I had a feeling kittens would have something to say about that episode, and I was thinking about creating a thread if I didn't find one. Good thing someone else did, though, as I wasn't sure how to start it off.The episode made me uneasy with how insensitive the police and DAs seemed to be, but I think their insensitivity mostly stemmed from their inabilty to pick up on the possibilty of a closet lesbian relationship and on the probability that she was hiding it from her parents because of their homophobia. To the DAs her being gay wasn't a big deal--just that she concealed a relationship with the victim and impeded the investigation and may have had motive, as with a boyfriend who conceals his relationship with a dead girl--so they didn't think about the possiblity that her parents might not know and might be quite against it. The DAs weren't anti-gay, just unexpectedly naive.
I don't always figure out L&O twists before they are revealed, but this time I figured out pretty quickly that the friend Alissa was probably her girlfriend and was reluctant to reveal that--at least in front of her friends/parents/etc. Then when they first read the email ("People think it's about sex, but it's not.") I said, uh-huh, she's talking about a lesbian relationship... now they're going to figure it out, right? And then they went off on that website tangent (because Alissa gave the false lead, and I said, she obviously doesn't want to discuss what it's really about with her friend(s) right there; can't the police see that?). Of course, I didn't assume the relationship had anything to do with the actual crime, but I figured it'd tie into the investigation somehow. They made it the final twist, though a lot of kittens probably figured out the relationship a lot sooner than the police did. Her parent's homophobic reaction wasn't terribly surprising (given the way Alissa was acting), except to the DAs apparently. It's sad (and rather disgusting) that such attitudes still exist in the world and lead to so much grief for decent people. Maybe they were trying to show that with this episode.
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Originally posted by rocketdyke:
i happened to watch this episode of law and order by accident. i sat with my roommate and we were both horrified, both being lawyers in the criminal justice system. im sorry, but the way she explained what happened, that wasnt murder, id be surprised if they could even prove it was manslaughter. it was an *accident*.
What did they end up charging her with after she finally said what happened? Did I miss them offering a plea on a charge like involuntary manslaughter (is there something less than that that'd make sense such as some form of assault?), or did they not mention any final charge after her story?While it was disturbing that they used the threat of effectively outing her to blackmail her into talking, they had reason to believe it was a deliberate killing and they could hardly let her off the hook just because pursuing things would cause exactly what she allegedly tried to prevent by the alleged murder in the first place. The problem was she wasn't talking, because of that same fear (which I noticed when the police were interviewing her long before they figured it out), so they didn't know what had actually happened.
I would like to think that once they found out what happened (and given that they couldn't prove it was more deliberate than she explained) that they were fair in any charge they offered for a plea. If the way she explained it (she argued with her not to press charges on the sexual assault because the publicity would out Alissa to her homophobic parents, shoved her a little, got slapped hard and shoved hard in response) would not qualify as a crime (under the TV interpretation of the law) then I think they would have dropped the charges.
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and while they may have been able to use the "motivation" she had to kill the gf, which would have probably helped them make a case against her, since the jury would probably be somewhat amenable to thinking something is wrong with being gay, i think its bordering on unethical for prosecutors who have a duty to be objective and fair to basically blackmail this girl into taking a plea based on her shame and fear about who she is. i also thought this was a terrible message to send to anyone in america who thinks that this show is any kind of accurate representation of how the legal system works and just bolstered the idea that there is something wrong with being gay.
I did not get the impression that they wanted to coerce a plea to a higher crime than she had committed (that would seem unethical and the sort of thing you see from the prosecutors on The Practice, not L&O), they just believed it could have been murder. Looking at it one way, they were being sensitive to her family situation (once they realized it) and offered her a way out of a trial to get to the truth by admitting to the truth about the incident. In order to get to the truth without her relationship coming out, they had to make the threat of a trial to get her to finally admit what had actually happened.In the end they didn't out her to her parents and friends (beyond what the parents' own denial covered in their earlier probing), and the truth was that she is not an "evil murdering lesbian". The problem is, a lot of people who are quick to condemn homosexuality probably won't pick up on such subtleties and will instead see this episode as justification for their attitude. But then, they see the sun rising as justification for their beliefs, so...
In all it's a disturbing episode for the obliviousness of the usually-observant police, the slight naivete of the DAs in not figuring it out before unwittingly outing her to her homophobic parents (who seemed to have enough denial to forget it), and the potentially-inferred suggestion that being gay is a dirty secret to be kept hidden at all costs, even murder. But upon deeper consideration it seems that this inferrence is drawn incorrectly and rather that what the episode was really implying is that homophobia is the evil for creating that pressure to keep it a secret. Of course, it may be too subtle and ambiguous to sink in with anyone who didn't already believe that, but maybe some people who are in the ignorant middle ground will give the issue(s) some thought and come to a more enlightened understanding. This episode should at least increase some awareness (and maybe understanding) of some of the problems and pressures faced by LBGQT kids, and I hope that would have a generally positive long-term effect on society.
Edited to add:
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Originally posted by Princess Willow:
One thing to ponder about Law & Order before you get up in arms regarding the portrayl of the lbgt community on last night's ep...Most, if not all of L&O's stories come right from the headlines of the nation's newspapers. I don't know how stringent they are in keeping to the details but I have seen quite a few eps based closely on true stories.
Some episodes are inspired by actual cases, but the show itself is fiction. They never stick exactly to the facts of a real case (no originality there). Also, the episodes that are inspired by particular publicised cases usually have an extra disclaimer at the beginning about "while inspired by actual events, blah blah blah fiction blah blah blah, no similarity yadda yadda yadda". I don't think this one had that disclaimer.It still might have been inspired by a real case (just not a nation-wide famous one), but it could also have been just pure invention based on things that do occur and could lead to a death. I think a lot of their cases are probably original constructions drawn only indirectly (if at all) from a variety of real-world cases without focusing on any particular case.
[This message has been edited by Cipher (edited March 28, 2002).]