'Brooklyn 99' Stephanie Beatriz Responds to Complaints that the Show is Unrealistic

brooklyn 99 stephanie beatriz

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is pretty much the idealized version of what a police precinct should be.

All the detectives promote feminist values and equality; they fight against police brutality and stereotypes; they empower two Latina detectives and a black gay police captain to be their badass selves.

It’s pretty much what we all wish our country’s police men and women could be like. But as Stephanie Beatriz knows, this is only a dream world. She told Teen Vogue,

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is an idealized, fun, comedy world in which feminism is an underlying value that all the characters have. Equality is a value all the characters have. I mean, I want to live in that world. I’d like to make the world feel more like that, but I understand that it’s a fantasy.”

She added,

“The state of police officers in the United States right now is very bad. They are murdering people, and particularly black people.”

In 2018 alone, police have shot and killed 570 people (although that number is higher according to other sources). According to The Washington Post, we’re already on track to have more cases of police brutality in 2018 than we did last year.

And while the murders of Jordan Edwards, Philando Castile, and Freddie Gray have elicited outrage and protests from communities, the majority of police precincts have shown zero interest in rectifying the situation.

To learn more about the state of police brutality, head to MappingPoliceViolence.org.

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Lena Finkel
Lena Finkel is the Editor and Founder of Femestella and The Feminist Health Source. Prior to starting Femestella, she worked at People, InStyle, Tiger Beat, and Sesame Workshop (aka Sesame Street). She loves all things Real Housewives and The Challenge. When she's not busy binge-watching TV, you can find her taking an absurd amount of photos of her tuxedo cat Tom.