MovieChat Forums > Cop Hater (1958) Discussion > Unbelievable police tactics

Unbelievable police tactics

posted 13 years ago by algsmail
4 replies | jump to latest

This movie is incredible! Forget Miranda, didn't anyone hear of a WARRANT? You just bust in to a guy's home, no whisper of a warrant, roust a guy (Ortiz) in his bed, slap him around, wrong guy, we're outtahere.
A guy says "Don't call me Willie." They call him Willie, knock him out, and then WALK AROUND HIS LIFELESS BODY as if he wasn't even there! I'm surprised they didn't step over his body on their way out. They tell the uniform to let him sleep because they like him better that way.
There's more but you get the idea. Simply incredible. Did audiences in those days think this kind of brutal crap was OK?
(An interesting aside/coincidence here. This was one of Jerry Orbach's first roles. Lenny of "Law & Order", who never failed to call "persons of interest" by their given names. "So Danny, you like those little girls in kneesocks?" I kept waiting in vain for someone like Danny to answer back "Well, LENNY, that's none of your business. You call me Danny again, you get nothing." Never happened.)
This flick is almost a cartoon.

[–] Alek_Hidell 13 years ago

This movie was made in 1958. Miranda wasn't around until 1966.
From Wikipedia:

The concept of "Miranda rights" was enshrined in U.S. law following the 1966 Miranda v. Arizona Supreme Court decision, which found that the Fifth Amendment and Sixth Amendment rights of Ernesto Arturo Miranda had been violated during his arrest and trial for rape and kidnapping (Miranda was subsequently retried).

The cops had lots of leeway back in '58. They were still using rubber hoses to get confessions.

Right or wrong, we also had less crime back then. Hmmmmm.....

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I'm just a patsy!

[–] shawn_381 12 years ago

Educational!

[–] geordie-688-809183 10 years ago

According to this Chicago Tribune article from 2011, crime rates are actually very similar to those of the fifties.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-12-25/news/ct-oped-1225-chapman-20111225_1_golden-age-crime-and-property-crime-homicide-rate

Here are a couple of excerpts from the article:

The 1950s are often recalled as a golden age in American life — stable families, rising incomes, wholesome TV shows and low crime rates. Doesn't sound like 2011, does it? When it comes to crime, though, there is a striking similarity: We are, believe it or not, in a new golden age.

Today, your chance of being murdered is lower than it was in the late 1950s, a time of enviable peace and order. Robberies have been cut by more than half since their peak. Car thefts are about as common as they were when the Beatles first appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

[–] Jeorj Euler 7 years ago

There is a lot of unspoken history that bleeds through in old cinema. The older a film is the more interesting it gets.