Litigation

Cal. Litig. 2021, Volume 34, Number 3

Dirty Harry Turns 50: What If Harry Had Worn a Body Cam?

By Colin C. Alexander

Colin C. Alexander is an Assistant District Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco. He is solely responsible for any opinions expressed in this article.

A renegade cop holds back the torrent of crime in San Francisco, plugging the dam with the barrel of his .44 Magnum.

Controversial when released in 1971, Dirty Harry was banned in Finland for over a year but was also used as a training film for police in the Philippines. Fifty years after the film was released, we watched it again to see how it holds up today, with a focus on the film’s depiction of race, constitutional law, and police procedure.

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