The practice of torture has been around for generations. Though where it originated from is uncertain, it has taken many forms on the big screen. Shows such as NCIS, Hawaii Five-0, Madam Secretary and Blue Bloods have demonstrated some kind of police to civilian brutality. Yet the way these shows connote torture shows that the government is right to do so.
For example, in Madam Secretary the main character is the Secretary of State who, previously was a CIA operative. There was a scene where she was questioning a suspected terrorist on the whereabouts of their leader but he would not cooperate. She left the room and gave permission for someone to torture him by beating him while he was restrained. While beating him within an inch of his life, the suspected terrorist finally gave up on his leader’s whereabouts. The episode ended with the U.S. military finding him and presumably saving many American citizens.
Another example is in Hawaii Five-0, a crime solving task force headed by commander Steve McGarret. He uses many unconventional tactics to catch his criminals. One of which is taking his suspects to the top of a high building and threatening to throw him/her off unless they gave up the info that the team needed. It looks good on screen and many may even agree that the team is in the right by doing so because all the suspects are guilty in some way. Yet thinking back on it now, I disagree with them because they are stretching the boundaries of their power.
Nowadays, many people use the word torture without actually knowing what is connotes. From using the word torture to describe a professor’s final to using it when removing a tooth, the word has evolved into our everyday vocabulary.
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Definitely agree with your opinion on government officials pushing the boundaries when it comes to torture! Though it may seem justified to torture criminals in order to gain information useful to fight bigger scale criminals, there are boundaries and thats the way it should be. At some point, we need to consider the pros an cons, especially with something like torture where you’re unsure if you can even get anything by using it.
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Good choice of examples to show torture-tainment on TV. But perhaps you could go into more depth of the connotations of torture and include some more information about torture for further explanation. Then also maybe how the examples on TV demonstrate torture in a way that is either for or against torture and how it displays it to the audience.
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