'Outlaw Country': Another How-To Reality Show?

It's called “Outlaw Country.” It's filmed in and around Independence, Missouri, in an area that includes a town called Buckner. The main characters are the “Outlaws,” the Monk brothers who each have long records and have been in the slammer many times. One brother owns a tattoo parlor. They have a few “associates.” I call them partners in crime. They have been accused of strong-arming local businesses, drug trafficking and selling illegal firearms among other things.

The cops are the Cook brothers, who are being portrayed as harassing those “poor, innocent lambs” – the Monks, who proclaim to have “found Jesus” and profess their desire to go on the straight and narrow after their last stint as wards of the state. In his next breath, brother John Monk says, “I'm going to do exactly what I want to do.”

I forced myself to watch episode No. 1 so I could relay to you what I saw.

What I saw was a sometimes scripted, sometimes not, show about being bad and telling the cops as well as your neighbors that they can “like it or lump it.” They're going to drag race at 3 a.m. on the main street if they want to and nobody has the right to tell them they can't. They say, “It's a free country, ain't it?”

They're going around town selling “insurance” to business owners guaranteeing that their stores won't be robbed, burned or burglarized. Folks who don't comply are getting into “accidents.” They say the cops are harassing them by breaking down their doors with search warrants looking for drugs. They saw it's profiling because the one brother looks like a tattooed circus freak and has a bad attitude toward the cops.

The producers of the show say it's non-scripted but I say that's a crock of yesterday's breakfast. And it seemed to me the producers and directors were in sympathy with the Outlaws for most of the show. They gleefully show how the bad guys out-fooled the cops in an illegal gun case.

If I weren't in this business of writing stuff, I would say “take that show off the air. It's a how-to manual for any fruitcake with a following to do some copycatting. One has to support their constitutional right to free speech no matter how insipidly stupid the content.

Seems that today's society is far more tolerant of the violence, sexual content and foul language than in my day. The more outlandish and outlaw-ish the content, the more the younger crowd likes it. Since when do honest people take the sides of crooks, thieves and outlaws? I'll tell you when … from the first TV show or movie that told an admiring public it was OK to disrespect the police .. from the first movie that glorified drug dealers and their flashy way of life, their mansions and rooms full of cash … from the first movie that portrayed bad cops doing bad things.

My question to you is simply this: Could this happen in Glasgow, Mont.?

Another question is, do some of our laws and amendments on the Bill of Rights protect the criminals more than the honest public? Do they handcuff the police when it comes to making arrests and charges that stick? This show, Outlaw Country, kinda' leans toward protecting the outlaws. As I am not going to watch any more episodes you, my 17.620 readers (I've increased readers since … that story … you know the one) will have to keep tabs and tell me how it ends.

Oh, and in the “I told you so” category, I just learned it's official. Obama is going to try to ban bullets. I think I mentioned this in a 2010 opinion and again in 2012 and 2013. Guns are irrevocably protected. Bullets for the guns aren't.

In relation to the above Outlaw Country, if bullets were banned by anyone other than the cops and military, it might make the Monk brother's illegal gun-running operation defunct. Or they would simply switch to illegal bullet-running.

That's it for now folks. Thanks for listening.