Stinking Badges!

If there was ever a good time to revisit this post about the disdain towards the "long arm of the law," this is it. I'm sure you've all seen and heard the news about the footage of the complete and fatal inaction of the police during the Uvalde elementary school shooting.

In case anyone has missed the released video, it's linked below this paragraph, with commentary of YouTuber Vaush. The sound of screaming and dying children has been edited out, and I'm glad for it; this must be difficult for anyone involved, especially the parents and family of the murdered children and teachers, as it is. Even without knowing even close to all background information, like orders that may have prevented the policemen on location to take action, what's displayed here is a total disgrace. The police are supposed to be our allies, as difficult that is to believe by now, but displays of such cowardice contrasted with the ease with which unarmed innocent people are sometimes shot down, makes one lose all respect for the badge. The famous movie line "We don't need no stinking badges!" has taken on a whole new meaning...

With that out of the way, let's look at stereotyping and famous stereotypical Hollywood movie-lines. Well, one in particular that is. You see, like Arabs, African Americans, Chinese and other racial groups, the Mexican has for decades been caricatured on the movie screen. Regardless of any opinions on how discriminating or politically correct or incorrect this is, the Mexican has typically been portrayed as an independent soul that has little to no respect for authority; they are almost always a bandit or some other type of criminal, especially in the years when Westerns were extremely popular.

This classical Mexican bandit caricature had one line that has been used over and over again in countless movies, with only slight variations; it's the resolute refusal of wearing any decoration to do with authority, "the badge." You may call me politically incorrect, but that phrase spoken with an authentic or faked Mexican accent always makes me smile. I believe it was first used in the 1948 western The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Humphrey Bogart:

If you know of even earlier uses of this famous quote, pleas let me know in the comments and I'll watch that entire movie just to catch that line one more time ;-) Another famous appearance of badge-refusing Mexicans was the one in the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy Blazing Saddles:

Like I said, this line has been used over and over again. Okay, not as much as the line "I got a bad feeling about this," but I think it comes close. Its frequent use in comedies, even in situations where Mexicans nor badges play any role, is perhaps the best proof of this line's fame. I'll leave you with a compilation of some of its more comical uses:

The above is a redacted version of a post I originally released on Steemit in October, 2018

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