A New Mexico State Police officer shot and killed a person in Southeast Albuquerque on Saturday while a film crew for the TV show "COPS" was riding along — and the collision of reality entertainment and lethal force ought to make every American ask who's profiting from this arrangement.
The shooting happened near Cochiti and California, southeast of San Pedro and Central, according to a post on X from State Police at approximately 1 p.m. "The officer was not injured. The suspect is deceased," the agency stated. "There is no ongoing threat to the public. Please stay clear of the area due to police activity."
State Police spokesperson Sgt. Ricardo Breceda confirmed in an email that the "COPS" production crew was actively filming with State Police when the shooting occurred, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
No details have been released about the deceased, the circumstances that led to the shooting, or whether the "COPS" cameras captured the moment of lethal force on tape. State Police have classified it as a developing story.
The Two-Faced Media Machine
Here's the stake for ordinary Americans: the same media ecosystem that produces and profits from shows like "COPS" — turning police encounters into prime-time entertainment, commodifying stops and searches and shootings for ad revenue — also runs endless editorials and segments demanding police abolition, decrying systemic violence, and lecturing the public about the carceral state. The cameras roll both ways, and the checks clear both ways.
Paramount Global, which revived "COPS" on its Fox Nation streaming platform after the show was briefly canceled in 2020 following George Floyd's death, saw an opportunity to cash in on the very policing that its sister news operations condemn. That's not a contradiction — that's a business model.
The Albuquerque Journal reported the bare facts straight: a ride-along, a shooting, a deceased suspect. The paper noted the "COPS" connection and left it at that. Meanwhile, the Greensboro News & Record ran an unrelated shooting story the same day — a person shot in eastern Greensboro — with no mention of police involvement or media crews, a reminder that most gun violence in America happens far from any camera that could monetize it.
The Open Questions
Who was the person State Police killed? What happened before the camera started rolling, and what happened after? Will the "COPS" footage be released to the public — or locked in a vault as network property while State Police conduct their own investigation of themselves?
The public deserves answers. What it usually gets is a press release and a TV episode.
