Stephanie Beatriz and Other TV Cops Donate Earnings to Black Lives Matter

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In the wake of declarations by President Donald J. Trump to bring “law and order” to the country, television’s cops are donating to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

With social media turning today into #BlackoutTuesday to amplify the voices of black people, TV actors who have played cops or detectives, including “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” actress Stephanie Beatriz and “Blue Bloods” actor Griffin Newman, are urging others to make large donations of their residuals and salaries to the Emergency Response Fund.

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Both of their Tweets emphasize urge creatives to donate: “If you currently play a cop? If you make tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in residuals from playing a cop?” Beatriz and Newman each pledged over $10,000 to support various organizations.

This has spread to other people associated with cop and law enforcement series. “Law & Order: SVU” writer Celine Robinson gave $5,500. “Castle Rock” writer Lila Byock and “Medical Police” creator Max Silvestri also donated, commenting that while they didn’t play cops they have written shows associated with law enforcement.

A survey released in January by the nonprofit civil rights advocacy organization Color of Change revealed that crime shows miseducate the public about the criminal justice system by advancing distorted representations of crime, race, and gender. According to the report, “These fictitious depictions build on false perceptions of the criminal justice system and how it intersects with race and gender while ignoring many important realities.”

This comes hot on the heels of “Law and Order” creator Dick Wolf firing a screenwriter associated with an upcoming spin-off series centered around Christopher Meloni’s Elliot Stabler.

The support and outrage are in the wake of the murder of Minnesota resident George Floyd at the hands of the police, just one of a series of police-involved shootings of black people over the last several decades.

There are numerous ways you can support Black Lives Matter, an end to police brutality, and promoting civil rights. Some of them include donating to the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter, the Action Bail Fund, and the Peoples City Council Freedom Fund to name a few.

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