Episode 8: You Gotta Understanda the Aim of Copaganda

In episode 8, Myra explains what Copaganda is (spoiler alert it's propaganda designed to portray law enforcement in a positive light.) She explains the ways Copaganda is included in various aspects of society, from media and entertainment to schools and communities, illustrating how Copaganda influences public opinion and perpetuates harmful narratives. She emphasizes the need to critically examine the role of law enforcement and challenge the narratives propagated by Copaganda. The episode concludes with a catchy bop-a-aganda song about Copaganda. 

Listen to the Copaganda song anywhere you stream music. Here are a few: 

Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube Music

Visit our site to Watch the Copaganda lyric Video: https://www.involvedpod.com/copaganda-song

You can also download the song, lyrics, and an instrumental version if you feel like making your own version. Make sure to tag us if you do, we'd love to hear it!

Download the Copaganda song here: https://soundcloud.com/involved-podcast

Song Credits: 

Lyrics and Performance: La Tisha Conto

Music: Mykola Sosin

CREDITS

Intro voices In order of appearance: 

Lex Ward

Kassandra Voss

Joellen Terranova

Davonna Dehay

Episode: 

Myra: La Tisha Conto 

Additional Voices: Nathan Keyes

Transcript

Intro

Myra: 75 days until my husband comes home. 

Myra: Hello listeners, and today when I say listeners, I don’t just mean all you good faith folks tuning in to learn more about what prison is actually like. No, today when I say listeners, I’m also talking to you… Who? Well, I spy with my little I&I a cop or two, or three, or four amongst us. Word off the streets is the cops have found out about the radio dispatches and are listening. But how do I know this? Well, of course I&I took my husband in for questioning.

Myra doing cop voices: What is she up to? why is she disparaging us? why doesn’t she like us? 

Myra: So… now that they know that I know that they know I’m out here talking, I thought we’d do a special episode devoted to them, with a special intro for our new cop buddies tuning in. Take it away Myra:

Myra: (singing) This ones dedicated to the ones we loathe.

Myra: This episode is all about Copaganda. And I know, you are thinking what in the fuck is Copaganda. And you’re in luck because I am about to help you understanda. That joke won’t make sense until much later. What you need to know first is copaganda is propaganda meant to paint law enforcement in a good light. It shows up in lots of different ways in media, entertainment, and just in our everyday society. It’s everywhere. 

Myra: Copaganda exists to indoctrinate you into a belief that cops are good, cops are always telling the truth, cops solve crime, but also prevent it. Which is just bullshit, because cops literally have nothing to do with preventing crime. We know this and yet – budgets soar, even if you gave the cops everything they wanted – which in their world would be one cop assigned to every person – there would be crime 1. Because - cops commit crimes. And 2. cops don’t prevent crime.

Myra: A common scene I play out with friends goes like this: I say ‘He was taken to the hole.’ They say ‘What did he do.’ The burden is placed on my husband to defend himself. Immediately. It’s a simple question, and it’s asked by my friends in a honest way trying to obtain information. But what it reveals is that there is a default judgement. If my husband has an interaction with cops, it’s assumed he did something. What other reason would they have to bother him, right? That’s the result of copaganda. Centuries of journalists acting as stenographers for cops, television shows portraying cops as handsome, good-hearted, well meaning folks with a want of justice.

Myra: Okay, but Myra you might be asking, how would I ask that question without a judgement? You would ask me what happened. Then I can tell you what happened. And usually after I tell my friends what happened they say ‘That’s fucked up.’ And I agree. But they love my husband, and they give him – or me – a chance to explain. It’s why I’m taking the time to explain what life is like for those of us involved with incarcerated loved ones. We see it everyday, but we are up against media and entertainment. But these kinds of interactions happen over and over everyday without consideration that we may be on the receiving end of copaganda, which makes us default to a way of thinking that paints every interaction a person has with law enforcement as their own fault, as a ‘what did they do’, without understanding how much fuckery is behind law enforcement and how much the system and institutions rely on interactions with law enforcement – and the public’s belief that they are not the fault of law enforcement - to keep the system going.

Myra: Copaganda is how from a very young age we are mingling with cops in so many different ways that are designed to make you feel like cops are good people, and policing is an inherently good profession, a good institution. And this makes it difficult to educate about policing and prisons. It has a similar structure to religion. If you are introduced at a young age before you develop critical thinking skills you are very susceptible to believe anything your pastor/preacher etc. tells you. Or asks of you. And that unquestioning faith leads to some very harmful places as we have seen most recently with the Catholic church.

Myra: Are there good people who become cops? Sure. I mean, being a cop for many people is a great job – lots of benefits, great pay, retirement, lots of vacay, and when you really need to game the system, overtime pay and lucrative contracting work. It’s not even in the top 10 most dangerous jobs but of all the quote unquote dangerous jobs out there it is by far the most well represented by a union and enjoys the best benefits.

Myra: Little side ramble here to stave off the gotcha folks. People criticize abolitionists when we point out policing and prisons are upholding white supremacy – they think it’s a gotcha to point out that there are any number of percentage of nonwhite people employed as cops and correction workers. Fair. But, a good paying job is a good paying job, even if it goes against your own interests. If non cop jobs paid the same as other jobs – with pension, retirement, school reimbursement etc – and those jobs weren’t in the private sector where racist hiring practices are harder to fight against - you would see less nonwhite people holding those jobs. And again, as we always say white supremacy is a system, and an institution. Rotten orchards and toxic soil. Non white people survive in the systems and institutions white supremacy has constructed in it’s image. That’s not a gotcha. That’s just life.

Myra: Back to copaganda. So, I am but a person of average knowledge, who doesn’t have the academic prowess - I mean I am not even sure what prowess means, but I have heard it used in this context and so I’m going to use it. I don’t have the academic prowess to instruct on copaganda, and there are far better resources that I will include at the end of the episode and I hope you read them but here are my own examples of how copaganda gets into the American psyche, the way microplastics get into the bloodstream - right in front of us... hidden in clear sight.

Myra: Copaganda in schools. One of my earliest memories of cops being  presented as our friend goes back to the 80s. We were all fingerprinted at school by our local police. Some local cops would come in and fingerprint us for our own safety because it was the 80s and stranger danger was all the rage. Think of the kidnapped child by some rando in a white van as the school shootings of today. But, unlike school shootings these rando kidnappings weren’t really happening all that often – media just made you feel like they were. Never the less, from a business perspective It was useful because a whole market of things sprung up out of the fear of child abductions. Side Note: If you truly want to deep dive on how useless cops are when an actual child goes missing please do yourself and your copagandist tendencies a favor and check out the podcast In the Dark Season 1.

Myra:  Nevermind that the overwhelming majority of child kidnappings are family or marital disputes – but we don’t do a bunch of family therapy, or offer help to families struggling with the pressures of raising children, and paying bills. No instead we gave that funding to cops so they can come to the school and terrorize children by fingerprinting them. Win win because they get to act like they’re just your friendly golly-gee-whiz officer with the kids, and at the same time putting them into the system so that later on they can be arrested. Copaganda. Slight of handa. Again, a joke that will make sense later. 

Myra: Copaganda in Hollywood. Let’s start with the most basic way that copaganda works in entertainment. Cops and military are generally portrayed as the good guys. The smart guys. The guys with integrity. They give them the slick weapons, and damn if they don’t know how to use them precisely. In reality cops and military personnel are just fucking around through their jobs like the rest of us. It’s a bunch of dudes who want to play call of duty on and off duty, who are told they are right, no questions asked. Policing locally and internationally - our military - is the biggest work program the US offers. And to make sure all its failiures are hidden; losing every single conflict it gets embroiled in, training thousands of mostly men to become so violent and aggressive without consequence that domestic violence rates soar, substance use disorders soar, rates of death by suicide soar. they sell it to you in sweet little copaganda package that looks like jet flyovers at football games, coffee with cop programs, And cops on TV making the tough calls - book em.

Myra: If you’ve seen law and order you’ve seen copaganda. Every episode of law and order goes like this: Crime happens - because you  notice no cop stops it. So they have to investigate. Detectives come in. They find clues. They go to trial. The truths in the episode: crime happens and cops don’t prevent it, or stop it. The lies in the episode: Detectives are smart and solve puzzles. In reality, Crime either doesn’t get solved (40% of murders not cleared) or not investigated (property crime we don't have the time) or somebody tells, and many times the people who tell are other people in trouble with the law who get some kind of deal for telling (jail informant). This is how almost all of it goes down. Then there is a plea deal – almost non of it goes to trial. Law & Order makes cops and lawyers and all of it seem like really well intentioned people, with a lot of smarts. Think about it, who gets to go to law school in general – rich kids. Who becomes prosecutors? Rich dicks. Who become cops – the poor bullies and people who want the benefits – so we got Reno 911 or Rambos running the police departments. (sidenote: Reno 911 is by far the most accurate depiction of cops on tv.) 

Myra: Copaganda is also the language. When an officer is accused of shooting somebody the papers will refer to them as peace officers. When they put cops in school – school resource officer. It’s a cop. A cop is a cop. When they want more money from city budgets they’ll create programs called community policing. They show up at parades, at sports matches. They’ll show up to a fucking bike giveaway only to take that same bike to a poor neighborhood and use it as bait bike to arrest some kid who takes it. Its disgusting.

Myra: Copaganda is the way you are expected to say thank you for your service to law enforcement, but not to teachers, librarians, health care professionals, community orgs filling in all the gaps created by the cities who rob social services to pay law enforcement for work that is never really helping anybody. Let’s walk through a crime. Say somebody robs somebody. By the time the police are called – generally speaking it’s over. If the person has sought help its from people around them. Police show up and depending on how melanated your skin is they treat you with contempt al the way down to just ‘we can’t really do anything mam, we’ll file the report (paperwork – which is basically a huge part of this super dangerous job) and then nothing changes. Because crime isn’t about good and evil. On a large scale – or the way rich people do crime its power and greed. And we call that white collar and nobody really ever goes to jail because legal system doesn’t want to fuck up the lives of the affluent. But if you aren’t rich, and especially if you aren’t white, crime is born out of deprivation of resources, and so you steal, you assault somebody etc. Does this cause harm? Yes. Did flint officials know the water was toxic? Yes. Did they go to jail? No. Does the person who steals something because they don’t have it go to jail? Yes.

Myra: I digressed on my digression. Basically, copaganda is all the myths, and narratives created around policing to make you believe the only thing standing between your safety and a potential crime is a cop, when in reality the things keeping you safe are your neighbors, and community members getting needs met. Healthcare, housing, education, food, financing. When humans get these basic needs met societies function well. But law enforcement and military suck all those resources so they can engage in the biggest game of call of duty, larping all around the country – all around the world. And losing every game. Because violence begets violence. And in our communities? Pain inflicts pain.

Myra: If you understood how little the police have to do with your actual safety you would stop allowing them to take all the money out of your budgets.

Myra: And remember kids what do we say about policing: not just bad apples. Bad apples, rotten orchards, in toxic soil.

Myra: Let’s wrap by sharing a song one of the family members uses to teach her students at her charter school. I know, I know, I roll my eyes at charter school too. but they pay her a lot of money and she gets to teach about abolition because all of the rich white people who send their kids there don’t really believe it will actually happen and it makes then feel edgy to say that their kids know people who have loved ones who are incarcerated. Without further ado, MaLea, the greatest teacher in the world, and we thank her for her service, with a catchy little bop about Copaganda: 

Copaganda songs plays 

Copaganda lyrics: 

Chorus 1

Gotta coppa planda deplatform Copaganda

Gotta coppa planda resist the Copaganda 

Gotta take a standa dismantle Copaganda

Gotta coppa planda deplatform Copaganda

Verse 1

First Part of our planda

Deplatform Copaganda 

We’ve gotta understanda 

What is Copaganda? 

It’s reporters on the street, 

talking to a cop, 

They ask him what did you see

And they have a little chat, 

The reporter prints it in the newspaper as fact. 

It’s cops on TV, 

Written in a way to make them look so brave, 

When in reality 

they have super high DV rates, 

Written in a way to make them look so smart, 

When in reality crimes are solved because an informant tells, a crime partner tells, somebody tells. Or, in roughly half of the cases-  they aren’t solved at all, they don’t get solved at all, they aren’t solved at all, they don’t get solved at all. 

Chorus 2 

Gotta coppa planda deplatform coppaganda

Gotta coppa planda resist the coppaganda 

Gotta take a standa dismantle coppaganda

Gotta coppa planda deplatform coppaganda

Verse 2

Next part of our planda 

dismantle coppaganda 

we’ve got to understanda

the aim of coppaganda

They’ rob playgrounds, parks, and pools 

to pay for police. 

you say thank you for your service while you are getting fleeced. 

They take all the money out of community spaces, 

say it’s for public safety, playing right in your faces. 

They say its unsafe, 

everybody’s a threat, 

While your family can’t make rent, sinking further in debt. 

Chorus 3  

Gotta coppa planda deplatform coppaganda

Gotta coppa planda resist the coppaganda 

Gotta take a standa dismantle coppaganda

Gotta coppa planda deplatform coppaganda

Verse 3

Last part of our planda 

Defeat the  coppaganda 

we gotta share this mantra

to counter coppaganda 

When you see it the news, 

Or cop dog cartoons

You gotta ask yourself what is it trying to do 

It’s trying to hide the basic truth 

We trade community spaces for more cops. 

We trade libraries for cop shops. 

We trade pools and playgrounds

For guns and live rounds

trading housing, healthcare, food, wages, and education, 

All so cops can have pensions and go on lame vacations. 

Chorus 4

Gotta coppa planda deplatform coppaganda

Gotta coppa planda resist the coppaganda 

Gotta take a standa dismantle coppaganda

Gotta coppa planda deplatform coppaganda

Outro 

Trading housing, healthcare, food, wages, and education, 

All so cops can have pensions and go on lame vacations. 

Taking our lives, so cops can thrive

They take our lives, but cops survive. 

They’re taking our lives. 

Song ends. 

Myra: yeah I don’t know if she's going to be teaching there next year. Anyways, that’s it for today’s show. Join us next week when we talk some more about well intentioned do-gooders coming into the prison with a savior complex and absolutely fucking things up for our loved ones. You’re welcome and I’ve been great.