US Custody. Then the CIA Came to Town,” The Guardian, December 14, 2014. Available online.
- 33.
Ibid.
- 34.
Report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program, December 9, 2014. Available online at intelligence.senate.gov.
- 35.
International Committee of the Red Cross, “ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen ‘High Value Detainees’ in CIA Custody,” February 2007. Available online at http://www.nybooks.com/media/doc/2010/04/22/icrc-report.pdf.
- 36.
Central Intelligence Agency, “CIA Fact Sheet Regarding the SSCI Study on the Former Detention and Interrogation Program,” December 9, 2014. Available online.
- 37.
Government Publishing Office. Available online at govinfo.gov. Executive Order EO 13491, January 22, 2009.
- 38.
Karen J. Greenberg, Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State (New York: Broadway Books, 2016).
- 39.
Jennifer Hart Weed, Richard Davis, and Ronald Weed, 24 and Philosophy: The World According to Jack (Blackwell Publishing, 2008).
- 40.
John Patterson, “We’re Trafficking in Fear,” The Guardian, January 22, 2007.
- 41.
Jane Mayer, “Whatever It Takes: The Politics of the Man Behind ‘24,’” The New Yorker, February 19, 2007.
- 42.
Jen Yamato, “Kiefer Sutherland: ‘I’m Very Much Against Waterboarding,’” Daily Beast, February 18, 2016. Available online at thedailybeast.com.
- 43.
The 25th Amendment is invoked three times in the series against the fictional presidents David Palmer, his brother Wayne Palmer, and John Keeler.
- 44.
Peter Arnett, reporting from Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, claims a military officer uttered the phrase. The phrase, whether factual or contrived, has entered the American lexicon about the illogic of war and is frequently used as a metaphor for military overreach that does more harm than good.
- 45.
See “Understanding the Riots: Los Angeles Before and After the Rodney King Case,” Los Angeles Times, 1992 and James D. Delk, Fires & Furies: The Los Angeles Riots of 1992 (Palm Springs, CA: ETC Publications, 1995). The federal government eventually convicted the four officers of violating King’s civil rights. I worked for the Los Angeles Times at the time and share in the Pulitzer Prize awarded the newspaper for its spot news reporting of the riots.
- 46.
During the trial, the anger of black jurors (and their nullification of prosecutorial evidence) focused on exposing a larger truth about recurring patterns of racial bias in the LAPD, which the prosecution arrogantly dismissed and much of white America ignored.
- 47.
According to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll reported by CNN, “Pessimism Grows Over Race Relations,” October 4, 1995. Available online. For more recent reports, see “Poll: 64 percent of Americans Say Racism Remains a Major Problem,” NBC News, May 29, 2018. Also see a March 2018 Gallup poll, “Race Relations.” All available online.
- 48.
See “The Rampart Scandal,” Frontline, WBGH Educational Foundation, March 18, 1997. Available online.
- 49.
Dark Blue, DVD, directed by Ron Shelton (MGM Home Entertainment, 2003).
- 50.
Ron Shelton, Director’s Commentary, Dark Blue, DVD.
- 51.
Dark Blue, DVD.
- 52.
Ibid.
- 53.
Ibid.
- 54.
Ibid.
- 55.
Ibid.
- 56.
Ron Shelton, Dark Blue.
- 57.
In the Denney case, several black bystanders attempt to come to his aid and eventually call emergency services.
- 58.
Quoted in Jack Foley, “Dark Blue—Ron Shelton Q & A,” 2003. See http://www.indielondon.co.uk/film/dark_blue_sheltonQ&A.html.
- 59.
Shelton, Director’s Commentary, Dark Blue, DVD.
- 60.
Ibid. Also, Russell starred in Tombstone (1993) as Wyatt Earp—another reluctant sheriff called to duty.
- 61.
Shelton, Director’s Commentary, Dark Blue, DVD.
- 62.
Ibid.
- 63.
Ty Burr, “Good Cop/Bad Cop: Dark Blue Gives Pale Portrayal of Racism,” Boston Globe, February 21, 2003, C6.
- 64.
Quoted in Foley, Dark Blue.
- 65.
Training Day, DVD. For a comprehensive account of the Rampart scandal, see Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2001. Also see Earl Ofari Hutchinson, “Black Cops No Antidote to Police Violence,” New Journal and Guide, November 9, 2000, 1. Hutchinson explains that the government attributed its lack of prosecutions to the blue “code of silence” shared by Latino and black cops, who are no more anxious to report misconduct than white officers.
- 66.
Ibid.
- 67.
Ibid.
- 68.
“Training Day: Production Information,” Available online at cinema.com.
- 69.
Fuqua, Director’s Commentary, Training Day, DVD.
- 70.
“Training Day: Production Information,” Available online at cinema.com.
- 71.
Kenneth Turan, Review of Training Day, Los Angeles Times, October 5, 2001, available at Los Angeles Times http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews.
- 72.
“Training Day: Production Information,” Available online at cinema.com.
- 73.
Michael Wilmington, “Review of Training Day,” October 4, 2001. Available online at movies.zap2it.com.
- 74.
See Jay Boyar, “Less Than Role Model,” Houston Chronicle, September 30, 2001, 10.
- 75.
The Shield, Season 1, episode 1, “Pilot,” directed by Clark Johnson, aired on March 12, 2002, FX Network.
- 76.
Excerpts from reviews of the pilot episode can be found at metacritic.com.
- 77.
Derek Lawrence, “The Shield: Creator Shawn Ryan on the Possibility of a Revival,” Entertainment Weekly, March 14, 2017.
- 78.
Ibid.
- 79.
The Shield, Season 7, episode 13, “Family Meeting,” directed by Clark Johnson, aired on November 25, 2008.
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Yaquinto, M. (2019). The War on Terror, Homegrown Racism, and the White Knight. In: Policing the World on Screen. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24805-5_8
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