This is redubbed footage of a police chase that happened last Friday (the Benny Hill theme was a nice touch). It's the strangest police chase I've ever seen for several reasons:
1) It involves a Scion xB. To date, I've never seen an xB involved in a police chase. Of special interest because I drive one too and thought it was amusing.
2) It's a woman. You have to admit, you don't see a lot of them running from the law in LA.
3) This was different than a normal chase. I've seen plenty where the driver is emotional, drugged, armed, suicidal etc... But they usually attempt to seriously evade, or make the whole thing a big joke (see GTAIII reference). This is unlike anything I've ever seen before because she's completely serious! (and let's face it, she's not outrunning anything in that little box).
4) She ghostrides the xB. Have you ever seen a chase suspect do that successfully?
I grew up in Southern California. If there's one thing I loved watching, it was a good, live police chase. Unscripted, spontaneous, completely unpredictable, with a hint of danger, it had everything - and better yet, it was covered by every major news station in LA, LIVE. This wasn't newsworthy (necessarily, although I'd love to hear your opinions), it was the televising of some poor soul's cry for help. The only thing that makes it fun to watch is that this poor soul has made a momumentally bad decision in attempting to outrun the law.
So here is my (somewhat serious) proposition Fox News (or whoever wants to tread through the legal battlefield to accomplish what I'm about to propose). A 24-hour cable channel devoted to police chases. I know I'm probably not the first person to think of it (heck Kevin and Bean have talked about it extensively after I got this idea), but why not dedicate a network to it? Statistically there must be a sufficient number of chases that occur to fill a lot of the day. When there isn't a high speed pursuit happening live, what's wrong with digging through the archives to find an oldie?
I also envision half-hour specials (like Tru, Spike etc. do) where they analyze police tactics in a high-speed chase, the dangers (esp. when there are several serious warnings throughout about why it's a bad idea to do this kind of thing) the physics... maybe even forensics, accident scene investigation, heroic stories of state troopers, etc... You have many elements of human drama here, and it's all unfolding live - surely there are several good ideas for a 30-minute series.
And then there's the advertising. Chase junkies like myself would have to sit through the commercials to see what's coming next (in the case of live events). It's like watching any other unfolding live news event - the TV stays on, even through the commercials.
And police chases stop becoming "newsworthy" and are no longer televised there. People who want to do this for notoriety get none because instead of making the 6 o'clock news, they're the next live feature on PCTV (Police Chase TV... just one of the ideas for the title). The people who are thinking about outrunning the cops will probably think twice after watching countless people get hurt, arrested, or even die on the channel's programming. The people still dumb enough to run get to entertain us and sell advertising.
I'm ready to write the business plan, so network execs - drop me a line.

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