Neoliberalism and Law Enforcement During The 1980s-1990s-2000’s and Now: Robcopism
Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop (1988) was perhaps the most violent film of (the 1980s). However, I am not going to analyze the high-octane frenzy behind the film’s violent backstory; but the main subject in question is the replacement of law enforcement and public services with corporatism and other means of free-market dimensions during this (race to the bottom) Atlas Shrugged (1957) stimulated (the 1980s), or what I call “Robcopism” for short. Moreover, the franchise Robocop in reviewing both (the 1980s) movie debut and the short (1990s) TV series had also simulated a Dirty Harry (1971) atmosphere; throughout the ridicule of American gun culture, inner-city violence, lacuna mortally, corporatism and neoliberalism combined. Thus, enter the (trickle-down) effect on screen as “Omni Consumer Products” (OCP), a fictional mega-corporation slowly moving into the world of social and governmental services through the backdoor (neoliberalism). In which corporate juggernauts such as the fictional corporation (OCP) are portrayed hijacking the military, hospitals, fire departments and law enforcement e.g., police departments as the city of fictionized Detroit starts to run out of government funds (Codell, 1989). As this was (the 1980s) personified corporatism! over the body of public services and the urban environment by outsourcing half of downtown New York’s Battery Park, London’s Docklands, inner-city L.A. or in this case turning a fictionized version of Detroit, Michigan; into one big “dystopian” corporation. Since these neoliberal flagship projects were intended to (re)position Urban development investment by free-market (privatization) while demolishing eyesores industrial and poor geographic areas combined. But instead, it just brought global corporatism and those who operate private enterprises a step closer to the control of economic state policy (Hubbard, 2004, p.667).
Insofar, Robcopism can even explain the (1992) L.A. (Rodney King) riots as civil unrest from the Normandie Avenues, Florence and the South-Central part of Los Angeles, just magnifying the shear consequences of neoliberalism moving into low-income areas. Clearly, the inner-city poor is mostly impacted and targeted by this symbol of Wall Street culture, plutocratic/administrative power, looming skyscrapers, apartheid economics and (neoliberal) gentrification. While those (the poor) at the bottom are alienated behind every gated community or condominium enclave possibility imaged. For example: “If you’re a hardworking person who spends eight, ten, twelve, hours a day working saving, said Troy Duster, head of the UC Berkeley Institute for Social Change, “You can imagine the fury if something in the system were to reveal that it was all really corrupt.” And so, to strike out against this system of inequality normally leads to underworld crime e.g., “street gangs”, riots and conventional arson mostly against those who support these overworld neoliberal or social capital Machiavellian economic motives e.g., neighbourhood displacement, corporate law enforcement, police privatization and commercial alienation from the general public (Jencks, 1993). Therefore, films about the future simulating that Robocop 1980s neoliberal economic special effect; have even reflected movies like Michael Andersons Logan’s Run (1976) Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982), Peter Hyam’s Outland (1981) or John Carpenter’s Escape from New York (1981). As we see law enforcement and other public services like the military once more acting on behalf of mega-corporations, the Hobbesian state and international neoliberal capitalism. While law enforcement actors and blue-collar workers are merely presented as sentient machines or downright ideologically expendable bodies in the name of the is a modern-day neoliberal social system; which evidently enforces an ongoing relationship between the slaves of capital and those who Robber Barron its many harmful neo-feudal aspects to the very progress of humanity itself. Especially, under these commercial and privatization sci-fi interpretations that play out an accurate description of this contemporary free-market operation. However, the economic program that is “Robcopism” or what one would call modern-day “globalization” suggests moviemaking science fiction reflecting a not to dissident future once you think about it? (Ryan & Kellner, 1990). While a reporter for The Ring of Fire (ROF) named Farron Cousins also addressed this link between “Robcopism” and right-wing dystopian extremism; as police officers based in The United States are been openly been trained by “The Oath Keepers”. The group founded by Steward Rhodes Literally look like something from the ongoing dystopian 2000 AD “Judge Dredd” comic anthology series; while many police officers in America (2021) were confirmed members of such groups as they are trained similar to soldiers of fortune or even warriors prepping for a second American civil war; once again showing links between Hollywood fiction and law enforcement fact (Cousins, 2021).
Furthermore, the connection between the dystopian right-wing and the inner workings of police departments and hard-right governments can also be historically traced to The Alliance police Nationale discovered in Aubervilliers, Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris, France, located around the early 2000s. Following that, we see a type of (Flash-Ball) disorder during police deployment not only in the U.S. but that of European aggressive policing as well. And so, every operation carried out by global law enforcement is now recorded to something even close to urban guerrilla warfare; as confrontations with youths in the projects or low-level criminals on the streets echo that of bellicose practices which are not isolated by any means. While this right-wing nature or discourse of crime being close to urban warfare also legitimizes what Ego Bittner said during the 1960s in the U.S: “The price we are prepared to pay to defeat crime and disorder does not include visiting incidental suffering on innocents. Not to observe this stricture would turn crime control into a handmaiden of crime” (Fassing, 2013). While modern American law enforcement has not just coined the cinematic or trope: “Robcopism” but what I also have named: “Blade Runner-Lacanism” in which this dystopia of free-market bounty hunters, authoritarian capitalism and (corporate police) juntas alike; have now entered our very law enforcement reality. Thus, in comparison, we see even see a Philip K. Dick novel trademark now refecting off the policeman's gun that of his civil bluecoat shield. As American law enforcement, today has married the very instrument of an over militarized and downright exploitative communal ethic; that has evidently created a police-state motif to the capitalist private sphere. while twinkling behind a corporate horizon or Lang’s “Metropolis” in the background, as corporate buildings standing tall from New York, Detriot Michigan to the street below the Los Angeles, L.A. skyline; arouse a type of neo-Mayan or atomized sacrifice towards this new Blade Runner/Robocop-like law enforcement society (Ryan & Kellner, 1990).
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