It seems that Jake Peralta and the 99 will be tackling topics of police brutality and racism when the NBC comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine goes back into production following the coronavirus pandemic. Star Terry Crews appeared on Late Night With Seth Meyers on Monday where he discussed the state of current events in America and how it will pertain to the show’s upcoming season.
When Meyers asked Crews if “the events of the day” would effect the next season, he replied, “Definitely.”
“We actually all got on a Zoom call just the other day because of what’s happening in this country. We were witnessing so many abuses of power,” Crews said. “We had some somber talks and some really, really eye-opening conversation about how to handle this new season.”
Crews and the rest of the cast play New York City police officers, sergeants, and captains on the comedy, which originated on Fox. The cast has already made a $100,000 group donation to the Nation Bail Fund in support of protesters around the country.
In addition to the cast’s donation, actress Stephanie Beatriz, who plays detective Rosa Diaz on the show, also urged others who play cops on TV to step up and make donations.
“I’m an actor who plays a detective on TV. If you currently play a cop? If you make tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in residuals from playing a cop? I’ll let you do the math. (Thanks @GriffLightning for leading the way),” the actress wrote on Twitter, calling attention to Blue Bloods actor Griffin Newman for his donation.
George Floyd’s death on May 25 has inspired a movement of people across America and around the world to speak out against police brutality and racial injustice. Floyd was a 46-year-old black man who died after a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine isn’t the first cop show that has agreed to address the current state of unrest over racial injustice.
Law & Order: SVU showrunner Warren Leight said that the death of Floyd “has to come up and it will” on the long-running procedural.
“There are ways, we will find our way in to tell the story. Presumably our cops will still be trying to do the right thing but it’s going to be harder for them and they’re going to understand why it’s hard for them,” Leight told The Hollywood Reporter of the squad facing an understandably untrustworthy public when it comes to day-to-day cases.
In addition to talking about the future of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Crews also addressed NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell admitting that “we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier.” He also encouraged NFL athletes to speak out in protest.
Crews played in the NFL from 1991 to 1997 and was moved by the historic statement.
“It was the same feeling I felt when I saw [Barack] Obama’s inauguration. I thought I would never see this,” Crews said. “It was a moment that stands in time, even to this day, to watch Roger Goodell actually admit that they were wrong.”
He added that he felt Goodell should have mentioned Colin Kaepernick specifically, calling Kaepernick’s exit from the NFL “the most glaring example of racism.”
