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World's Scariest Police Chase Down Transpeople
By Gay-Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
Contributed by Sallyanne Ofner
February 27, 1998
On February 17, FOX targeted transpeople in World's Scariest Police
Chases, another "reality-based" police program. "They could be high, they could
be insane, they could be both," the voice-over says. "These suspects are so
dangerous, so reckless, and so weird that they make these chases
unforgettable." During the "so weird" section, the program shows police
forcing at gunpoint a transgendered person from a truck. Then two
separate clips are shown where either cross-dressing men, drag queens or
transgender women (the show does not make this distinction) are engaged in high-speed
chases. In the first, the voice-over identifies the suspect as a "local
football coach, well-known and well-liked."
When the person is caught,
the voice-over asks, "But why did he run, and why didn't the officer
recognize
him?" He snidely states that, "He was wearing a wig and women's
clothing."
Between segments, a police officer explains that safety is the number-one
concern, and that they want people to be stopped, not humiliated. But the
next arrestee tells a different story. While being chased, the driver calls
911 and explains, "Brand-new dress on, that's what I got. Now they'll see
me all dressed up, and want to parade me around in front of everybody in
jail...." The arrestee says he will stop when "I get my make-up off,"
adding, "I hope this won't make the news." When the driver is arrested, the
camera fixes on his legs in hose, noting that "an officer can't help but
smile."
By prefacing the segment by calling the transpeople "weird," and lumping
that in with being "high," "crazy" or both, FOX sets viewers up to consider
transpeople "freakish." The voice-over confirms this bias against
transgendered people in its attitude toward the wig and dress of the
first
driver. The second driver has a valid concern of humiliation after arrest
by police officers, who unfortunately have a long history of
insensitivity
and even outright violence towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgendered
people. But this is dismissed by the officer stating that police do not
want to "humiliate" suspects. Instead of giving any context to the driver's
fear, the structure of the show makes the person appear irrational and
"weird."
Let FOX know that this kind of side-show treatment of transgender people is
unacceptable.
Contact: Peter Roth, President of Fox Entertainment Group, Fox Television
Network, 10201 West Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064-2606, fax:
310.369.7363, or call the viewer hotline at: 310.369.3066
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