Jennifer Lopez is starring in new police drama for NBC called Shades of Blue. That itself is weird enough without NBC deciding to release a trailer showing two cops covering up the shooting of an unarmed black man.
The trailer opens with Jennifer Lopez’s partner (who is black) accidentally shooting an unarmed black man. While her partner immediately admits fault, Lopez’s character, Harlee Santos, quickly goes into coverup mode and tampers with evidence to make it seem as if the shooting was “justified.”
Now, I don’t want to jump the gun here, but this seems like not a great decision? It strikes me as more than a bit tone deaf. Although, NBC has no idea what it’s doing these days so I guess that makes sense.
Harlee Santos is clearly an antihero who we see aligning herself with (or against) a sketchy-looking Ray Liotta and seemingly getting caught doing something wrong, so perhaps this will turn out well. I’m really happy to see a Latina starring in a primetime show on network television, but I really hope it doesn’t trivialize the Black Lives Matter movement in the process.
I definitely will be watching because I love me some Jennifer Lopez and I want to see her character and her partner end up in prison—because that’s where cops who shoot unarmed civilians and then try to cover it up deserve to be.
Contact the author at kara.brown@jezebel.com .