A new year, another race-obsessed episode of NBC's Law & Order.
Thursday's episode, "Greater Good," focused on a billionaire hip-hop mogul who is murdered in cold blood. The mogul is discovered to be a P-Diddy type predator who lured vulnerable aspiring singers into sex trafficking.
Both the mogul and his murderer are black, but the episode somehow makes racism and "a system created by white men" into the villain.
Vanessa Washburn (Karen Obilom), a black undercover police officer investigating sex trafficking, saw the victim shortly before he was killed. NYPD detectives Vincent Riley (Reid Scott) and Jalen Shaw (Mehcad Brooks) ask her questions about the night of the murder, but she is unhelpful. She despises the victim and does not want his murderer caught. While her reluctance is understandable, her dialogue's strangely racialized view of police work is not.
Riley: I gotta say, for a cop, you're not very good at solving crimes, are you?
Washburn: Luckily, that's not my job.
Riley: Excuse me?
Washburn: I'm not here to solve your crimes.
Shaw: [Laughs]
Riley: Since that's what cops actually do, what are you here for, then?
Washburn: To collect a paycheck, earn my pension, and, in the process, help my community whenever I can.
Riley: Wow, are you serious?
Washburn: Very.
Shaw: I appreciate your point of view, but here, race is irrelevant.
Washburn: Nope. Race is always relevant.
Riley: Here we go.
Washburn: What does that mean?
Riley: It means we don't have time for your political nonsense right now, ok? You want to make a difference in the world? Run for Congress. But right now, you're a cop, ok? So you do what a cop is supposed to do, and cops help us find the bad guy, period.
Washburn: And that right there is exactly why things don't change.
Riley: [Scoffs] Oh--oh, really?
Shaw: [Sighs]
Riley: What-- -
Shaw: Vince, just--just let it go. Let it go.
Riley: She's practically spitting in our faces, man.
Shaw: That is one way of looking at it.
Riley: What's the other one?
Shaw: That she's coming at this whole thing from a different point of view, from a more Progressive, more political point of view.
Riley: All right, man, I'm done. Whatever.
Shaw: Hey, bro, bro, listen. Listen, listen, listen. So let's go back to the precinct, dig through some more surveillance footage. How about that?
Riley: All right. Great.
The murdered mogul had pimped out the killer's 18-year-old daughter through coercion, drugging and false promises. The murderer naturally felt enraged, and the audience feels sympathetic.
Nonetheless, the killer argues in court that he actually acted in self-defense, claiming the mogul was about to strike him on the head with a champagne bottle. Washburn knows the mogul was not holding a champagne bottle at the time. However, she refuses to testify in court, blaming her refusal on a "system created by white men to keep the black community in its place."
Shaw: So what I need from you is....
Washburn: Uh, oh, wait. No, I'm not getting involved.
Shaw: What do you mean you're not getting involved?
Washburn: It means I'm not testifying.
Shaw: Well, that's your job, so you don't really have a choice in the matter.
Washburn: Well, that's if you tell the DA what I said.
Shaw: I'm going to tell them, because what you just told me, that he had nothing in his hand, we need that to disprove Ross' self-defense claim.
Washburn: Jalen, why would I help the DA's office bury Lyman Ross for shooting some billionaire sex trafficker who was pimping out the dude's daughter?
Shaw: That's not how it works, Vanessa.
Washburn: How what works? The system? The system created by white men to keep the black community in its place?
Shaw: This case is a lot more complicated than that.
Washburn: [Sighs] See, that's what old heads say when they afraid of change.
Shaw: No, that's what old heads say when they see a young sister about to make a stupid mistake.
Washburn: From where I stand, putting a good brother in prison for 20 years to get justice for a piece of garbage does not add up to me.
Shaw: I hear that--
Washburn: Do you?
Shaw: Yes, I hear you, because I became a cop to make a difference. But we don't get to run around and just do whatever we want. We have to follow the law.
Washburn: Follow the law?
Shaw: Yeah.
Washburn: And where has that gotten us as a people? We have to do more. We have to take the victories wherever we can find them, regardless of what the law says. Because if we don't, nothing's going to change, and that's just the truth.
Washburn prefers vigilantism over a "system created by white men." Forced to testify, she lies on the stand. Shaw is then called to the stand to tell the truth.
A multi-racial jury ultimately finds the father guilty in the mogul's death. Washburn meets Shaw outside and criticizes him for being honest in court. She is especially upset that her law enforcement career is now ruined for committing perjury. Shaw looks downhearted.
In the end, Law & Order somehow turned an episode about hip-hop industry sexual exploitation and vigilante justice into a muddled attack on both white men and the rule of law. Hollywood just can't help itself.
