Mexicans, Immigration, And The Irish

I submitted the Guest Opinion below to the Daily Camera about three weeks ago. I am not sure why it wasn't published- probably because they have a policy where in any rolling 365-day period no one can get more than four Guest Opinions published, and I think I had about 1-2 months left before it started over for me. The essay is a little TOO honest about something- I AM behind on staying informed about political developments here. I kind of HAD to say that, at least because of my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

 

I think it has some potential, more or less, to get more Irish-Americans to support immigrants, and to emphasize that for some reason(s) we are not hearing about white undocumented immigrants being deported.  

 

Tom 

 

I am a bit behind on reading articles about current events and politics, but I did some research for this, I have a 2003 CU-Boulder BA in Ethnic Studies, and I was with the “Irish Solidarity Movement” in America between 1997 and ending somewhere 2005-2020 (the ISM were people, some non-white, concerned about Northern Ireland Catholics).

Because I am about 2.5 months behind (I have a system where, for example, I save today’s articles until I read yesterday’s articles) I only just now read something that concerns me greatly. GOPers, including many in the Trump administration, are expressing hostility towards the Mexican flag, which has become prominent at many recent protests in America. 

The main thing that needs to be said is that I don’t hear any GOPers complaining about the display of the Irish flag at US demonstrations, etc. in the 70s, 80s, 90s. For about a year in college I displayed a very visible Irish flag outside my house. I took it once in the late 1990s to a progressive pro-Zapatista protest at the Mexican consulate in Denver and was welcomed.

I haven’t heard anything from GOPers about how in Colorado (and maybe elsewhere) there are special license plates you can get that have the Italian flag and a note that the driver is Italian-American. And the thing is, that statement, especially in the Denver area, could be described as incredibly offensive. I don’t know much about this parade post- 2000, but I am sure that many people with that license plate were involved with or supported the Denver Columbus Day parade, which was a celebration of the genocide of American Indians. I have not heard of American Indians and their allies denouncing those license plates as racist and trying to get them banned- but I wouldn’t blame them if they tried. Genocide is A LOT worse than the worst thing Mexico has done to the US.

Going back to Ireland and The Troubles, it wasn’t just British patriots who said that when Americans displayed the Irish flag, it was often in support of what some mislabeled a “terrorist” organization- the Irish Republican Army (the one associated in the past with Gerry Adams, and the one that bent over backwards around 2000 to help the Peace Process). I have, in an April 2014 post on my blog, proven objectively that the IRA were not terrorists (that is, I explain in detail the math and analysis involved). There is no Mexican organization attacking the US the way that the IRA attacked the British, and most of the people angered by the Mexican flag being displayed here would never feel that way about the Irish flag.

There are strong connections between the Irish struggle and the chicana/o movement here. A veteran chicano Denver activist I used to know named Leo Griep-Ruiuz told me that “politically aware” chicanos don’t think it’s a coincidence that IRA member Bobby Sands died on hunger strike MAY 5TH 1981. In 1998 or 1999 I attended a Cinco de Mayo fund-raiser in Denver for the Chiapas Coalition (which was supporting the Zapatistas in Mexico). I asked if I could speak for a couple minutes about Bobby Sands and they agreed. The audience, probably hundreds of Zapatista supporters, responded very positively.

I have also been wondering, have there been any white undocumented immigrants arrested and deported in the last 7 months? Between the fact that I HAVE read a TON of articles about Trump’s agenda between January and June and I recently consulted some friends, I get the impression that there haven’t been so many that it would reflect their numbers here, or any at all. Specifically, any Irish? I know that there must be a lot of undocumented Irish here, partly from the fact that around 10-20 years ago at least two large Irish political parties (SF and Labour) frequently called for legalizing them. Various other facts I’ve come across also contribute to my certainty that there is a substantial population of them.

The double standard we see among GOPers when it comes to Mexicans on one hand and the Irish on the other, is simply racist.

Britts Out! (Katie Britt, immigration, and sex-trafficking)

(a very similar version of this was published as a guest opinion in the MSM paper for Boulder here) 

 

(That’s what I say about Ireland and the US Senate!)

As you probably know, a month ago GOP Sen. Katie Britt was under a storm of criticism in response to her rebuttal speech after the State of the Union address by President Biden. She told the story of a Mexican woman sex-trafficked when she was a young teen in Mexico- well, for the most part Britt didn’t want you to know it was in Mexico. Britt’s been less than consistent about this, but the idea was to make you think it was in this country and on Biden’s watch (when in fact it was during the George W. Bush administration).

In addition to everything else that has been said about Britt’s rebuttal, I have some more to add. Crucially, read the two paragraphs towards the bottom that are in italics, they’re very important.
 
She was talking about the surge in migration from Mexico to the US, but she also talks about sex-trafficking and Mexican drug cartel activity and she is conflating all three of them (it should be noted that the Mexican woman who was trafficked was not a victim of the cartels contrary to what Britt implied). Has sex-trafficking surged? I’ll be honest- I don’t know, but I think Britt wants you to think it has and that it's coming here with Mexican migrants.

At one point in a March 10th The Guardian article, she is quoted as saying:
 
“We have to tell those stories, and the liberal media needs to pay attention to it because there are victims all the way coming to the border, there are victims at the border, and then there are victims all throughout the country.”
 
I believe that although this is in conflict with what she was saying the rest of the time, she was trying to say in that quote that this kind of sex-trafficking is common in Mexico and Mexicans want to come here and rape your wife or daughter, etc. and only Donald Trump can stop them. She was saying that the sex-trafficking inside Mexico, deaths of migrants at the border and deaths of Americans at the hands of immigrants inside America are one unbroken chain that can only be addressed comprehensively by Trump’s approach to immigration. This is nonsense.

Tough immigration policies will not affect the Mexican drug cartels (it certainly wouldn’t have stopped what happened in Britt’s anecdote because the cartels and the the border had nothing to do with it). Separating children from parents at the border will do absolutely nothing to the cartels. I’m not sure what WILL stop the cartels because I’m not as familiar with recent Mexican history as I should be, but tough immigration policies are not going to help.

As far as “there are victims at the border,” I am not sure what she’s talking about, but there are reports that migrants waiting to cross the border often find themselves in bad situations, which probably does include all kinds of sex crimes. I am not sure how much time is spent at the border by migrants who are not asylum seekers, but as far as the asylum seekers, you must remember that Britt’s party and her hero, Trump, strongly support the “Remain in Mexico” policy where asylum seekers must wait in Mexico until a decision is made about granting them asylum. So, the GOP believes that Mexico is just one big nightmare for teenage girls trying to get to America, but they want such survivors to either wait in Mexico for months or years, or to just stay in Mexico permanently.

As far as victims in this country, yes, it occasionally happens as it might have recently with Laken Riley (I said it- satisfied, MTG?) (I said “might have” because of the presumption of innocence). Those are tragedies but you need to consider a few things:
1) From what I have read non-immigrants here are more likely than immigrants here to commit crimes (yes, that statement probably is based on ignoring the “crime” committed when they enter this country without documents- but that’s a victimless crime).
2) That percentage of the immigrant population that commits violent crime must be incredibly small- why punish everyone in that population because of a very few bad apples?
3) I cannot remember a lot about how often this happens but what about the immigrants who die at the hands of racist and violent white people who listen to the anti-immigrant rantings of people like Britt? Fueling that racism as Trump does will only increase the number of immigrants who get viciously beaten to death by angry teenage males.

In her statement that I quoted above Britt implies that liberals ignore what she's talking about. There are probably better counter-examples than this, but I’m going to go with something that I think is important and probably doesn’t get mentioned very much. The TV show Law and Order: Special Victims Unit FREQUENTLY makes it clear that NYC is a "sanctuary city" where cops don't collaborate with Immigration authorities and not only do they oppose all kinds of sex crimes in general, there was one season 19 two-part episode (Remember Me and Remember Me, Too) about a "coyote" (someone who helps undocumented immigrants get across the southern border and to their destination in the US) who repeatedly raped women he was transporting. Another episode, “911” in season seven, is about a young girl who was brought over the Mexican border by someone who then sold her to child pornographers. In season 16 there is an episode “Girls Disappeared,” about sex-trafficked teenage girls crossing that border. There might be other episodes like that.

 

(UPDATE 7/19/24 The woman Britt talks about was sex-trafficked far from the border)

Liberals and progressives believe that migrant women and girls being sexually exploited and/or assaulted is a serious problem, but they don't support Trump's extreme approach to immigration.

Law and Order Reviews D

I have done reviews of many episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and published some more general thoughts about it here.  In that post I offer a smaller number of general thoughts about the original Law and Order show (the one that went from 1990-2010). Although I do not like L&O as much as I like the SVU version, I do like it. There’s some liberal or even progressive stuff here and there and they’re good detective stories, and they’re homicide detectives- if they were narcotics, I’d probably be a lot less fond of the show.

Although I’m not sure I have done and will do this consistently, with the original Law and Order show I will make a note and maybe offer some comments when the issues that are at the core of Law and Order: SVU appear on this show.

“Heaven” Season 2. See this for a plot summary.

There are two things worth mentioning. First, the senior police officer says that in the absence of a tragedy like the lethal fire they’re investigating, most New Yorkers don’t care about brown-skinned immigrants.

Also, the junior ADA says (approvingly) that constitutional protections like the 4th and 5th Amendments are for everyone including undocumented immigrants.

“Severance” Season 2. See this for a plot summary.

The killer was hired for the job by a crooked defense contractor.

“Blood is Thicker” Season 2. See this for a plot summary.

There’s one brief mention of how GOP politician Dan Quayle (VP of the US 1989-1993) avoided Vietnam by joining the National Guard, at a time when getting in the Guard meant you wouldn’t be sent to Vietnam. Although the Washington Post article I just read wasn’t explicit about Quayle’s position on the war at the time he avoided it, in general he was a hawk during his political career. There were millions of people who supported the war and tried to avoid fighting in it because they didn’t want to be killed.

“Vengeance” Season 2. See this for a plot summary.

There’s a tiny bit of dialogue between minor characters that might be considered pro-union.

“Sisters of Mercy” Season 2.  See this for a plot summary.

To one degree or another this is about a man, probably around 30 years old, coercing girls in their mid-teens into having sex with him.

Law and Order: SVU Reviews LL

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.

“Silent Night, Hateful Night” Season 23. See this for a plot summary.

Overall there’s some good stuff about violent bigotry towards religious minorities, although it’s a bit muddled since they had one batch of hate crimes committed by one group (Black teens) and one batch carried out by white fascists. I have mixed feelings about this episode. I’m not saying it’s just generally bad for the show to include stuff about Black-Jewish tension in NYC, but I’m hoping they’ve only addressed it 1-2 other times on the show (out of 500+ episodes), since it should be an incredibly minor theme. In that spirit, there is one very valuable part of this episode. When the team of detectives that includes SVU learn that some of the hate crime violence was carried out by anti-Semitic Blacks, they are reluctant to act publicly on that (by involving the media in their effort to arrest someone) because they worry that it will increase tension between those two groups. They eventually go with pursuing the Black teens for the anti-semitic hate crimes (or at least some of them), but only after a little more investigation.

“Tommy Baker’s Hardest Fight” Season 23. See this for a plot summary.

This is about a boxing champ coming out of the closet, coming out as a gay man.

“Video Killed the Radio Star” Season 23. See this for a plot summary.

The rape survivor is in an inter-racial relationship.

“Promising Young Gentlemen” Season 23. See this for a plot summary.

One of the SVU detectives says that if the suspects were people of color, the investigation would be a lot more aggressive.

“Once Upon a Time in El Barrio” Season 23. See this for a plot summary. 

This episode includes some statements and actions reflecting the fact that NYC does not help the federal immigration authorities. It’s also about a corrupt NYPD Captain.

Possibly the most valuable part of it politically is when the head of SVU (UPDATE 11/21/22 for a couple days that erroneously said NYPD, but it's correct now) points out that the corrupt cop was saved at one point in the past by something called “qualified immunity.” It basically means that government employees can often avoid lawsuits that are about how they do their job. It’s often cited by campaigners against police brutality as part of the problem.

Law and Order: SVU Reviews GG

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.

“Military Justice” Season 15. See this for a plot summary.          

Although it’s a pretty limited criticism of the Coast Guard, it does suggest that there are more than a few “bad apples” in the Coast Guard (and, significantly, one of them is a senior officer). It also illustrates how the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy of homophobia would have silenced any gay members of the military who were victims of hate crimes (a gay Coast Guard member who aided and abetted the rape was told to remain silent about it or he would be outed and expelled from the Coast Guard).

“Jersey Breakdown” Season 15. See this for a plot summary.         

There’s a lot about two aspects of private prisons. First, in this episode there’s a lot of corruption surrounding a private prison; there’s also a lot of stuff about how poorly in-mates at that private prison are treated.

“Betrayal’s Climax” Season 15. See this for a plot summary.  

The rape survivor is a white teenage girl in an inter-racial relationship with a Latino teenage boy.

“Girls Disappeared” Season 16. See this for a plot summary.   

There’s one bit that’s in conflict with anti-immigrant forces. Two detectives are talking about trafficked teenage minor girls and one says: “And these idiots in D.C. wanna send them back because they’re ‘terrorists bringing over Ebola’” (of the group that SVU freed in this episode at least one is an immigrant).

“American Disgrace” Season 16. See this for a plot summary.   

This is kind of about how a lot of white people react to black men hooking up with white women. Although the bad guy is identified as such only near the very end, he is a racist, so it is basically an anti-racist episode.

Law and Order: SVU Reviews CC

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)

“Disabled” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “When she fails to show up at a bus stop, Cara Raleigh (Lisa Arrindell Anderson), a disabled former opera singer with multiple sclerosis who cannot speak, is found by her bus driver (Ralph Byers), beaten and raped in her home. Her nephew (Quinton Aaron) gives an alibi that does not check out and her sister (Jill Scott) is seen physically abusing her on video. As a result, both caregivers become suspects. Cara eventually reveals that the bus driver was the rapist but is put in a nursing home and becomes unwilling to cooperate. Benson manages to persuade her to stand trial with the unit's temporary ADA (Teddy Sears).”

There’s one thing fairly hostile to those who organize dog fights.

“Conned” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “A homosexual prostitute (Pressly Coker) is found dead in the storage room of a hotel during a wedding reception with the ID of a friend named Andrew Hingam (John Magaro). Fin Tutuola questions his son Ken (Ernest Waddell) about the two boys since they were all known to volunteer at the same place. Ken leads Fin to Hingam, who confesses to killing his friend in self-defense. Hingam's case deepens when detectives learn that his psychiatrist (Ally Walker) who prescribes a regimen of drugs and electro convulsive therapy may be performing other procedures on him as well.”

At one point, while questioning a hotel’s kitchen staff, they assure them they’re not concerned about anyone’s immigration status.

“Beef” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “Following the vicious rape-murder of a beautiful worker (Ioana Alfonso) at "Donna Rosa's" meat packing plant, the police initially suspect that a vegetarian (Aaron Tveit) who lives in her building is the killer. However, suspicion shifts elsewhere when they learn that the victim was an undercover animal activist attempting to document and expose unsanitary practices in the meat packing industry. Information from the company owner (Lynn Cohen) and foreman (John Petkoff) leads the detectives to arrest a plant worker (Juan Javier Cardenas) and match his DNA to that found at the crime scene. This turns out to be a dead end as well after an interview with his jealous wife (Nancy Rodriguez) reveals that he was framed. Detective Benson goes undercover herself to retrace the woman's steps.”

First, they assure immigrants that they’re not Immigration.

The story is about a business-owner and her manager killing an undercover journalist investigating their meat-packing plant.

“Ace” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “Detectives Benson and Stabler must track down a pregnant rape victim (Hanna-Liina Võsa) who disappears from the hospital. In the process, they uncover a vast baby-trafficking scam, led by a Bulgarian crime lord (Pasha D. Lychnikoff). When the woman (Gordana Rashovich) who housed the pregnant mothers is discovered murdered, Benson and Stabler go undercover as infertile parents, while ADA Marlowe clashes with Cragen over methods to protect the kidnapped woman and her newborn child. Matters become complicated in the trial when the gynecologist (David Paymer) involved is assigned the same lawyer as the mob that used him for his access to pregnant women. He realizes that if he testifies truthfully he will be killed so a shadow counsel is arranged.”

First, a rape survivor leaves the hospital before SVU can talk with her, because she’s undocumented and is worried Immigration will be called. Second, when a US government official makes some anti-immigrant comments, one of the detectives says: “spoken like a true racist.”

“Bullseye” Season 12. Summary is here.

There’s a brief appearance of a very minor character- a gay man raising a child with another gay man.

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.

Law and Order: SVU Reviews W

  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)

(These are the four reviews I had postponed earlier)

“Grief” Season 4. Wikipedia summary is: “A waitress is found dead outside of a bar. Her death is ruled a suicide because the victim's boss (Paul Leyden) continually raped her and drove her into depression. When the victim's father (Joe Morton) becomes too close to Stabler, the victim's father snaps and vows revenge against his daughter's rapist.”

At one point a suspect (who is later cleared as innocent) refers to the 1997 NYPD rape of Abner Louima with the handle of a broom or toilet plunger. Even though it came from a suspect, it’s still worth mentioning as an example of what’s liberal or progressive on the show because about 5-10 episodes earlier there was another episode that was clearly inspired by what happened to Louima. I’m sure the reference to Louima in this episode was meant to remind people what the NYPD did In reality.

“Debt” Season 6. Wikipedia summary is: “A child abandonment incident prompts Benson and Stabler to investigate the disappearance of a mother. They learn from her sister (Ming-Na Wen) that she made a deal with human traffickers to have her teenage daughter (Jenny Wong) smuggled to New York from China. It is revealed that the teenage immigrant has been forced into prostitution and her life is subsequently used as a bargaining chip by the gangsters to avoid prosecution. When the squad captures the gang's leader (Jack Yang), Detective Stabler is able to get help from one of his junior members (Aaron Yoo) by convincing him that the bright future he was promised is a lie. After arresting a corrupt immigration attorney (Loren Dean), the NYPD finally learns where the captive women are being held. Detective Stabler arrives just in time to keep the promise he made.”

There are five things I want to comment on:
1) I was reminded recently by CNN that there is a stereotype of Asian women of being both hyper-sexual and also submissive. There is something about how non-Asian men see Asian women in this episode.
2) At one point the detectives assure immigrants that they come into contact with during the investigation that they aren’t Immigration officers.
3) I recently learned from a good source something that a more recent episode of SVU implied- that the “coyotes” who help people cross the US-Mexico border illegally are often bad and dangerous people. This episode said the same sort of thing about Chinese criminal organizations that help Chinese enter America illegally. I’m pretty sure that it’s a fair and accurate illustration of such criminals and it’s good for pro-immigrant forces (like Law and Order: SVU) to occasionally criticize them- I imagine that anti-immigrant forces would love to accuse us of liking coyotes because we’d look pretty stupid if we did like them.
4) For the second time recently a law enforcement officer on the show says that Chinatown doesn’t like cops, although it’s not clear why- do they fear gangs in Chinatown, or do they not like the police for roughly the same reason police are usually unwelcome in the Black community?
5) At one point one of the detectives offers the “we’re a nation of immigrants” argument in support of the pro-immigrant position. It’s not the worst thing I’ve heard, but when you think of American Indians and almost all black Americans, it’s a bad argument in favor of a good position.

“Ghost” Season 6. Wikipedia summary is: “A series of drug-related hits leads the detectives back to the notorious drug lord Cesar Velez. The detectives are left with one survivor (Reymond Wittman), a scared child whom the drug lords are trying to finish off. The gun used in the murders is linked to Liam Connors (Brían F. O'Byrne), one of Velez's top agents. Connors has a strong defense which almost gets him acquitted until Benson and Stabler arrest him for trying to kill ADA Alexandra Cabot a year earlier. Alex returns from witness protection to assist with the case.”

The drug cartel’s asassin is a former IRA member who drifted away from the cause because of the cease-fire and started working for the drug cartel. Through a character the writers say that a lot of former Volunteers did that. This is more or less total nonsense. It’s probably inspired by the case of the “Columbia Three,” three men who were members of Sinn Fein and/or the IRA that were arrested in Aug. of 2001 leaving that part of the Columbian jungle controlled at the time by the FARC, the largest left-wing insurgent army in Columbia’s civil war. They were accused of helping the FARC. I don’t know for sure what they were doing, but for a lot of reasons I doubt they were helping the FARC. There was a lot of concern in Ireland about the conditions they were living in in a Columbian prison- so much that there were multiple delegations of politicians and human rights activists with no connection to the IRA traveling to Columbia to investigate those conditions. My theory is that they were there to learn from the FARC about the military aspect of a peace process- there was such a process going on in Columbia and the FARC were participating in it.

There’s a scene with an Irish-American supporter of SF who is accused of raising money for the IRA- it’s not clear that he wasn’t doing both- supporting SF and the IRA, although it seems like the detectives were just being lazy and conflating SF and the IRA. Anyway, this guy said that SF are “fighting for peace in Ireland.” The thing is, SF and the IRA bent over backwards to make the peace process work. They compromised when they would have been justified in refusing to do so. The Good Friday Agreement is alright but should have been much better. The IRA also would have been justified in refusing to decommission until after Ireland was united. The ANC’s military wing didn’t decommission their weapons until there was major progress on ending Apartheid- I think it was after the 1994 election that was won by the ANC.

“Night” and “Day”, Season 6 SVU, and Season 1 Law and Order: Trial by Jury. Wikipedia summaries are, respectively,

“Benson and Stabler investigate the rape and murder of a woman found with a wad of money stuffed in her mouth. They trace the money to a lawyer (Bradley Cooper) handling the finances of a wealthy family. The woman (Angela Lansbury) demands that the detectives stay away from her son (Alfred Molina) even though they suspect that he preys on illegal immigrants who do not report the crimes out of fear of getting deported. The people are short on evidence until a Bosnian immigrant has the courage to come forward. Angry about exposing the fact that she was raped, her brother (Stelio Savante), an Islamic fundamentalist, brutally assaults ADA Casey Novak.”

And

“ADA Kibre works to prosecute a serial rapist (Alfred Molina), whose trail of victims through the years has been whitewashed by his wealthy and protective mother (Angela Lansbury). Kibre must also overcome witness intimidation, and even sees her crucial DNA evidence tossed out, but the slippery suspect's lawyer has yet another surprise up his sleeve.”

Although they end up focusing on only one rape, they believe that their suspect is guilty of a string of rapes of working-poor undocumented immigrants. At one point SVU detectives make it clear that they aren’t concerned about the immigration status of witnesses and victims. A community activist who tells them about the string of rapes accuses the NYPD of not caring about them, but the rape survivors aren’t going to the police because of their immigration status, and it’s believed that’s why the rapist is targeting them. It's just one more reason to oppose anti-immigrant politics.

The one rape survivor whose case is prosecuted is a white muslim from Bosnia who sometimes wears a scarf over her hair but usually doesn’t. I’m not the sort of progressive who believes that every Muslim woman who dresses conservatively is a victim of patriarchy, but it’s nice to see a muslim character who appears to be religious but is flexible about it.

The brother of that woman says he was tortured by Bosnian Serbs in the Bosnian War. And one of the rape survivors is a Catholic from Belfast who refers to The Troubles as an “uprising.” I haven’t typed much stuff about N. Ireland in the last year but you can find the posts largely or totally about that topic here.

Law and Order: SVU Reviews V

 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)

(I’m temporarily skipping the publication of 4 reviews from Seasons 4 and 6 that I’ll come back to in about a week)

“Venom” Season 7. Wikipedia summary is: “Tutuola's son Ken Randall (Ernest Waddell) calls Benson for help after he is picked up in an alley late at night. He claims that he was looking for a corpse after overhearing a man talk about murdering a woman and dumping her body. Although Tutuola and his ex-wife (LisaGay Hamilton) are sure that Ken is not a killer, they are puzzled about why he refuses to take a DNA test. Tutuola suspects that this has something to do with Ken's cousin, Darius Parker (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) who has a long criminal record. When Ken eventually submits his DNA, it reveals a shocking family connection. Darius confesses to having murdered the woman and her baby but he is clever enough to get this confession thrown out. He vows revenge upon the family that has been humiliating him for his entire life.”

At one point one of the detectives says: “Prisons are full of innocent people and we both know what color most of them are.”

“Fat” Season 7. Wikipedia summary is: “With Benson transferred to the Computer Crimes Unit, Stabler is temporarily partnered with Detective Lucius Blaine (Anthony Anderson). Blaine is first to arrive on the scene of a girl (Rooney Mara), who was brutally assaulted by two overweight teenage culprits (Wallace Little and Shahidah McIntosh). The suspects are later discovered to be the siblings of an older brother (Omar Benson Miller) who has diabetes and needs a wheelchair. The detectives find out that the victim, along with her friend (Billy Wheelan) were victimizing obese people and had surprising motives for doing so.?”

There’s a couple items worth noting.
1. A black detective says of a black family, “they have no reason to trust the law.”
2. A detective says that homosexuality is not a choice.

“Infiltrated” Season 8. Wikipedia summary is: “Casey Novak is forced to get Olivia Benson, still undercover with the FBI, to come back to New York to testify on behalf of a woman who was raped in a bank. While undercover with an Oregon environmental group, she and her group members (Maria Thayer and Chris Bowers) are injured by an overzealous deputy sheriff (Steven Rishard) and charged with assault. She is eventually released but is questioned about her group's involvement with a murder. She then sets out to clear her group's name and investigates the murdered man. Despite the efforts of his widow (Debra Jo Rupp) trying to shield her daughter from the truth, Benson learns that he was a pedophile with a room under his garage that he used for kidnapping. The local sheriff (Charles Martin Smith) finds two sets of prints at the scene, the murdered man's and those of a ten-year-old girl (Molly Camp) who went missing seven years ago. Benson's case agent (Vincent Spano) tells her that she is indeed spending time with harmless activists and that her undercover work is no longer needed. As she is still unaware of the urgency of Novak's case, she decides to stay and help the FBI find the missing girl. In the end, Benson finds the girl, who had developed Stockholm syndrome and makes it back to New York just in time to testify.”

Although it’s a little mixed, this episode is sort of environmentalist and sort of critical of police who use unnecessary force. It seems like the environmental group that Benson infiltrates is a little more militant than most environmental groups and yet Benson says that they don’t deserve the label “eco-terrorist.” She defends them while being interrogated by the cops or debriefed by her FBI case agent. She also got assaulted and arrested by a cop for no reason. This highlights such behavior by a lot of cops in the real world.

“Choreographed” Season 8. Wikipedia summary is: “The body of an attractive woman (Kristine Szabo) with a mysterious cause of death is discovered in Central Park. Detective Stabler begins the investigation by talking to the victim's husband (Chris Sarandon) as his friends (Bob Saget and Catherine Bell) pay a condolence visit. Stabler's investigation unravels a case of drugs, infidelity and an elaborate plot that impacts everyone involved in the troupe. Stabler also discovers that Detective Benson is back in town and she is assigned to be his partner once again.”

There’s a brief appearance by a gay character.

“Loophole” Season 8. Wikipedia summary is: “Stabler is injured by a drug-crazed suspect (Bill Goldberg) and Benson follows up on an anonymous letter which leads to an apparent child-pornography case and the testing of pesticides on unwitting apartment tenants. After arresting the landlord (Wayne Duvall), Olivia is exposed to the pesticide and develops medical symptoms similar to those exhibited by the victim (Marquis Rodriguez) and his mother (Karen Olivo). Despite the health risks, an official (Casey Siemaszko) informs the squad that this was done legally. Casey Novak eventually pursues the CEO (Ray Wise) of a pharmaceutical company and his lawyer (James Naughton) in order to challenge a controversial United States Environmental Protection Agency rule that allows intentional dosing of human beings in pesticide experiments.”

First, there’s a moment where one of the detectives assures a victim’s mother that she’s not going to get in trouble with SVU for being an undocumented immigrant.

About 1/3 of the story is about something that’s not a sex crime. Some of the residents of an apartment building in a low-income and diverse neighborhood are used to test the effects of a new pesticide. Several people get really sick and it might be the cause of cancer in a little boy. The EPA, of George W. Bush’s administration, is also criticized by the detectives. The Tuskegee experiments, which involved Black men and Syphilis, are mentioned as another example of that sort of thing.

Law and Order: SVU Reviews U

 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)

(I’m temporarily skipping the publication of 4 reviews from Seasons 4 and 6 that I’ll come back to in about a week)

“Raw” Season 7. Wikipedia summary is: “A six-year-old boy who was adopted by parents (Myk Watford and Marin Hinkle) of a different race is killed in a school shooting. When detectives trace the rifle used back to a gun shop, Munch and Tutuola face hatred from a neo-Nazi group using the shop as its headquarters. The group consists of a white supremacist (J.C. MacKenzie), his son (Cody Kasch) and a woman (Marcia Gay Harden) who is not what she appears to be. When detectives arrest the shooter (Joel Marsh Garland) and put him on the witness stand, the group retaliates by starting a shootout in the courtroom that claims the life of a judge (John Rubinstein).”

In this episode the bad guys are neo-Nazis.

“Name” Season 7. Wikipedia summary is: “After the bones of a boy who disappeared in 1978 are found at a playground, Stabler, still visibly recovering from a recent gunshot wound, teams up with a CSU technician (Paula Garcés) who is taking the case personally. When a woman (Lisa Emery) comes forward, claiming that the boy was her brother, they reopen a cold case involving three murdered Puerto Rican boys in which the prime suspect (Richard Bright) worked with an accomplice (Ruben Santiago-Hudson).”

A crime scene tech believes that the disappearance of 4 Puerto Rican boys in 1978 wasn’t thoroughly investigated because they were Puerto Rican. It’s also stated that a lot of undocumented immigrants don’t report crime because they’re afraid of being deported. That’s one more reason to reform immigration policy in this country and until that happens it’s another reason for local governments to instruct local law enforcement to ignore the immigration status of people they interact with.

“Rockabye” Season 7. Wikipedia summary is: “A sixteen-year-old (Keri Lynn Pratt) loses her unborn child due to a severe abdominal beating. Her father (Skipp Sudduth) insists that she must have been raped and this leads detectives to the baby's father (John Patrick Amedori). The squad later learns that the girl was an active party in her own beating and that the teens found it necessary to do this after an abortion clinic deliberately stalled for time.”

This episode is about something I have never heard of before but which might exist- fake abortion providers. Clinics that stall for time with patients until the fetus is so old that an abortion is illegal. When two teens (boyfriend and girlfriend) get that treatment they decide to try to abort the fetus by hitting (with fists and a lamp) the girl’s belly. I think the point is that those who deny women an abortion force a lot of such women into doing something that must be even more difficult than having an abortion.

A few other notes:
1. The teens travel to NY from VA because in VA minors have to get parental approval to have an abortion, something I oppose.
2. The girl says that she was suicidal. In Ireland in recent decades if two psychiatrists agree that the female is suicidal, she is allowed to get an abortion. It’d be nice if something like that were done here if (or when) access to abortion is restricted.
3. One of the detectives implies that an OH high school that saw a lot of teenage pregnancies taught abstinence-only sex ed, which doesn’t include encouraging teens to practice safe sex.

“Alien” Season 7. Wikipedia summary is: “A school boy (Daniel Manche) becomes paralyzed after being stabbed in the back and detectives learn that the alleged perpetrator (Sasha Neulinger) was trying to protect his half-sister (Raquel Castro). While attending a Catholic school, the girl had been tormented continuously for having two mothers. One of her guardians (Amy Pietz) who never legally adopted her, is accused of sexual molestation by the girl's biological grandparents (Edmund Genest and Mary Beth Peil). While trying to decide if the claims are real or frivolous, Novak begins to suspect that their lawyer (Stephen Bogardus) is committing perjury.”

This is largely about homophobia and sort of about the Catholic Church. The detective Stabler says that being a Catholic means agreeing with the homophobia of the Church. First of all, the priest in this episode seems anti-homophobic. But more generally, the Church hasn’t in recent decades gone after anti-homophobic or LGB Catholics. It’s even more tolerant of such Catholics than it is of pro-choice Catholics, and as far as I can tell, the Church rarely THREATENS to go after pro-choice Catholics, and even then it’s just aimed at those who are elected politicians (and they don’t go through with the threats to ex-communicate).  

“Manipulated” Season 7. Wikipedia summary is: “The body of a young woman is found and when Benson and Stabler delve into her private life, they learn that in addition to being a respected lawyer, she was also a stripper. Her co-worker at the club (Faina Vitebsky) is later found murdered as well. Surveillance footage and DNA evidence implicate the lawyer's boss (Chris Potter) who appears to live with a disabled wife (Rebecca De Mornay). Further investigation reveals that the wife is living a lie and that she exacts revenge on her husband by hiring a hitman (Holt McCallany) to kill his sexual partners.”

Two notes.
1) There’s a fairly positive reference to efforts to unionize the dancers at strip clubs. That’s been tried in real life in at least one case- there’s a documentary about it called “Live, Nude Women Unite.”
2) There’s a less-than flattering reference to private military contractors (mercenaries of the sort used by the US government).

Law and Order: SVU Reviews T

 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)

(I’m temporarily skipping the publication of 4 reviews from Seasons 4 and 6 that I’ll come back to in about a week)

“Blood” Season 6. Wikipedia summary is: “A young woman (Lauren Hodges) reports that her baby has been tossed out of a car. Benson and Stabler learn that she is addicted to prescription pain killers and this leads them to an elderly woman (Melinda Dillon) who lives with her son (Matt Schulze) and daughter-in-law (Christine Elise). The young woman identifies the daughter-in-law as the one who sold her the drugs, but when the detectives go to confront her, they find the drug dealer dead. Stabler uses his influence as a police officer when his daughter, Kathleen, is arrested for drunk driving.”

Although I generally like the character Eliot Stabler, in this episode he uses his position as a cop to help his daughter when she gets arrested for DUI. His superior officer criticizes him for this and he argues back, defending what he did. I agree with Captain Cragen, who asks Stabler, “is that the message you wanna send your kids? That the law only applies to certain people?”



“Goliath” Season 6. Wikipedia summary is: “After the wife (Amy Landecker) of a police officer (R. E. Rodgers) claims her husband raped her, Benson and Stabler arrest the man and come close to believing his version of events when he attacks his captain (Ronni Lieberman). When another officer (Brian Hutchison) murders his wife and attempts to kill himself that same night, the whole force gets involved and soon realizes that the two men both recently returned home from Afghanistan, where they were given the drug Quinium, an anti-malarial. With the reluctant help of a reporter (Jon Bernthal) and a base doctor with an attack of conscience (John Dossett), Novak takes on the U.S. Army.”

I’m commenting on this episode because it illustrates corruption in the military, in this case forcing an officer to lie on the witness stand. Both the drugmaker and the military look pretty stupid manufacturing and prescribing (respectively) a medication that’s has extremely serious side effects for one of every 140 people who take it when a much safer drug just has to be taken more often than once a week.

This is based on a scandal in the real world with at least one suicide I heard about.

“911” Season 7. Wikipedia summary is: “Benson is on her way out for the evening when a call comes in from a little girl named Maria (Jeanine Monterroza and Rachel Diaz-Stand), who says she is all alone in a locked room. While trying to draw the girl out, Benson is drawn deeper into the little girl's life. Although the other officers begin to suspect that the whole thing is some sick joke, Benson is convinced that the little girl is telling the truth. By talking to Maria, Benson is able to ferret enough information to get a place to start, but Maria's captor (Christopher Evan Welch) has an affinity for electronics and has done everything he can to make sure that no one can find the little girl he bought and paid for.”

It wasn’t real clear that a coyote (someone who, for money, helps undocumented immigrants cross the US-Mexico border) was involved, but since she was sold to a pedophile after she crossed the border without documents, it occurred to me that this is another reason we need regulated but unlimited immigration into this country (I mean, there should be paperwork and some criminals should be kept out, but there shouldn’t be limits on how many people can come here, that way something like 99% of immigration will be legal and not in the shadows where things like selling children to pedophiles can happen).

“Ripped” Season 7. Wikipedia summary is: “When the teenage son (Paul Wesley) of Stabler's old partner (Noah Emmerich) comes under suspicion for attacking a classmate, Stabler is caught between his boss, who thinks he is cutting the kid too many breaks, and his friend, who thinks he is not doing enough to help. Stabler seeks counselling from another friend (Mary Stuart Masterson) when the case starts to bring out the worst in him.”

In this episode, Captain Cragen has to again come down on Elliot pretty hard when he (Elliot) goes real easy on a suspect who is the son of his old partner. Benson is also unhappy with Stabler about it.

“Strain” Season 7. Wikipedia summary is: “Police discover the bodies of two young gay men who were both methamphetamine addicts as well as victims of a new strain of HIV that can kill its victims in less than a year. Tutuola learns that his son Ken (Ernest Waddell) is gay, and has difficulty accepting it. Ken helps Benson and Tutuola infiltrate an anti-meth group and they learn that the leader (Brian Bloom) killed people who were spreading the virus. The father (Bill Smitrovich) of one of the victims realizes that this crime saved lives and asks that it be punished with a lenient sentence.”

The gay community is a major theme of this episode. First, one of the detectives learns that his son is gay. Straight drug dealers who steal drugs from gay men say that they target gay men because they (gay men) won’t go to the police because they’d be outing themselves. To whatever degree that happens in reality, it’s just one more reason to fight homophobia.

Law and Order: SVU Reviews N

 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.

“I Deserve Some Loving, Too” Season 21. See this for a summary.     

 

Immigration   

The main political aspect of this is an investigator for the US Citizenship and Immigration Services abusing his position to coerce women involved with Green Card marriages into sleeping with him. I like to think it’s a comment on TRUMP’S USCIS, especially since the guy starts talking at one point about how immigration is an “invasion” of people who will take public services, food, and jobs from native-born Americans. The ADA says that instead of the immigrants getting the American dream, they get a nightmare.

There’s a few minor aspects worth mentioning:

1. Towards the beginning there’s a near-riot in response to SVU arresting a Black man for groping on the subway. They move on from it pretty quickly, and he IS guilty, so it doesn’t bother me.
2. Although this kind of undermines sympathy for immigrants, it turns out that one marriage the USCIS supervisor was messing with is fake- the man is gay.
3. One character says that after 9/11 Muslims feel ashamed of being muslim- it’s not because of what Al-Qaeda did, but how America responded to 9/11.

“Swimming with the Sharks” Season 21. See this for a summary.

There’s one thing worth mentioning. The white female character played by the main guest star is in a relationship with a black woman. I realize that nowadays inter-racial relationships are more accepted than they were 20 years ago, but it still seemed worth mentioning.

“Eternal Relief from Pain” Season 21. See this for a summary.

There are two political notes:

1. The apparently Arab-American supervisor of the SVU ADA (a recurring character) says that the main defendant’s father would never have let her marry his white son.

2. The new female SVU detective might be bisexual, although at the risk of getting too sexual for this blog, she might just like fooling around with other women (it’s my theory that a lot of straight women are like that but they don’t want a girlfriend or to even go on a date with another woman). Also the character is, I think, Arab-American, I just can’t remember for sure.

“Solving for the Unknowns” Season 21 See this for a plot summary.

I’m pretty sure at this point that Kat, the new female detective, is identified as bi-sexual. In some ways it’s no more important than the appearance of other LGB characters but I’d say it IS more important. In an average season, between the detectives and the ADAs there’s about 6 main characters, and there’s been 21 seasons. I think that about 15% of NYC is gay or bi-sexual and although there is I’m sure some conflict in real life between that community and the NYPD, it’s still nice that they are now a part of the show in a solid way, every episode, contributing to the team of detectives and ADAs chasing down sex criminals and kidnappers, wife-beaters, and child abusers. Also, although I don’t think that Kat is Muslim, she is Arab-American.

“The Things we Have to Lose” See this for a summary. 

There’s two minor notes:

1. A gay witness.
2. A man transitioning towards being a woman works as a prostitute and is close with the detective Kat.

Law and Order: SVU Reviews L

 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.

“Info Wars” Season 19. Wikipedia summary is: “The Special Victims Unit is called to a brutal crime scene after a violent protest in the city results in a controversial, right-wing female pundit (Rhea Seehorn) getting viciously sexually assaulted. However, with many people in the crowd during the protest, the squad has a hard time catching the victim's assailants. When the case is taken to trial, Barba and Benson fight with each other after struggling to keep their political opinions about the case quiet, which leaves the squad clashing over sides in the case and raises tension between the detectives and Barba.”

The title is taken from one of the web-sites associated with Alex Jones, although it’s not clear if the survivor is supposed to be a female version of Jones or is she’s supposed to be like Ann Coulter. She is at least more right-wing than left-wing and attracts people who I believe are supposed to mirror the Proud Boys (see this). She also attracts counter-protestors including Antifa. Although there is some dissent, for the most part the main characters don’t like her very much.

“Send in the Clowns” Season 19. Wikipedia summary is: “The Special Victims Unit is called in to investigate the disappearance of a teenage prodigy (Mallory Bechtel) during a spring break trip. The prime suspect is a butcher (Eric Tabach) who was seen leaving a club in a clown mask with the girl and she was last known to have been at his apartment. However, the case becomes extremely difficult to close. When the detectives try to find her body at a dump, they find that the dump has been emptied. Stone tries to get justice for the girl and lock up the butcher as the chances of the girl being alive become extremely slim. However, towards the end, the case takes a shocking twist and the detectives discover that the real culprit is someone they least suspected. Stone reveals to Benson that he moved to New York to take care of his sister who is mentally ill in a home upstate.”

At the beginning we are reminded that Finn’s son is gay. Also, while he’s Black, his husband is Latino. It’s not as significant as inter-racial relationships where one person is white, but it’s still inter-racial and what I would call multi-cultural- more multi-cultural than a German-American and an Irish-American. And there IS some conflict between Blacks on one hand and Latina/os and Chicana/os on the other hand.

“Service” Season 19.Wikipedia summary is: “When a female escort (Morgan Taylor Campbell) is found sexually assaulted and brutally beaten, the Special Victims Unit is called in to investigate. They soon discover that she was in a sleazy hotel with three soldiers from the military. However, the case becomes complicated when one soldier (Marquise Vilson) refuses to talk and another (Jack DiFalco) confesses to the crime, even though it is clear that he is lying. Eventually, when the real rapist is found and the DNA comes in, the case takes an extremely shocking twist and a huge sacrifice is made by one of the soldiers who has been hiding a secret from the world for a very long time. Meanwhile, Rollins' unprofessional work on the case leads to her revealing a secret from her recent romantic life, having taken the case too personally.”

One of the suspects, one of the two who is completely innocent, is a transgendered man in the US Army. He’s convinced to testify against his guilty colleague even though it will involve outing himself. Although it’s not critical of the military, it IS critical of Trump’s transphobic policy about transgendered people in the military. Also, the man is Black.

“Remember Me” and "Remember Me, Too” two parter. Season 19. Wikipedia summaries are:

“The Special Victims Unit is called in after a woman takes a man hostage, the incident being live streamed on a phone he left behind. While police search for the woman and the man, who now appears to be the woman's rapist, Benson enters the apartment where the two are located and is herself taken hostage. Benson then becomes a witness to unfolding events. The hostage situation takes a twist when Benson discovers that the man being held was actually a vicious pimp and kidnapper who abducted the woman a while ago and held her captive. As the hostage siege gets more dangerous, Benson tries to put it to a stop before lives are lost.”
 

“As the situation comes to a resolution, the Special Victims Unit investigates the chain of events which led to the hostage siege. After the detectives start doubting the kidnapping and hostage victim's testimony, an extremely dangerous criminal network is discovered by the Special Victims Unit, which is prepared to do anything needed for justice, leading to the squad investigating the criminal network. Whilst investigating, Stone's sister is abducted by the criminal network in an extremely brutal shooting at the psychiatric hospital where she lives. The detectives frantically search for her, ending tragically for Stone, his sister, and the detectives involved.”

(I often don’t read the wikipedia summaries but I read this one and it’s wrong about something. He wasn’t a pimp and he didn’t kidnap her. He was a “coyote” and helped some Mexican women get from Mexico to NYC)

This is kind of about immigration. First, there’s one moment when a detective makes it clear that SVU is not Immigration.

Second, there’s the role of the coyote. I have always gotten the impression that most or maybe all of those who, in exchange for money, help people cross the border are bad, and a political friend who is very familiar with the immigration issue has confirmed that for me. Although Joe Biden is pro-immigrant, when Trump, in the second debate, attacked coyotes, Biden didn’t say anything positive about them. But I wouldn’t be surprised if anti-immigrant people like to say that pro-immigrant people LIKE coyotes. Since they are bad, it would be good for the anti-immigrant argument. But Law & Order: SVU, a very pro-immigrant show, used this show to demonize coyotes (at no point is anything positive said about them). I doubt that many pro-immigrant people like coyotes and most of those who do probably just need to be educated briefly.

“Down Low In Hell’s Kitchen” Season 21. See this for an episode summary.

This is only sort of about homophobia. it turns out that the serial predator of closeted black gay men is closeted himself, and in other ways it’s a little muddled. But it features two scenes with the gay son of the Black detective and it seems that Benson’s supervisor is a gay black man. Which brings up the most substantial thing. It’s not the first time the show has focused on homophobia in the Black community. And although I get this mostly from this show, I get the impression that it IS a bigger problem in the Black community than it is in the white community. I think that might be because of the strength of homophobic churches, but I’m not real sure about that.

Law and Order: SVU Reviews K

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.

“Real Fake News” Season 18. Wikipedia summary is: “The SVU squad is asked by a US Representative (James Waterston) to debunk sexual assault rumors currently against him, but it takes a surprising twist when they are led to something much more deplorable. Things eventually become extremely personal when Benson and Rollins are targeted by a news website of questionable validity, with pictures of them and their children spreading false rumors about the nature of their families. Both detectives become infuriated and upset, vowing to stop the website and the man running it.”

This is inspired by the popular right-wing conspiracy theory “Pizzagate” which alleges that Democratic Party officials are connected to an underage teenage sex ring. The episode illustrates how ridiculous a theory it is as the detectives investigate the restaurant and find nothing incriminating. The person pushing the theory is without ethics or integrity. It ends with a US Congressperson being killed by a follower of the theory.

“Conversion” Season 18. Wikipedia summary is: “A church group from Indiana visits New York and reports to the Special Victims Unit that one of their members was sexually assaulted by another member. When the rapist (Casey Cott) is found, he claims it was curative intercourse to cure the girl of her homosexuality and that he was saving her soul. The detectives investigate and must decide whether the rapist is sincere in his beliefs or if something else happened to cause him to attack the victim. They end up finding out that the rapist is hiding a secret.”

 

Homophobia

This is a very anti-homophobic episode. The rapist hides behind his religion as a defense and the detectives say that that doesn’t matter, that it’s still rape. Which reminds me of something I’ve been wanting to say for years. A lot of people who oppose homophobia tie the bigotry of their opponents to the religion of the homophobes. This is flawed because A) there are religious people who oppose homophobia and B) there are homophobic atheists. I think the approach should be to say something like: “your religion doesn’t matter, your bigotry is the problem” and then explain what I just said in the previous sentence. I also think it would be easier to convince someone to abandon their bigotry than it would be to convince them to abandon their religion. And for many people, religion is a good thing. It makes it easier for me to deal with my mom’s death.

This next review is of a two-parter. The first part is called “American Dream” and the second is called “Sanctuary.” The wikipedia summaries are:

“An extremely brutal hate crime is committed against a Muslim family who owns a restaurant, resulting in two deaths. The detectives investigate, but things become extremely complicated when a crucial witness is suddenly and unexpectedly deported back to his own country. This forces Barba to drop the charges, causing extreme tension, anger, and violence between communities on opposing sides of the case.”

and

“The Special Victims Unit continues to investigate the hate crime against the Muslim family who were viciously assaulted in their restaurant. When their main suspect in the crime is released from custody, Benson and Barba become caught between the Muslim family and the suspect's family, both seeking justice for their loved ones. Protests in the streets start to turn extremely violent and Benson is faced with a tough decision that she has never had to make before in her entire career in order to make an arrest and get justice.”

Bigotry and immigration are the main themes here.

1. An inter-racial couple are witnesses. I know that’s more common and more widely accepted than it was 20 years ago, but it’s still worth noting.
2. At one point a suspect suggests that Donald Trump is right about Mexican immigrants and rape.
3. A suspect’s wife complains that nobody cares about straight white people who aren’t transgendered.
4. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid a pro-immigrant protest. That’s pretty lame. It’s like police raiding a protest against police brutality.
5. A crucial witness is a gay Syrian who is in the country illegally. First, it’s significant that he’s a gay muslim- you don’t hear about them very often. Second, he is certain that if he’s deported back to Syria or a refugee camp he’ll be killed because he’s gay (that’s another thing you don’t hear much about, homophobia among Muslims). Shortly after he’s picked up by ICE at the pro-immigrant protest he’s deported. Not only does SVU lose a crucial witness thanks to Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, it’s as damning of our immigration system as the execution of an innocent person would be damning of the death penalty.

“No Good Reason” season 19. Wikipedia summary is: “The Special Victims Unit is called in to investigate the sudden disappearance of a high school student (Brighton Sharbino). They soon discover that she was the victim of a nasty cyberbullying attack from her fellow peers and best friend (Madison Pettis). When she is finally found, she claims that she was raped by three boys from her school at a party, one being one of her best friends. The case goes well until the victim becomes reluctant to testify due to hatred and bullying from her peers and Benson must convince her to be brave. Meanwhile, Sheila Porter attempts to challenge Benson's parenting skills as a mother, which infuriates Benson.”

The survivor tells SVU that there was underage marijuana smoking and SVU says they don’t care- either much or at all (I can’t remember for sure and I’m not going to watch the episode again now, but in at least one other episode they ignore illegal marijuana use by survivors).

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Reviews A

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.

The first episode is a two-parter, the first called “Man Up” and the second part called 
“Man Down.” The wikipedia summaries are:

“The Special Victims Unit is called in after a fifteen-year-old boy (Bryce Romero) is sexually assaulted. Despite having evidence, he is too scared to name his attacker (Dylan Walsh), making things complicated for the detectives. When the identity of the attacker is discovered, the detectives do their best to protect the teenager from being abused again. Meanwhile, Rollins talks things through with her ex-boyfriend who cheated on her with an escort and also confides in Benson that she is pregnant for a second time. Benson expresses concern to Tutuola that she is not as strong or fast as she used to be.”

and

“The case involving a teenager who was sexually assaulted continues and Stone takes the rapist to court. However, an unexpected verdict comes back, shocking everyone involved. The victim ends up making a tragic decision which results in several people dead and injured and the Special Victims Unit must charge the victim. An upset Stone along with the rest of the squad decide to try their best to charge the boy's rapist as well in order to get justice for all the victims who were killed or injured in the attack. Meanwhile, Rollins starts having doubts about her pregnancy.”

 

Feminism

There are two feminist aspects of this. Overall it’s slightly about taking the idea of pushing someone to “man up” to a point where it becomes sexist. There’s also a moment when Benson says to Rollins about abortion: “This is your decision to make, alone, and I will defend to the death your right to make it, but regret is an awful thing to live with.”

 

Gun Control and Politics

The main element of the second half is a school shooting and this brings up the issue of gun control, something I largely support. I was in college when the Columbine incident took place in 1999 and I think if the “gun show loophole” had been closed it might not have happened. I was surprised to learn recently that in recent years increasingly law enforcement opposes gun control, which seems to me to mean that more than usual they have a double standard and want guns out of the hands of some of the population but are fine with conservatives having guns. They continue to introduce people of color, disproportionately, to the criminal justice system, which seems to usually have a negative effect on your second amendment rights, and search Black people for weapons more than white people, and shoot Black people who don’t even have a gun, but generally are okay with “open-carry” and more specifically treat white people who pose an armed threat to the State with kid gloves while they call for Antifa to be declared a terrorist organization (Antifa and it’s predecessor, the Anti-Racist Action Network, without arms focuses(d) on grassroots fascists (in the past that usually meant Nazi skinheads), not cops).

 

Homophobia

There’s also two bits about homophobia. First, in the first half, the father suggests that if someone is gay they need counseling. In the second half the son is interviewed by a psychiatrist who refers to her wife and the son just says he isn’t gay, but without any hostility, like he rejects his dad’s homophobia.

“Zero Tolerance” Season 20. Wikipedia summary is: “A nine-year-old girl (Scarlett Lopez) is taken from her mother at the U.S.–Mexico border and ends up in a child sex trafficking ring in New York, which quickly comes to the attention of the Special Victims Unit. Benson and Stone try their hardest to reunite the girl with her family within the court system but meet many obstacles along the way. Eventually, Stone decides to ask for help from an old friend. Meanwhile, Rollins decides to give her rocky relationship with Pollack another chance.”

 

Immigration

Even before the main story about immigrants kicks in, there is one minor pro-immigrant thing. Probably an average of 5 times a season, the detectives make it clear that they’re not “la migra” (immigration) when seeking witnesses, and that sort of thing happened here. It just occurred to me that it would be good if about 20-30% of the time that involved white immigrants who are undocumented because it wouldn’t hurt if white people understood that amnesty would benefit, for example, undocumented Irish.

The main story is about separating undocumented children from their undocumented parents, something that became a hall-mark of Trump immigration policy in recent years. The show is extremely critical of that. When someone from the Office of Refugee Resettlement comes to take the girl back to a camp, he is identified as the one who took her from her mother’s arms and Benson has him arrested for kidnapping. It doesn’t survive the courts of course, but it’s still a powerful statement.

As usual there is some probably realistic disagreement among the detectives about the issue. The Black detective (“Finn”) is less than totally pro-immigrant and unfortunately when the “we’re all the descendants of immigrants” argument is made, he (kind of reasonably) describes Black history. I think that when it comes from pro-immigrant black people, it’s a reasonable response to a flawed pro-immigrant argument, but otherwise it’s a bullshit response to a flawed pro-immigrant argument. He DOES make a good point about how Black people are treated today (but again, it really has nothing to do with a less-than-totally pro-immigrant position). (a colleague refers to immigrants “yearning to breathe free” and then Finn says “I still can’t breathe free,” likely a reference to the last words of Eric Garner, a black man who was killed in a chokehold by the NYPD)

“Exile” Season 20. Wikipedia summary is: “The Special Victims Unit is called in to investigate the sexual assault of a young homeless woman (Aimée Spring Fortier). The squad soon realizes that the woman has a dual personality which makes things complicated. However, when she goes missing, the squad becomes challenged to not only uncover her whereabouts but also her real identity. The detectives later discover that someone from her past may be responsible and that the assault may have happened a long time ago. However, the squad meet a dead end in their investigation and Benson makes a generous decision to help the victim recover from her ordeal.”

There are two main aspects of this that are abnormal (normal being about sex crimes).

 

Homelessness

First, it touches on homelessness. Like almost everyone I’m concerned about homelessness. I have done very little to help the homeless compared to what I’ve done to help those who just have food insecurity (the last 8-10 years I have spent an average of about 4-6 hours a week volunteering at a food-bank) but about 1% of that work was for the benefit of homeless people and probably a lot of food bank clients would become homeless if not for the food bank, and then the resources available for homeless people would have to be shared by a lot more people than is currently the case- i.e. there would be more competition for beds in shelters.

It also touches a little on the subject of homeless people with mental illness. I think that’s a major cause of homelessness- even moderate (let alone severe) mental illness makes it difficult to function and work and pay bills and stuff. Without Social Security disability programs SSI and SSDI there would be even more homelessness. Also, mental illness can be made worse by anxiety, stress and depression and I’m sure gets worse with becoming homeless. (I describe my mental illness here)

 

Marijuana Legalization

The subject of legal marijuana comes up, and the show expresses support for this when Finn buys a legal marijuana snack. I can’t believe that there are still states where even medical marijuana remains illegal. And when it comes to recreational marijuana, I believe there are still federal obstacles for businesses, especially when it comes to banking. Marijuana is much less deadly than alcohol or tobacco and I believe it is less addictive, although driving stoned is probably as stupid as driving drunk. In general I fully support medical and recreational marijuana, especially the former. I can’t believe how many people our nation sentenced to the hell that prison must be for marijuana-only non-violent “crimes.” It’s sick.

Lastly, the gay or bi-sexual psychiatrist working with the DA’s office has a brief appearance.

Legalize Everyone!! Two new poems

These are two of my poems. For more on how I "write" them, see this. The rest of my poems can be found by clicking on the "lyrics" label at the bottom of this post. There's about seven pages so click on "older posts" at the bottom of the first lyrics page.

I came up with the title for this post since it captured the spirit of the second poem and kind of captured the spirit of  both combined. A few years ago when researching some comments I wanted to make about the need for Sinn Fein to support UNIVERSAL immigration and immigrant rights (in AMERICA) instead of focusing exclusively on Irish-America, I found a column about the differences between being undocumented and Irish on one hand and being undocumented and (for example) Mexican on the other. At the beginning the columnist points out that in 2007 Hilary Clinton held up a t-shirt that said "Legalize the Irish" at a rally. I have never heard of her holding up a t-shirt saying "Legalize the Mexicans" and I doubt she ever will do that.

Anyway, here are the two poems.

“Irish Unity” based on “European Unity” by Brutal Attack, original lyrics are here.

1. It’s about provisional republicans in the 1980s and I guess some of the 1990s (I kind of have a problem with writing poems that are about Sinn Fein- to a very large degree I haven’t done that. In this case at least one line (the last of the first verse) pretty much required me to make it PARTLY about SF (and although I like to think that since the 90s SF has continued to lean towards the left, this is not about TODAY’S SF). It’s about the various members and supporters of the Provisional republican movement.
2. The last line of he 1st verse is referring to the fact that they were using armed struggle, elections, local government battles, propaganda, rioting, and to a moderate or large degree, mass struggle. Lastly they also did a fair amount of work generating support globally but for various reasons, this didn’t reach it’s potential, largely through no fault of SF’s- I write more about that in the last 2/3 of a post here. 
3. The pride referred to in the chorus is, usually, very different from white pride. And It might be a minority of nationalists in the North who would talk about Irish pride, but at least some of them do.
4. The BA is the British Army, the RUC were the police until 2001.
5. I have a theory about one aspect of resolving the conflict there. Although I would gladly support uniting Ireland ASAP instead of waiting for a voting majority there to endorse that, winning Protestants over to the republican and/or nationalist causes (uniting Ireland and/or creating equality in the North) seems very important to me. I think if more of the Protestant  community had a better understanding of what Catholics went through while under British rule in Ireland (in recent decades, for example- INNOCENT civilians being shot by police or soldiers who go unpunished, etc.) and if they knew that often republicans and nationalists were smeared by British and Unionist elements, they would be more open-minded about what Catholics say regarding the need for a United Ireland. On a related note, if the monarchy were opened up to Catholics (they recently reformed it a bit and now allow SPOUSES of Catholics to become King or Queen, but it’s still closed to actual Catholics) I think that might have a similar effect on Protestants in the North. And the British are the ones best positioned to educate the Protestants of N. Ireland and to further reform the monarchy. Lastly, I think the British will move on those two things the more pressure is put on them by the rest of the world, especially the US and Western Europe. That last line in the poem means that via the British (and to some degree directly), supporters of justice and freedom in N. Ireland can educate the Protestants and as that process advances, more and more Protestants will be more open to being educated directly by Northern Catholics. 
(UPDATE 4/22/18 I just remembered that in the 1990 movie "Hidden Agenda" it's asserted that the British produced A LOT of black propaganda (often or always attributed to republican sources) in it's war with the IRA; Although my memory is a little fuzzy, I have read a fair amount about that from better sources than a semi-fictional movie, and I am certain it happened, probably on a large scale; it's likely at least some of that was aimed at the opinions of unionists and if so, some honesty from the British about this stuff could help and demanding it would be justified) (UPDATE 12/12/18 Even if the black propaganda was aimed at British public opinion, that could have indirectly affected the thinking of many unionists in N. Ireland- I'm sure a lot of unionists had friends and relatives in Britain who expressed support for the unionist position and encouraged their friends and relatives in NI to stick with it)
**6. 73% of this version is me, 27% is the original.
7. I give this poem 5 stars out of 5.
8. Besides the line about neanderthals, there’s also the fact that Brutal Attack were British and supported the unionist and British causes in the North of Ireland.
9. UPDATE 5/25/17 I removed the word "broad" from the fourth line of the poem, I think it may have implied that this poem is about what I call the "republican family," including the IRSP, etc. 
10. UPDATE 7/3//17 The third line of the poem- that line could seem a little off if you don't know what i'm thinking- they went on the offensive at some point in the early 1970s and "now" is something like 1972-1994/97 (I'm not sure how to write it better in the context of a poem) so they'd been on the offensive for a while, but the 4th line is 1982-1994/7.

Our movement has been put on the road to revolution
We fight against wealth and for its redistribution
We started with defending our areas, now we’re on the offensive
The republican struggle is strategically comprehensive

Chorus
Irish unity,
Socialism, pride and dignity
Working-class unity,
Protestants and Catholics- one proletarian community

Our grandparents fought for our freedom you see,
But they were successful only to a moderate degree
Ireland was partitioned at the barrel of a gun
By British imperialists and the Unionist scum.

So listen Irish people, listen very carefully,
We must continue to fight against the BA and the RUC
organized we'll win, come hear our patriotic call,
And we’re anti-fascist, they’re just a bunch of neanderthals

It wont be easy it'll be a long hard task,
With the pen, the ballot, and the ski-mask
But we'll pull through, cos truth wins in the end,
And our allies will help the Protestants comprehend

**************

“No Human Being is Illegal” based on “Muslims Out” by Kill, Baby, Kill original lyrics are here.

1. This is about America and kind of specifically the Trump administration.
2. As for the 1st line of the second verse, I don’t think that’s 100% true, but so very close to it that I typed that line like that (I think the only significant exception is that a small minority of the Muslim population practice Female Genital Mutilation and that is against the law here (UPDATE 5/26/17 apparently it's not just a minority of muslims, it's also found among some animists in Africa). That line is also meant to suggest that the danger of Sharia is vastly exaggerated by many people- as horrible as it is, it is nowhere near being implemented here and some expressions of concern about it can potentially fuel anti-Muslim bigotry.
3. To abominate means to find something repugnant.
**4. 80% of this version is me, and 20% is the original.
5. I give this poem 3 stars out of five.

Refugees and immigrants, they come over here.
They were unemployed and/or living in fear.
Raising families, living and enriching America are their only goals.
They deserve our standard of living, but nativism is out of control.

chorus
Bigots out! Bigots out!
Hear the people scream, hear the people shout.
Republicans out! Republicans out!
We’ll defeat you- there won’t be any doubt

Their religions they practice in line with our laws
And they’re guaranteed freedom of, in the first amendment clause
Mosques are opening in many of our cities and towns
ignorant right-wing scum oppose them on bigoted grounds

They aren’t responsible for job losses, that’s the bourgeoisie
And they aren’t voting illegally, they leave that to the GOP
When I think of what Trump’s done so far it makes me abominate
He’s turning America into a fascist state!