"Where the cop is the purp, and the purp is the victim!"

(Copland)

It's not so much that these lines have been blurred beyond doubt but there is some validity to this quote as presented specifically in television in Cop-Thug shows that started with the Shield and continued with what I consider the best television series out there...The WIRE. There is no clear good guys and bad guys and the show demonstrates what's really out there...just people. Some are working behind the guise of the law and others on the corners. But in some twisted way, and certainly by direction of the writers, what side one is on, does not designate them automatically as a protagonist or antagonist...they're still just people. Sure there are the cops you like, but there is also criminals you find yourself siding...errr... empathizing with. And these criminals make you almost believe that selling crack, robbery and murder are... normal. And there lies the beauty of the show. That some things that appeared so foreign at first become commonplace later. After all, the Black ghetto is like a foreign country that happens to be in our cities.