Law and Order: SVU Reviews BB

 This is a set of reviews of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes. My general thoughts about that show are here. I’ll often do no more than make brief notes about an episode, although occasionally I’ll go deeper. Also, often there are dissenting main characters on almost any political issue, but you can usually tell what the general position of the show is. All the rest of the reviews are available by clicking on the l&osvu label at the bottom.

(Now that I’m watching the episodes that involve the character John Munch, I’m going to ignore most of his political statements)

“Anchor” Season 11. Wikipedia summary: “When two young girls are similarly murdered a little over a month apart, Detective Tutuola decides to investigate the gruesome crimes. Benson puts him in touch with a reporter (Megalyn Echikunwoke) who may have enough connections to get them a lead. After a third killing, Fin discovers that all three children were "anchor babies" of immigrant families and reaches out to the Center of Immigrant Services. After sifting through the Center's hate mail, and witnessing a fight between an immigration lawyer (John Larroquette) and a fanatic (Thomas Sadoski) who follows a conservative talk show host (Bruce McGill), Fin begins to narrow in on the killer.”

The main issue here is immigration and it’s a pro-immigrant show 99% of the time. The immigration lawyer talks about how anti-immigrant politics is about scapegoating for problems like low wages and no health care insurance. The idea that undocumented immigrant labor lowers wages for everyone is sort of true, but only because of a failure by communities to stand in solidarity with immigrants. If more people would stand with immigrants demanding better wages, more employers would pay all their workers better and fewer employers would use the undocumented status of some employees to help break unionization efforts.

Although the detectives don’t go along with this in court, I think the show is trying to say that those who espouse anti-immigrant politics bear some of the responsibility for anti-immigrant violence committed by people who listen to them. Although it shouldn’t result in the violent ones being acquitted (the murderer’s lawyer was trying to get him acquitted with that argument), it’s true that the anti-immigrant intellectuals and politicians bear some responsibility for anti-immigrant violence.

Towards the beginning when detective Finn is looking at the murders of two young children who are people of color, he gets into an argument with his superior about how much effort NYPD is making to find the killer(s)- he thinks there’d be more effort if the kids were white.

“Quickie” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “When a seventeen-year-old is found strangled and beaten to death in an alley, her ex-boyfriend (Brady Corbet) leads the cops to a website that she used to meet up with random men. Detective Benson decides to create a user account for the site and finds a womanizer (Brian Geraghty) who met with the victim and had sex with her without a condom. The case is closed when a different suspect is proven guilty of the murder but a new one opens when the original suspect is found to have HIV. To help ADA Cabot prosecute the predator for knowingly spreading HIV, one of his previous partners (Mattie Hawkinson) is brought into court. When this fails to work, the defendant's grandfather (Jack Larson) blames himself for his grandson's misogyny and causes him to have an epiphany.”

There are two small notes:
1) At the beginning, people in an apartment building hear a woman being attacked and no one does anything. A couple of twenty-something guys are doing drugs and one almost does call the cops because of the woman being attacked, but his friend points out that they’re high. This is another reason to decriminalize or in some cases legalize drugs.
2) A woman who’s got AIDS says that her insurance won’t pay for the meds because it’s a pre-existing condition. That’s sick.

“Shadow” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “When a wealthy couple is found murdered in their bedroom, Benson and Stabler decide to speak to the deceased couple's daughter Anne (Sarah Paulson). After hearing her story of a strange man who has been following her, the detectives soon discover that the supposed stalker is Detective Ash Ramsey (Naveen Andrews) of the Special Frauds division. Convinced that Anne killed her parents for their money, Ramsey becomes suspicious of Anne's business manager (Dennis Boutsikaris) and is led to believe that he helped her steal money from the foundation she runs. With little evidence to go on, the detectives are able to buy some time by blackmailing the foundation's leader (Edward Hibbert) into pressing charges against Anne for embezzlement. Even though hitmen have been sent after them, Benson and Ramsey go out into the open as part of a dangerous sting operation.”

One of the detectives talks about Wall Street having a lot of psychopaths.

“Witness” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “A pretty woman (Diora Baird) is raped and cut in her apartment building's stairwell and claims a black woman saved her by punching the perpetrator (Eric Lange) in the eye. The lady is identified as Nardalee Ula (Saidah Arrika Ekulona), an illegal immigrant from Democratic Republic of the Congo, who came to America after escaping a life of sexual abuse against women used by the country as a "weapon of war". After the victim dies from MRSA, Nardalee is the only one who can testify against the rapist, but risks being deported. After her successful testimony she is awarded a U-Visa, but declines it, saying she will be going back to the Congo to help save other women from sexual abuse. Meanwhile, ADA Cabot makes a shocking decision of her own.”

Besides non-political rape, this is about asylum seekers and rape as a weapon of war. The detectives make it clear that they aren’t with ICE (immigration) and go so far as to get a special Visa for an undocumented witness that allows her to stay as a permanent resident for life. This is after the rapist tries to get her deported- one more reason to reform our immigration system.

The witness was raped multiple times in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. And after the NYC rapist is convicted she decides to go back there to help women being raped like she was. She inspires the SVU ADA to take a break from the DA’s office to join an international team prosecuting rape in conflict zones around the world.

We also learn that some people wait YEARS before they get an answer about being let into the country as an asylum seeker. We need more judges etc. created and assigned to that work.