Get this and get it straight. Crime is a suckers road and those who travel it wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave.

The story you are about to hear is true, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

The Adventures of Sam Spade Detective.

The Adventures of the Saints starring Vincent Prize

Bob Bailey in the exciting adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account

America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator.

Yours truly, Johnny Deller. And the Hello and welcome to down these mean streets and another trip back to the

Golden Age of radio where we'll rub elbows with its detectives and crime fighters.

And back then, just like today, many of the lead characters of crime shows were police officers. In the United States over the past few

months in the wakes of several murders of unarmed black citizens by law

enforcement, our culture is reconsidered how we depict the police in our stories.

And cop shows have become a necessary, albeit at times uncomfortable uncomfortable part of that discussion.

There's no denying the entertainment value of these shows,

and certainly many were not designed to create an attitude toward police that accepted

and justified unfair and oppressive tactics.

But those were unintended consequences of decades of shows, a run that really began with

Dragnet in 1949, the grandfather of the police procedural, and a show I featured many times on this podcast.

It's been a favorite of mine ever since I started listening to old time radio shows.

Even before that when I would watch reruns of the 60s series on Nick at Night.

But I haven't felt comfortable playing episodes that so vividly glorify the police and

their practices following the deaths and demonstrations

that have gripped this country since May.

...