1990 Flick ‘Kindergarten Cop’ Canceled And Compared To Pro-KKK ‘Birth Of A Nation’–No, This Is Not Satire
If anyone tells you that leftists are rational human beings who just have a different perspective–point out this nonsense.
One complaint by one overly-sensitive leftist author seems to have got the ball rolling to persuade the Northwest Film Center to not show the Arnold Schwarzenegger action-comedy “Kindergarten Cop” during its drive-in schedule in Portland, Oregon.
Of course it just had to be the Left Coast.
It’s not like we didn’t see this kind of thing coming a mile away.
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“Kindergarten Cop” was scheduled to be the first film in a series for the Cinema Unbound Drive-in Theater on August 6. It was selected because it was filmed in Astoria, Oregon, and was released 30 years ago. According to a press release, it was chosen “for its importance in Oregon filmmaking history.” It’s now been replaced with “Good Trouble” the new documentary on the life of recently-deceased civil rights icon and intransigent Democratic Congressman, John Lewis.
But author Lois Leveen says that the movie promotes a “school-to-prison pipeline” and promotes “over-policing.”
On Saturday, Portland author Lois Leveen—whose writing credits include contributions to The New York Times and The Atlantic and the book The Secrets of Mary Bowser, a novel based on the life of a slave-turned-Union spy—took to Twitter to excoriate the organization for leading off its series with the movie.
“National reckoning on overpolicing is a weird time to revive Kindergarten Cop. IRL, we are trying to end the school-to-prison pipeline,” she tweeted. “There’s nothing entertaining about the presence of police in schools, which feeds the ‘school-to-prison’ pipeline in which African American, Latinx and other kids of color are criminalized rather than educated. Five- and 6-year-olds are handcuffed and hauled off to jail routinely in this country. And this criminalizing of children increases dramatically when cops are assigned to work in schools.”
Sorry, what?
Clearly, Leveen has never seen the movie. It’s about a cop who goes undercover as a Kindergarten teacher in order to stop a drug cartel leader and murderer from finding and exacting his revenge on his ex-wife and kidnapping his young son.
But I guess having police “serve and protect” innocent civilians against criminals isn’t something that Leveen wants to be portrayed on film.
In a now-deleted tweet, Leveen wrote:
What’s so funny about School-to-Prison pipeline? Kindergarten Cop-Out: Tell @nwfilmcenter there’s nothing fun in cops traumatizing kids. National reckoning on overpolicing is a weird time to revive Kindergarten Cop. IRL, we are trying to end school-to-prison pipeline.
— Lois Leveen (@LoisLeveen) August 1, 2020
Leveen explained her position to Willamette Week and Boy Howdy is it weird. She claims that “Kindergarten Cop” is on the same level as the KKK propaganda piece “Birth of a Nation” or the new target of the left’s scorn the cinematic masterpiece “Gone With The Wind” for its depiction of slavery–never mind that Hattie McDaniel was the first African American woman to win an Academy Award for her performance in that movie. McDaniel’s subtly subversive performances, including her role as Mammy, helped to crack the stereotypes of African Americans. But I digress…
In a message sent to WW over the weekend with the subject line “Kindergarten Cop-Out: Why Does NW Film Center Think There’s Anything Fun About Cops Traumatizing Schoolchildren,” Leveen elaborated on her concerns.
“It’s true Kindergarten Cop is only a movie. So are Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind, but we recognize films like those are not ‘good family fun,'” she wrote. “They are relics of how pop culture feeds racist assumptions.”
“Because despite what the movie shows,” she continued, “in reality, schools don’t transform cops. Cops transform schools, and in an extremely detrimental way.”
What in the Sam Hill is she talking about?!? John Kimble (Schwarzenegger) isn’t a School Resource Officer–he’s a detective who is undercover in order to catch a killer. The school children were not depicted as “traumatized” in the film, but Kimble certainly appeared traumatized more than once.
You’d think that Leveen would love “Kindergarten Cop” since it portrays just how difficult it is to be a teacher. SPOILER ALERT: Kimble even gives up his badge at the end to continue on as a kindergarten teacher. But even that isn’t enough to redeem it, apparently.
The Film Center said that they had other complaints, not just from Leveen, but from “a dozen others, including Black community members who asked us to consider opening the Drive-In with a different movie.” They won’t say how much Leveen’s public criticism affected their decision.
Leveen tells WW the Film Center’s statement left her dissatisfied.
Of course she’s dissatisfied. Is the woke left ever satisfied?
“I have been a Silver Screen members for years, and an NWFC patron even longer, and I know how seldom their screenings attract substantial numbers of BIPOC audience members,” Leveen writes in an email. “When a white-dominant institution cannot honestly admit their error and insensitivity, it does not suggest they will avoid similar errors and insensitivities in the future.”
Source: Willamette Week
Oh, good grief!
Leveen’s criticism of the movie is just bizarre–especially since there are so many other things that the left would hate about the movie.
Just watch the clip and you can see that leftist would have problems with this right from the get-go.
Man, leftists must despise this movie!
The Pledge of Allegiance, undercover cops, discipline, law and order, punctuality, and even honoring President Lincoln. And of course, the main character was a Republican! What isn’t in there is even a hint of the alleged “school-to-prison pipeline.”
But we all know that the movie was really canceled for this 10-second clip:
Sexual dimorphism? Are you kidding? That’s soooo unacceptable these days.
You’re just not allowed to say that biological reality is real in 2020.
Nor can you portray cops as the “good guys” who are protecting civilians and trying to capture a murderous drug kingpin.
Welcome to 2020 where everything is stupid.
