Linking an episode of 21 Jump Street with Keith's Justice

[EllisCarver]

I've been using Netflix streaming to go back and watch the entire 21 Jump Street catalog. One episode in particular, God is a Bullet (Season 4, Episode 5), seemed to serve as an interesting model for the prized invention of our very own Keith Malley, Keith's Justice. I apologize if this has been discussed before.

In the episode Hoffs (Holly Robinson) and Penhall (white guy, not Johnny Depp) are sent undercover to a local high school to investigate a drive by shooting that killed a student. But what upstages this plotline is the arrival of a new Principal. Because I don't feel like looking up his name, and to make the connection more obvious, let's just call him Principal Malley.

Principal Malley is a hard-ass. We don't know his background or credentials; we just know he was sent to "shape up" this school. Oh, I should mention this school is a living, breathing stereotype of every 80's inner-city school. Graffiti, drugs, guns, prostitution, gang warfare; you name it, it's there. Off the bat he bans all gang colors, jewelry, headwear, and clothing featuring violence and profanity. This, of course, is not received well by the general populace, and Malley finds his car trashed by the end of the school day. Time to implement stronger measures.

After helping Penhall save a student from getting beat up, he makes Penhall head of school police. He blackmails the football team into joining the police as well. Zones are created around campus that are off-limits to students during school hours (To get rid of smokers, loiterers, and people who trash cars). At first the punishment for lesser offenses is detention (a "warning period", if you will), but after a while Principal Malley feels this isn't working well enough, so any student defying authority gets expelled. Walk the halls without a hall pass, ditch school without a good excuse, or don't walk to class in single file; you're done. He also adds random locker searches and drug tests for every student. The result is obvious, school has been generally rid of criminal activity and graffiti, but it's no longer any fun to go to school.

The first kink in the system occurs when a school police (let's call him "Bumpkin") doesn't punish a friend of his for spread white paint on the faculty toilets as a joke. Malley finds out and expels both students, but not before the practical joker gets beat up by other school police for hiding from persecution.

Hoffs guilts Penhall with the "It's a police state!" spiel into fighting back against Principal Malley and Penhall persuades Bumpkin, who's already smoking crack with some hoodrats in a street alley, to return to school with him. Malley finds a swastika sprayed on the front entrance and orders everyone, faculty and students, into the auditorium. Long story short, the practical joker and a teacher* lead a revolt against Principal Malley, and he's forced to leave.


TL;DR: Keith's Justice would result in a safer society, but inevitable revolt and possible police corruption (unless we depend on robots) would doom it and force Keith into exile.

(Sidenote: If you care, Hoffs tries to budge the practical joker into telling her who shot the student. He doesn't, and Hoffs intentionally blows her cover. Joker then proceeds to snitch and we find out the culprit was already kicked out of school for another crime.)

(Sidenote*: This literature teacher was the stereotypical "I'll do anything for my kids" instructor that never existed in any of our lives. His class was unusually lively and orderly for a school that was ravaged by miscreants.)

[DWarrior]

Easy. Ban Literature teachers in a Keith State, then no uprisings.

[EllisCarver]

Originally Posted by DWarrior

Easy. Ban Literature teachers in a Keith State, then no uprisings.

Cliffs Notes can be appointed to replace them.