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Police UFO Culture
Copyright(C) 2008, Richard A. Jones.
Despite the initial surprise or disbelief from the average officer, or even the average citizen for that matter, that the police are connected to the UFO phenomenon, the idea is well ingrained into elements of culture. Movies and television have well explored the Police-UFO connection, and the idea has proliferated into many areas of media, culture, and psycho-cultural phenomena. As for mainstream news, reports of UFO events are limited, although reports are more likely to appear in town and regional papers. Outside of the realm of formal news reporting though, a rich exploration of the connection between UFOs and police flourishes, for it is the nature of the media to relegate the topic of UFOs to fiction and entertainment.
When America brought to Australia Steven Spielberg’s movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”(CE3)[1], Australians watched as the police engaged in a dramatic and fruitless UFO-chase. It was a movie particularly noteworthy for the extent of research that had gone into its production. In fact, the amount of research available has often raised suspicion. Indeed government insiders, more than once, have disclosed coming across evidence that Spielberg was privy to secure information on UFOs. Additionally, other conspiracy theories abound around his work on CE3. Conspiracy theorists purport that this particular production was a government sponsored project, or at least an approved or supported project, an early part of a long term goal of “UFO desensitisation” upon the public. There is only weak evidence to support these theories - some are anecdotal, some confused with another Spielberg, and some based on low-weight psychic remote-viewing data[a].
Spielberg would continue his fascination with the subject of UFOs. Exploring a slightly different feel, Spielberg’s “ET – The Extraterrestrial”[2] brought childish summertime visions of a little boy on a bicycle with a friendly alien, flying away silhouetted majestically against the moon, escaping the clutches of local, federal and secret police in hot pursuit. These are strong images, however infantile, nevertheless impressed upon the Australian national psych, and ones highlighting the notion of a police UFO relationship. Like the conspiracy theories that hint at government involvement in Spielberg’s CE3 project, people have postulated that ET was a project that involved the “playing-down” of the ET reality. Spielberg’s first ET project was too-realistic, and Spielberg was encouraged to produce an ET that was discernibly less realistic.
In 1993, the TV series “The X-files”[3] appeared on television sets across the nation, in which the adventurous Federal Agent Fox Mulder, along with Agent Dr. Dana Scully, investigated UFOs for a living, and the notion of a complex relationship between police and UFOs solidified itself in the nation’s mind. The X-files proved itself extremely popular, running for 9 years, inspiring a library of books based on the series, prompting the creation of a movie, “X-files The Movie”[4], with a second X-files movie released in mid 2008, along with countless paraphernalia.
The term “X-files” has now become synonymous with the investigation of the paranormal and especially UFOs, the term being used casually in books, papers, and websites the world over to refer to UFO investigation. Frequently one will come across the phrase “The real X-files” in an attempt to promote the credibility and reality of the work, and to associate the work with the formal policing of the paranormal. For example, the UFO close encounter of Australia’s Kelly Cahill was published under the title of “Encounter”[5], with the font cover comment “You’ve seen it in the ‘X-files’ – now read the real thing”. Variations upon the term X-files also appear in the title of books. For example, Moira McGhee and Bryan Dickeson of the Independent Network of UFO Researchers (INUFOR) published their research summary of UFOs over the NSW Central Coast under the title of, “The Gosford Files”[6]. Likewise, independent UFO investigator Bill Chalker published his seminal work of Australian UFOlogy under the title of, “The Oz Files”[7]. Further, there is also John Pinkney’s “A Paranormal File”[8]. The use and abuse of the term X-files has thoroughly achieved a sense of cliché.
More recently the UFO topic has appeared in crime shows. CSI[9] featured the infiltration of a UFO group, NCIS[10] the investigation of a crop circle, and “Without a Trace”[11] sported a suspect UFO abductee who believed he had an alien implant in his brain. On January 14, 2010, in episode of Bones, the forensic team investigates the finding of a body in the Rowell desert. The body has unusual features, leading some to suspect an extraterrestrial. The victim is identified as a local UFO fanatic, known around town for her relentless search for alien life forms. Almost predictably, the episode is entitled "The X in the file" [12]. The general thread is that the apparent extraterrestrial meddling is really a cover for some very down-to-earth and sinister crime. Closer to home, an episode of Australia’s “Blue Healers”[13] featured police that were investigating a missing-person case, a case of suspected UFO abduction, an episode also in which an edition of the “Australian Ufologist” magazine made a brief appearance.
Surely far from exhaustive, these examples demonstrate ample police presence in UFO fiction. It is easy to see why there is such a great Police presence in UFO portrayals in media drama. Wherever there is unrest or civil disruption the police will feature. What better way to dramatise a topic than to include state police dealing with UFO-related disorder and mystery.
Aside from the overt presence of state and federal police in responding to the UFO presence, fictional themes have furthered the topic by featuring the appearance of agents from super-secret organisations. For example, “Men in Black”[14], starring Will Smith, expanded the notion that a secret human agency literally has the task of policing UFOs and the ET presence on earth. The highly popular movie was also followed up by a sequel.
There are another ways in which police feature in the investigation of UFOs from a cultural perspective, and falling more within the framework of psycho-social discussion. To appreciate the following point, for example, it is necessary to firstly appreciate the well documented phenomenon which occurs when a witness first sees a UFO, which is the “Explain-away” stage. Initially the witness will attempt to explain away the UFO in familiar terms before they realise their explanations do not fit. It is common to hear expression such as, "At first I thought it might be a plane in distress. Then I thought it was a helicopter but that wasn’t right either. That’s when I got scared…” Such information can lend credence to the report. The witness has demonstrated a tendency away from flights of fancy, and made an effort to rationalise the experience. Hynek makes a similar case in his FBI briefing when he states, “Time and again, the witnesses try first to explain their sighting to themselves. 'At first we thought it was a balloon (or an aircraft, or an accident on the road, and so forth) but then we realized it just couldn't be' is a statement I have heard many, many times." (Hynek, "The UFO Mystery", FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, February 1975.) Hynek makes this point to dispel the misconception that people "see what they wish to see", that is, that they are victims of their own desire to see a UFO.
It is here, in this almost cultural aspect of the psych, that the police feature again. In this explain-away phase, the witness will often resort to the appearance of emergency services, in particular the police, with their flashing bright lights invading the darkness of the night.
Here is a real example featuring the police in this context:
"This is when I realised that there was a strange blue light outside my bedroom window which was pulsating off and on, and thought it must be the police and they have picked up a drunk driver or something, but the dogs kept on barking… " (Maria J., Kojonup, West Australia, 21 July 2005)
Numerous accounts appear on record of this phenomenon. This has occurred in one of our police witness cases, where we have an officer mistaking a UFO for a helicopter from his own force. In summary:
The witness reports he “was leaving work … and saw a large object fairly low in the sky... moving across the sky from a North Easterly direction.” At first he thought it was one of his department’s police helicopters with its spot light pointed directly at him, but then he realized that “it was the colour of our orange street lights. Our police choppers use white spot lights.” … (HBCC UFO Research) (W30)
Evidently, the concept of a police-UFO relationship has been well ingrained into our culture, both via the media and inadvertently via psycho-social conditioning in the UFO witness. Aside from the macro view of pyscho-social discourse, one must also consider the culture within the police force itself, involving the notions of UFO secrecy and the role of the officer in dealing with the UFO and the possible threat a UFO may constitute. However these related ideas are a topics for another place, suffice it to say, here we have demonstrated ample evidence that the notion of a distinct relationship between the police and UFOs exists in our culture.
Based on an excerpt from "Australian Policing and UFOs".
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a. Explore the Spielberg-Reagan connection at presidentialufo.com;
and Courtney Brown's Books on Psychic Spying: Cosmic Voyage, and Cosmic Explorers.
1. Spielberg, Steven, movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, 1977.
2. Spielberg, Steven, movie “ET – The Extraterrestrial”, 1982.
3. TV series “The X-files”, 1993-2002.
4. “X-Files – The Movie”; “X-files II – The Movie”.
5. Kelly Cahill, “Encounter”, Harper Collins Publishers Pty Ltd, 1996.
6. Moira McGhee & Bryan Dickeson, “The Gosford Files – UFOs over the NSW Central Coast”, INUFOR, 1996.
7. Chalker, Bill, “The Oz Files – The Australian UFO Story”, Duffy & Snellgrove, 1996.
8. Pinkney, John, “A Paranormal File – An Australian Investigator’s Casebook”, The Five Mile Press, 2000.
9. CSI - "Leapin' Lizards", season 7. This episode features the infiltration of a UFO group to investigate a suspect.
10. NCIS – "Vanished" - Season 2, Episode 26. This episode features the investigation of a Crop Circle which was staged to throw-off investigators from a kidnapping.
11. Without A Trace – "Light Years" - Season 3, Episode 50. This episode features an X-ray technician who discovers scar tissue in his brain. Believing the tissue anomaly to be an alien implant, he attempts to find a way to remove it. His recollections of alien abduction and brain implantation are really screen-memories of a traumatic event as a youth, one involving shot-gun fragments that entered his head.
12. Bones, "The X in the file", Jan 14, 2010.
13. Episode of “Blue Healers”, 2006.
14. “Men in Black”; “Men in Black II”.
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